加载中...
共找到 25,620 条相关资讯
Operator: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Kingfisher plc Full Year 2025-'26 Results Presentation. [Operator Instructions] I would like to remind all participants that this call is being recorded. I will now hand over to Thierry Garnier to start the presentation. Thierry Dominique Garnier: Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for Kingfisher's Full Year Results Presentation. Bhavesh and I will take you through our full year results, our outlook for the coming year and provide an update on our key strategic initiatives. Following this presentation will be the usual Q&A. So let's start with the key messages. 2025 was a strong year for Kingfisher as we continue to execute our strategy at pace and delivered on all our financial priorities. And there are three points I want to highlight. First, our strategic growth initiatives are driving market share gains, a key indicator of our progress. We grew market share across each of our banners in the U.K., France and Spain, and maintained share in Poland. Our sales growth was high quality, led by growth in volume and transaction. We delivered double-digit growth in both trade and e-commerce sales during the year, while our 1P commerce sales were strong. I am particularly pleased with our progress in our marketplaces now reaching GBP 518 million on a GMV basis and up 58% year-on-year. Second, we maintained strong financial discipline amidst significant cost pressure. We grew gross margin by 80 basis points in the year, leveraging Kingfisher scales and sourcing power and benefited from marketplace and retail media, both of which are gross margin accretive. We delivered strong growth in adjusted profit before tax and in EPS. When excluding the business rates refund at B&Q in the prior year, profit is up 13%. And our profit growth, combined with a sharp focus on working capital management enabled us to deliver strong free cash flow. Third, we delivered attractive returns to shareholders. We completed our GBP 300 million share buyback program in March. And today, we announced our fifth GBP 300 million share buyback program, reflecting the momentum in the business. We also announced today a dividend of 12.4p per share, in line with last year. And let me now hand over to Bhavesh for the financial review and outlook. Bhavesh Mistry: Thank you, Thierry, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with an overview of our performance for the year. Total sales for the group were GBP 12.9 billion, with like-for-like sales up plus 1.4%, excluding a negative calendar impact of minus 0.3%. Our sales growth was led by strong performance from our U.K. banners. Adjusted profit before tax was GBP 560 million, up 6%. Adjusted EPS was 23.8p, up 15%, underpinned by our strong earnings growth in the year and supported by a 6% uplift from our share buyback program. Free cash flow generation was GBP 512 million. We delivered this while also increasing CapEx by GBP 71 million as we stepped up our investment in our stores, technology and property. Net leverage now stands at 1.4x, and we maintain a very healthy balance sheet. Turning now to our markets. B&Q reinforced its market-leading position with total sales growth of plus 3.9% or plus 5.9% when we include marketplace GMV sales. Like-for-like growth is plus 3.3%, significantly outperforming a flat market with our market share at record levels. From a product category perspective, core remained resilient with 12 consecutive quarters of underlying like-for-like growth. Big-ticket delivered strong growth of plus 6% in the year and seasonal was plus 30% in Q1, benefiting from favorable weather, which we will lap this quarter. We successfully captured the transference of customers from Homebase to B&Q and acquired 8 of their stores, which our team rapidly opened in time for peak trading. TradePoint sales grew by plus 5.2%, fueled by our enhanced loyalty program and an increased investment in trade sales partners. E-commerce sales grew by plus 21.5%, supported by marketplace growth. B&Q's marketplace is gross margin accretive and generated GBP 15 million of profit in the year. Looking to the year ahead, we will further enhance our trade offering with investment in our people, our offer and our stores, and scale marketplace as we onboard cross-border vendors. You'll hear more on this from Thierry later on. Screwfix delivered consistently strong performance throughout the year with total sales growth of plus 4.5% and like-for-like growth of plus 3.2%, significantly outperforming the market. Our Screwfix team have executed at a high level, enhancing the customer proposition through targeted marketing and promotional campaigns, competitive pricing, range improvements and deeper engagement with trade customers via app-driven reward initiatives. Screwfix opened 27 stores on a net basis during the year, further growing our footprint and convenience for customers. Looking forward, our focus is on growing our share of the trade wallet. We also see further range and space opportunities. Our U.K. banners generated GBP 575 million in retail operating profit, representing 78% of our group total retail profit. Profit grew by plus 2.9% in the year or plus 9.4%, excluding the impact of last year's B&Q business rates refund. We delivered this profit growth despite the significant increases in wages, higher national insurance contributions and the impact from EPR packaging fees. In France, against a subdued consumer backdrop and a home improvement market decline of around minus 3%, we are encouraged to see both of our banners outperforming the market. Castorama like-for-like sales were minus 2.2% in a year of significant change, particularly from the restructuring of several stores. I'll speak more on the progress of our Castorama plan shortly. From a strategic perspective, Castorama delivered a rapid rollout of its trade proposition across the estate, introduced CastoPro zones in 50 stores and implemented a trade loyalty program. Trade penetration reached 9% by the end of the year, up from below 1% a year ago. Good progress was also made on marketplace with 1.6 million SKUs now available to customers. Brico Dépôt delivered total sales of minus 1.8% and like-for-like sales of minus 2.3%. Brico improved its price positioning by 2 points over the year and delivered strong progress in its trade proposition with trade sales up 26% and trade penetration increasing to 17% at the end of the year. This performance was driven by an expanded trade-focused range, investment in dedicated trade colleagues and enhancements to its loyalty program. Brico also successfully opened 1 store transferred from Castorama, doubling sales densities. We feel good about Brico Dépôt, a capital-light model with a clear customer offering of discounted prices and high product availability. Our French banners delivered GBP 97 million of retail operating profit with a margin of 2.5%, up 10 basis points year-on-year. This was a strong performance as both banners offset sales deleverage from a declining market and higher social charges through gross margin expansion and structural cost reductions. Turning now to an update on our restructuring plan for Castorama. Since the plan was announced in March 2024, the new management team has moved at pace to improve competitiveness and efficiency, delivering good progress despite a weaker market, which declined by over 7% in 2024 and a further 3% in 2025. We've already talked about our progress in trade and digital. In addition, the team undertook a significant number of range reviews, which benefited several core categories, including surfaces & décor, tools and tiling. We took cost price and supplier management actions, streamlining the head office organization and rationalized the distribution network space by 15%. The reduction since 2019 was over 35%. Our store restructuring and modernization program is delivering tangible results. Right-sized stores are seeing much higher sales densities, while revamped stores are outperforming the Casto average. The two franchise stores have returned to profitability. This progress has been delivered against a backdrop of significant people change, including a 50% refresh of store managers and regional directors and a 40% change in category directors. We will continue to drive this agenda at pace in 2026, positioning the business to fully benefit when market conditions improve. For France, overall, we remain confident in delivering our medium-term margin target of circa 5% to 7%, with the timing and trajectory of reaching this target dependent upon the pace of the market recovery. In Poland, we remain optimistic about the medium-term growth opportunities. Castorama is a market leader with potential to increase space whilst building on both trade and e-commerce. Poland experienced a slow start to the year with unfavorable weather and political uncertainty weighing on home improvement spending. Like-for-like was minus 1.1% for the full year, though conditions improved in Q4 with a return to growth in both the market and our business. We continue to make good progress with our strategic initiatives, about GBP 1 in GBP 3 comes from trade customers, supported by the rapid rollout of CastoPro zones in more than half of the estate, the recruitment of specialized sales partners and a new trade loyalty program. And e-commerce sales increased 30% year-on-year, benefiting from the launch of marketplace in January 2025. Poland generated GBP 87 million in retail operating profit, representing around 12% of group retail profit. During the year, we accelerated technology investment, resulting in a one-off circa GBP 5 million impairment of legacy systems. Excluding this charge, Poland retail profit was up and profit margin was broadly flat year-on-year. Iberia had an excellent year with plus 8.8% like-for-like growth, outperforming a growing market, driven by competitive price positioning and strong progress in trade. Moving now to our profit performance in the year. Adjusted profit before tax rose by 6% or plus 13% when excluding last year's GBP 33 million business rates refund at B&Q. A key driver of profit growth was gross margin expansion, which increased by 80 basis points, driven primarily by group buying and sourcing benefits, progress in marketplace and retail media with FX also providing a tailwind. We also delivered significant operating cost reductions. Some specific examples include a reduction in our supply and logistics network space of around 10% in France and nearly 30% in Poland, efficiencies in our stores from the rollout of self-service checkouts and the implementation of new store operating models and property cost reductions through store rightsizing and regears. For the year, we delivered 30 basis points of retail operating margin expansion to 5.7% and adjusted profit before tax of GBP 560 million. Turning now to our group cash flow. Starting on the left of this chart. We generated adjusted EBITDA of GBP 1.3 billion. Working capital delivered a net inflow of GBP 74 million, driven by higher payables and our focus on inventory management. Tax, interest and other items amounted to GBP 13 million, including a GBP 60 million benefit from tax prepayment true-ups, which we will lap in H1 2026-'27. CapEx spend totaled GBP 388 million, an increase of GBP 71 million as we continue to invest in technology and our stores. Together, these drove free cash flow of GBP 512 million. We returned GBP 474 million to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, and total net cash inflow for the year was GBP 107 million. Our dividend payments and share buybacks in 2025-'26 build on our track record of attractive returns to shareholders. Over the past 5 years, we have returned GBP 2.4 billion, equivalent to around 40% of our market capitalization. Looking ahead, we'll continue to build on this track record with a proposed dividend of 12.4p per share to be paid in July and the launch of our fifth share buyback program of GBP 300 million commencing shortly. Looking ahead, we see further opportunities across gross margin, costs and working capital. On gross margin, we expect continued benefit from group buying and sourcing, marketplace, retail media and logistics efficiencies. On the other hand, we expect mix effects from our growing trade penetration and from maintaining competitive prices. We see further opportunities through cost action. At store level, we will deliver savings through operating model enhancements and technology. We also see additional opportunities from improving head office efficiency and to further leverage our shared services center. Inventory also continues to be a priority. Our supply visibility tool is enabling us to reduce lead times and minimum order quantities with our OEB vendors. Coming out of a strong year, we are confident in our ability to capitalize on the attractive growth opportunities in our markets and are well positioned to continue growing sales ahead of our markets, profit ahead of sales and to generate strong free cash flow. For the financial year '26-'27, with a mixed consumer environment, we expect adjusted profit before tax in the range of GBP 565 million to GBP 625 million, and are targeting GBP 450 million to GBP 510 million of free cash flow. We remain mindful of the heightened macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty in recent weeks. Where we stand today, we estimate that the in-year direct impact on energy and freight cost is limited. As you know, the situation remains fluid. In similar situations, our markets have behaved rationally on pricing and margin. We have a strong track record of maintaining competitive prices, managing gross margin effectively and flexing our cost base. You can expect us to maintain our disciplined approach. Let me now hand back to Thierry. Thierry Dominique Garnier: Thank you, Bhavesh, and I want to start by outlining the strategic growth drivers, which underpin our current performance and position us for future growth. You can see these priorities on this page. And let me start with trade. We continue to grow our exposure to trade customers, a segment that shops more frequently, spends more and exhibits more predictable purchasing patterns. Our trade strategy leverages our existing store footprint and supports both market share growth and higher store sales densities with little to no incremental CapEx. As a result, trade is both revenue and margin accretive at retail operating profit level. Screwfix treat penetration already stands at 75% across the rest of the group, trade sales grew by 23% and trade customers now account for GBP 1 in every GBP 3 of group sales. With this rapid progress, we are updating our medium-term ambition and now target GBP 5 billion of group sales from trade customers. So looking at some of our initiatives in a little more detail and starting with our stores. We are expanding dedicated trade space within our stores and now have trade zones live across all our banners. We made particularly strong progress in Castorama France during the year as we rolled out our trade proposition across the entire estate and opened 50 new CastoPro zones. We're also excited to announce our first stand-alone TradePoint store opening in London this week. We also continue to invest heavily in our people, 279 dedicated trade sales partners are enrolled across our banners, circa 3x more than last year. We are empowering our trade sales partners and see this as a key lever to unlock additional share of wallet. At Screwfix, our new rewards program provides an industry-leading proposition for our trade customers and is driving strong engagement via the Screwfix app. Customers who sign up to the program receive exclusive and personalized offers, but also surprise perks and gamified engagement. We now have 2.2 million active rewards customers showing higher frequency of visits and higher average order values. Screwfix is also a great example on how we have succeeded with an app-first approach with 41% of e-commerce sales now coming from the app. Another example of where our trade focus comes to life is Brico Dépôt France, a capital-light model with a strong discounter DNA. Trade customers like the efficient shopping experience, competitive pricing and high product availability. We trialed new Pro zones during the year and signed up over 210,000 trade customers to a Pro loyalty program. We also improved price competitiveness by 2 points and introduced bulk-buy discount. These actions enabled Brico Dépôt to grow trade sales by 26% and reached a trade penetration of 17% at the end of last year. We will further build on our trade proposition this year with more Pro zones and enhance our trade value offering through additional volume discounts. Moving now to the digital ecosystem we are building and it starts with a strong 1P e-commerce proposition with our stores at the center. In 2020, we made the strategic decision to leverage our store network to fulfill online orders. This enables us to offer market-leading fulfillment speed for click & collect and home delivery, while also driving incremental traffic to our stores. We continue to improve our core platform by transitioning of our e-commerce legacy systems towards modular and agile technology. This enables rapid feature innovation, faster site load times and market-specific feature deployment. We have developed a digital app store model to ensure excellent product availability for online orders, 94% of 1P orders are picked in-store and we offer rapid fulfillment options from store through our click & collect and home delivery propositions. All this, in turn, drives increased traffic, which supports the growth of our 3P marketplace. Our marketplace offers a broad choice with several million SKUs, which in turn generates more traffic to our websites and fuels additional 1P sales. Our stores also play a critical role for our marketplace. All stores accept marketplace returns and B&Q now offers in-store click & collect for marketplace items, driving additional footfall. Our loyalty programs provide us with rich customer data, enabling personalized offers and targeted promotions. The market is increasingly shifting towards mobile-first and app-based engagement, which provides us with access to data that allows us to improve and personalize customer interaction, and this leads us to monetization. With scale, traffic and comprehensive data, we can sell and grow retail media. As you know, there is lots of current news flow when it comes to agentic commerce. Our platforms are ready to connect to agentic commerce apps, and I will come back to this topic shortly. So to summarize, our digital ecosystem drives a virtuous cycle of value, leveraging our store assets, our web traffic and is powered by Kingfisher technology. So moving to Slide 22, which highlights our group e-commerce performance this year. Screwfix already generates 60% of sales from e-commerce. In the other banners, we grew e-commerce by 20%, and you can see progress in every one of our banners. At the group level, GBP 1 out of GBP 5 now come from e-commerce. Our target in the medium term is to reach e-commerce sales penetration of 30%, out of which 1/3 from marketplaces. So moving to our marketplaces, and I'm going to focus here on B&Q, which is most advanced and provides a clear blueprint for scaling across our other banners. We launched our B&Q marketplace in 2022 and have already achieved a cumulative GBP 1 billion of GMV sales since launch. We have scaled our platform significantly over the past 4 years, adding 2,800 vendors and 3.7 million SKUs while also improving convenience for our customers with the introduction of click & collect, a first for our marketplace in the U.K. B&Q's marketplace has generated GBP 50 million retail profit contribution last year and the marketplaces in France and Iberia have now reached breakeven early in their journey. So looking forward, we have ambitious growth plans, including the onboarding of more international cross-border vendors. And for context, cross-border accounts for broadly 50% of sales at mature pure-play marketplaces and only a few percent for us. An emerging income stream for us is the monetization of our customer data and our traffic. Our insight platform, Core IQ, underpinned by Kingfisher's first-party data enables us to monetize our data with our corporate vendors, having successfully built this capability in Castorama France, we plan to roll it out across all banners in 2026. So moving to retail media. We have brought capabilities in-house, build a group Center of Excellence, and each banner now has a dedicated retail media team. We have also started piloting advertising on digital screens in stores. While at an early stage, we are very excited about this new income stream as adoption of retail media is strong. We target 3% of our e-commerce sales as additional revenues with a significant drop-through to profit. Kingfisher is also a rapid adopter of AI. We see AI as a tailwind for our business and ourselves as leaders in this space. Our in-house AI agent, Hello Casto, was the first agentic agent in the global home improvement industry when we launched it in 2023, followed by Hello B&Q in 2025. Those early investments are paying off. We have seen an increase of over 60% of customers visiting Hello Casto online with conversion increasing by 95%. Last week, we announced a new strategic partnership with Google Cloud. Through this, we'll introduce AI-powered search across all our banner websites and apps, helping customers find products more intuitively. We have also done extensive work to enable AI agents to discover our products and to transact autonomously when this functionality becomes available in the U.K. and in Europe. This partnership will expand our capabilities further, allowing customers to complete purchases via Gemini and other AI agents. Underlying our business are strong own exclusive brands where we provide innovative solutions at affordable prices and which are accretive to our margin. In 2025, within our power tool categories, we launched our next-generation Erbauer range with best-in-class performance in power, in control and durability. Since launched, it has achieved plus 43% sales growth compared with the previous range, and Erbauer is now our #1 tool brand sold across the group. Our new Ashmead kitchen range delivers standout style at entry-level pricing. While our Pragma lowest-priced kitchen range, retails for less than EUR 200 and is 15% cheaper than branded alternatives. Our new kitchens have been a key driver of our strong big-ticket performance in the year. And alongside product innovation, we are developing a growing portfolio of complementary services that support customers with their project such as kitchen and bathroom design to rental, installation service and project finance. Our banners hold leading positions in their markets, each with a distinct model and clear customer proposition where attractive space opportunities exist that meet our investment criteria, we continue to complement our existing store estate. Our mid- to long-term ambition for store space remains at 1.5% to 2.5% sales contribution per annum, and 27 new store openings are planned for the coming year. We believe compact stores will play a more important role in the future across our markets, allowing us to meet customer needs in high-density urban areas and offering convenience and fast fulfillment through click & collect and home delivery. Let me now turn to Screwfix France, which is delivering plus 49% like-for-like store sales growth, in line with our expectation. Momentum continues across all KPIs with a 52% increase in unique customers year-on-year and growing national brand awareness. We continue to see good growth in our older cohorts after 3 years and particularly strong momentum in the north of France where we observe a network effect. So this performance gives us confidence in the future of Screwfix in France. The strategic growth drivers I have outlined underpin Kingfisher's attractive investment story. We have leading positions in our markets, and those markets have attractive structural growth drivers. We operate a diverse portfolio of banners, each with distinct formats and propositions that address a wide range of customer needs. Our strategic growth drivers are allowing us to grow our market share and give us confidence in our continued delivery against our financial priorities, growing our sales ahead of our markets, increasing our profit ahead of sales and generating strong free cash flow. So to summarize, '25-'26 was a strong year. We have clear and attractive growth drivers, and we are confident in our continued delivery in '26-'27 and beyond. With that, let's move to Q&A. Thank you, everyone. Operator: [Operator Instructions] I would like to remind all participants that this call is being recorded. We will take our first question from Richard Chamberlain with RBC. Richard Chamberlain: A couple of questions from me please to start. Can you hear me okay? Bhavesh Mistry: Yes, very good. Richard Chamberlain: Yes. Excellent, excellent. Yes. So first is on the space target you're setting out for the longer term. I think you're talking about 1.5% to 2.5% per year net. I wondered if you can just talk through what the key drivers of that space ambition will be? And also what would the gross space growth be in that scenario? That's the first question. Thierry Dominique Garnier: Thank you, Richard. So I think, first of all, indeed, that's our medium-term target. We believe that Screwfix first is our -- this area where we have a lot of potential. In the U.K., with a format like Screwfix City, but moreover in France. We know that today, we are happy with the store maturity, we will go for a large number of stores in France. In Poland, we have said that we'll probably cover about 50% of the city where we want to be. We have more store to open, not only big boxes as well as medium boxes, around 4,000 square meters of format, we really believe in and as well as smaller format, we call it Castorama Smart, about 2,000 square meters, a lot of potential in Poland. But in France, Brico Dépôt 1,000 is the format we are having high expectations upon that we have a few stores. We're still looking at the results, but it could be an attractive format as well as Iberia. So obviously, Richard, the expansion is not linear. Sometimes you have opportunities, sometimes you have up and down, but clearly, that's our medium-term target. Richard Chamberlain: Great. Very helpful color. And my second question is on the marketplace. Obviously, growth very strong last year. Can you give us a sense of how much that's being driven by newer vendors and how much by a sort of broader range of SKUs from existing vendors on the platform? Thierry Dominique Garnier: I think it's both. We are -- now B&Q, it's the third year in '25, will be the fourth year this year. So we keep increasing the number of SKU, if you compare year-on-year, the number of vendors. In the other countries, you have really a very strong scale up in France, in Poland, in Iberia, we really continue to grow the vendors. I think the big new things that started in '25 and that will be a bigger thing in '26 is what we call cross-border of vendors. In fact, today, when you look at the B&Q marketplace, we just have a few percent of our vendors that are not legally located in the U.K. And we know countries like Germany, for example, or other European countries, you have a very strong base of industrial vendors. It took us a while to find the tech solution to onboard and there is VAT and payment challenges. And now we are able to do that. So you will see a lot more cross-border vendors in the future. And for large marketplaces, I will not give you names, but you can guess the names, in Europe and in the U.S., it's broadly 50% of their vendors are not local vendors. So we feel that's a big opportunity for us looking forward. Bhavesh Mistry: Maybe a couple of things to add, Richard, why we like marketplace, it extends our ranges, lets us play in categories, we wouldn't align with our proposition, but it wouldn't make sense for us to stock directly. So things like white goods, bulky things that take a lot of space in stores, maybe lower margin cap products. But the other thing is marketplace that gets us to reach new customers, right? We have half of the customers that come to B&Q marketplaces are new to diy.com. And then they go on to buy 1P product as well. So we're attracting more customers onto our website to be able to sell them more 1P. Operator: Our next question comes from Tim Ramskill with Bank of America. Timothy Ramskill: I've got a few, so I'll maybe go one at a time. The first couple are kind of cash flow related. So I guess, you obviously highlighted the benefits delivered on inventory. But at the same time, looking at the balance sheet, that's sort of not immediately obvious numbers wise. So maybe you can just help me out. I think there may have been some Chinese New Year effects at play there. So maybe you can just sort of help us sort of square the kind of improvement of 5 days of inventory, please? Thierry Dominique Garnier: Maybe let me start and then we'll give you a few detailed color. I think we are very happy with our inventory program. You have seen it's not the first year we are decreasing our inventories days. I think number of days is really the way we are looking at it. And we had multiple programs from reducing the space of our DCs. And if you look at the past 5 years, we have been consistently reducing the number of DCs and the number of square meters, using better software to have real-time visibility on inventory across the group, from factories in China, ship DCs, providing real-time data to our vendors that allow us to negotiate lead time, minimum order quality. And now we are starting to really work on forecasting with AI and more software. So I would say, you have seen that in the past few years, and we are still very confident looking forward to work hard on our inventories and being able to reduce inventories. Bhavesh Mistry: Yes, not much to add. It's a key focus area for us. As Thierry said, we took out 5 days this year, 7 days last year. We expect continued steady progress. It's a key driver of our working capital improvement. And as Thierry mentioned, we try to focus on structural things, not tactical. So for example, we've got the supply chain visibility tool that we know where our stock sits. And so that means when we work with our factories in China, we can give them better data to better plan their production, and that means that we order less, we have shorter lead times. We order fewer sort of our minimum order quantity sizes are lower. So we're getting the product we need when we need it. That really helps. Just one example, but just gives you a bit of color on some of the structural initiatives that we're taking. Timothy Ramskill: Okay. Excellent. That's very helpful. The next sort of cash flow question was just a little bit around CapEx. Obviously, the guidance for GBP 400 million. What, if anything, is driving a little bit of a step-up? Is that just linked to the sort of store opening plans? And then maybe just some thoughts on how that sort of trends over the next few years, please? Bhavesh Mistry: Yes. So we spent GBP 388 million in CapEx this year, about 3% of sales, which is in line with our guidance. I guess the way we thought about it this year is as we navigated through, we had a good first half. And we're in constant dialogue with our businesses around where could we look for opportunity to deploy and invest more in our business first. That's the first pillar of our capital allocation strategy. That's what we focused on stores. So B&Q, for example, bought a freehold store that was opportunistic that came up, wasn't in our plan, but we felt the right thing to do. We also felt continued investment in maintenance of our stores. That's important. So customer-facing things like LED lighting, entrances, et cetera. So we sort of navigated through the year. And as we saw, we're having a good first half, we chose to take some of that performance and reinvest it, obviously, in the right project parts of the business that drive good returns and help our customer experience. Timothy Ramskill: Great. And then last one for me, if that's okay. Just in terms of marketplace, just help us think about how -- clearly, you've laid out ambition for where that gets to from a revenue contribution perspective. But what would be -- well, how do you expect to grow the costs to deliver that? So when should we start to see perhaps a sort of more dramatic drop-through to profitability? Just some parameters around that would be great. Thierry Dominique Garnier: Yes. Thank you, Tim. I think, first of all, I remind you that the market -- the B&Q marketplace delivered GBP 15 million of retail profit this year. So that starts to be meaningful. When I start from top line, the take rates, the commercial margin we are taking is around industry average for home improvement between 10% and 15%, and we are happy to see this margin across all our different countries. Then you have a bit of tech, but broadly, the investment has been done. We are working with Mirakl. So that's relatively -- it's a SaaS model. So we are -- it's really a small amount. They are small teams. If you take B&Q, we speak about 20 people for over GBP 400 million GMV. So the main variable is the marketing cost. And so when you start the marketplace, you want to be probably around 8% to 10% marketing investments. And then gradually, over time, you will decrease this marketing spend. And after a few years, you are at, let's say, a stable and standard level of marketing investment. So we are gradually decreasing our market investment. And overall, when you do the math, we are seeing very strong flows through to profit. To give you even more color, we will probably be able in the future to increase the take rates because we'll be able to sell more services to our vendors, retail media, fulfillment option, advisers. So a lot of things on the table as well on the take rates in the medium term. Operator: Our next question comes from Adam Cochrane with Deutsche Bank. Adam Cochrane: A couple of questions. First of all, you talked about the compact stores as being an area of growth. Can you just give us an idea of the dynamics on the compact stores. Are they -- despite a lower sales base, are they actually more profitable on a contribution margin than the larger stores? So where I'm going is, are they margin accretive across each of the different banners compared to where you currently are? Thierry Dominique Garnier: Maybe I'll start, and I think Bhavesh will give other views. I think firstly, you remember, we have started this journey a few years ago where we believe compact store format in DIY is an important trend. It's not an obvious format, there are countries that exist. When you look at France, we have in the market companies like Mr. Bricolage or Weldom that are, in fact, small format. In the U.K., you have less small format. So in the U.K., we have B&Q locals, and that's really a high street format. And we will start to open more B&Q locals this year, and we have a target in the medium term about 30 stores. We have a format that is called B&Q retail park, around 2,000 square meters. We have Screwfix City, very successful, and we believe we can open 100. We have Brico Dépôt 1,000 in France. I mentioned that it's a very important format for the future. In Poland, we have a great medium box, around 4,000 square meter, and we are working hard on the 2,000 square meter box that is not fully ready yet. And we are still working on our small format for Poland. And obviously, B&Q, we are as well very pleased with the medium box format. So I would say, on average, our medium box and smaller formats are in line or better than the average of their markets. There are a few exceptions. For example, if you tell me in Poland, smaller format, we are not up yet, so Brico Dépôt 1,000, there's still some improvement to do. But overall, what you see is sales density and profit in line or slightly better than the average. Bhavesh Mistry: And not much to add there, Adam. I think on B&Q Locals, we've got 11, 8 of them are working pretty well. The other 3 are not. Of the 8 that are working well, we look at what are the right ranges, what's the right delivery into a city center location, logistics, how are consumers engaging with us. So we're constantly learning as we build and adopt these. Adam Cochrane: And the second question I've got is, if we look at the B&Q performance as the year progressed, there may have been some drivers from Homebase customer transference. Did that make a material difference as each quarter went on? Can you just remind us of maybe when that annualizes? And the second part of that question is, if we assume that some of the B&Q like-for-like was from Homebase, and a decent proportion is coming through from the growth in trade, is there a question mark over the core U.K. DIY customer, which appears to be in reasonably low to mid-single-digit decline if you take into account the Homebase and your trade customer growth? And are you focusing so much on the trade customer that the DIY customer is getting less of a service than they were historically? Bhavesh Mistry: Let me -- thanks, Adam. Let me start with Homebase, and then I'll get Thierry answer the second one. So we haven't disclosed specifics on Homebase, but a couple of data points. Firstly, Homebase went to admin in November 2024, and then stores closed in January and February of 2025. And the way we sort of modeled and looked at it was one of the stores that are with -- B&Q stores that are within 20 minutes of a Homebase, and how are they performing versus the rest of the portfolio. And there -- that's where we did see an uplift. Obviously, the teams executed well. The 8 stores that we acquired, we made sure we're open for peak. We made sure we have the right product availability. As you know, we had a super strong seasonal last quarter 1. But Homebase was one of a number of drivers of B&Q's performance, right? We had good performance in big-ticket, continued growth in our core categories. We've got profitable growth in trade and e-commerce. And then obviously, the strong seasonal that you saw in H1. So yes, it benefited us, but one of many levers. Thierry Dominique Garnier: Yes, Adam, a few more comments. I think, first of all, we have to look at B&Q, including marketplaces. So we have indeed the store, we have trade, we have marketplaces. So when we add marketplaces, what we call the GMV, the B&Q sales growth is plus 5.9% in 2025-'26 versus the flat market. So yes, trade is growing. But you can't say that the rest of the perimeter is having difficulties. And it's all based on the same assets. So we are leveraging our assets to grow e-commerce and to grow trade. Another data I can give you is services installation. We're on 22% at B&Q. So clearly, we see a lot of good news on interaction with the customer. So you really have to keep looking at B&Q altogether, including marketplace. Bhavesh Mistry: And just to add, we performed above the market in the U.K. Well, that gives you a data point. Adam Cochrane: Okay. And final question is, you talked about growing sales ahead of the markets and profit ahead of sales. Your midpoint of the guidance implies a 6% increase in profits. Given that one number that today surprised me slightly was the OpEx growth, particularly in the U.K. is the implication to get to your midpoint that there's a low single-digit like-for-like in order to leverage that up to get to your 6% at the midpoint profit growth? Thierry Dominique Garnier: I think maybe to start, Adam, I think in the mixed consumer environment, we feel good with a 6% increase in the midpoint. We feel it's a good plan. It's predicated on continued progress in our strategy on trade and e-commerce and as well a lot of discipline on gross margin and costs. So in the current environment, we rather feel good around this midpoint guidance. Operator: Our next question comes from Grace Gilberg with Jefferies. Grace Gilberg: Can you hear me? Thierry Dominique Garnier: Yes. Grace Gilberg: Perfect, perfect. First one is around gross margin actually. I mean, obviously, it was a pretty good year in terms of your gross margin expansion and continuing in the second half after what was a pretty good first half, and that was quite impressive. You've mentioned that these have to do with primarily better sourcing as well as just getting better deals with your suppliers. How structural is -- or how structural are these gains? And what is -- what are the things that your suppliers are seeing that are having you to be able to have these better deals, for example? That's the first question. The second one is actually around France. It was a little bit weaker than the other two regions. Obviously, the market has been down, and it's very difficult to see, that hasn't been very helpful. But it seems from your perspective that the model is working particularly at Brico Dépôt. What are the benefits that we maybe haven't seen yet just because of the market? And what are you expecting to see going forward? I'll start with those two, and then I have one or two others. Bhavesh Mistry: Grace, so on gross margin, yes, look, we're really pleased with the performance in the year, right? We grew by 80 bps as we flagged. And as we look into the year ahead, we have different puts and takes. So on one hand, you're going to continue to see further expansion of marketplace, as Thierry mentioned earlier, that's margin accretive. We continue to look at the store as the heart of our digital ecosystem. So a lot of preparation and picking is done in the store. That means we need less logistics space. And so you'll see continued focus on logistics efficiencies. And then buying and sourcing was quite successful in this year that helped drive our margin, and we expect to continue to see that in the year ahead, particularly the insight that we get from our private label business. We look at something called should-costs. We understand the components of all of our products, and that gives us real data to negotiate with our branded suppliers. And that will continue. And then we expect further FX tailwinds based on our hedging. We hedge 100% of our committed orders into next year. So we have a pretty good read on FX. On the other hand, we have growing trade. We're really pleased with what we're doing with trade for all the reasons you heard us talk about. But at a gross margin level, it is dilutive. We always focus on maintaining competitive prices. And then freight is starting to turn into a headwind. So those are some of the pluses and minuses that we think about as we look at the year ahead on gross margin. Thierry Dominique Garnier: Now, I think to France, I think overall, I think we feel good about the progress in '25. Just to tell you what I have in mind. First, market was around minus 3%, so pretty difficult market. We did around minus 2%. So we overperformed the market. In a year where Castorama had significant disruption from store work, a lot of range reviews. We had a big head office restructuring. We were changing a lot of the team in the store. You heard in Bhavesh's comment that we changed about 50% of the store manager, 40% of the category manager. And as well in France, we have to remember that it's a lot of new tax and high wages in '25, like in the U.K. So in this environment, being able to gain market share in all banners, to have a profit up, to see the strategic progress on trade, on e-commerce, to deliver on the Casto plan, but as well on the Brico plan, to answer your question on Brico, probably the two biggest progress we made was continue to have an even lower price index because it's a discount -- discounter banner. And we did a lot, a lot of progress on the Pro sales. You saw that. And at the end, the team are in a good place. We see team engagement in France growing really in a strong position. So overall, I think it's a very strong year in a very difficult market. So indeed, we need the market to recover. But for me, the market recovery, the French market recovery is a question of time. Grace Gilberg: Okay. All clear. And then I suppose my last question is around the full year guidance for FY '27. Obviously, you do have some tough comparatives heading into Q1 given how strong B&Q was last year. And then many of your competitors have as well or just peers within the home market have cited that it's been pretty wet weather and hasn't been helpful for trading into the beginning of the year. What makes you confident in reaching your full year PBT numbers, given that you're facing some of these headwinds potentially? Bhavesh Mistry: Well, as you know, Grace, we don't provide current trading. So we don't guide for the current quarter. But factually, you're right, we had a very strong seasonal, so B&Q's Q1 seasonal last year was 30%. So it's a pretty tough comp to lap. But as we look ahead to sort of our guidance for the full year, we look at sort of what are of the drivers from a top line perspective. We've got a mixed consumer backdrop. But in the U.K., we expect continued momentum from our two banners, notwithstanding the tough comp in Q1 on Homebase transfers as we talked about earlier. Top line in France, it's still a weak market. It's improving, but very slowly. Savings rates are still elevated, 400 to 500 bps above the long-term average. So very much in France is focused on what we can control, differentiated proposition, discount proposition of Brico, all the heavy lifting we're doing at Casto. You heard us talk about in our prepared remarks. And then Poland was flat last year. Q4 was good, but I'd say we need to see more quarters of good sustained consistency in Poland. So that's sort of how we think about the top line when we set our guidance. And then we talked about in your earlier question, what things that we will continue to manage effectively got some puts and takes. And those will be the same things next year as we saw this year. And then continued focus on cost. We've got a track record of managing our costs pretty well. As and when trading environments change, we have the agility to flex our cost base. So those are some of the component parts that sort of set our full year guidance on profit and cash. Hopefully that adds. Thierry Dominique Garnier: Just to add a few words around general, how we feel, obviously, looking at the Middle East crisis. I think, obviously, we are very mindful. But we look at our top line first with resilient business. We have about 2/3 of our business is repair and maintenance, so less discretionary. We now have reached 30% of the group sales is delivered through trade. So as well more resilient. We really see the benefit of our strategy on e-commerce and trade. Looking again at B&Q in 2025, real growth, plus 5.9% in the flat market. So you start to see the benefit of the strategy. And as Bhavesh said, we have had a strong track record of discipline, margin management, cost management in all the past years. Operator: Our next question comes from Yashraj Rajani. Yashraj Rajani: I've got three, please. I'll ask them one by one. So the first one is on the cross-border vendor e-commerce, which you have fully highlighted. So is that just an element of introducing a different price point? Or do you think that you're missing something in the range architecture there, which is now being complemented with this cross-border vendor e-commerce? And how do you think about the right balance so that it doesn't cannibalize your own 1P sales? Thierry Dominique Garnier: So I think we -- thank you for the question, Yash, first of all. I think it's -- we really see that more as a range topic, as choice. In fact, we are already selling on our marketplaces, I think you should take the U.K., U.K.-based vendors. So you have a lot of very strong countries in the world with very strong industrial base. Germany, but even and as well China, we'll open gradually our marketplace to Chinese vendors. We see the potential here. But it's not around price competition. To give you another color, we are working hard on what we call buy box. And I will not enter into the tech detail, but we could do that off-line, if you want. That will allow us as well to have more price competition between the same SKUs from 2026. So cross-border is really around choice. Bhavesh Mistry: And what I said earlier, right? Yes, there's probably a little bit of cannibalization, but look at our 1P sales, it's stronger than our store sales. And 3P traffic brings new people to diy.com that we wouldn't otherwise get, and a lot of them go on to buy 1P product. So that's a benefit of having the choice that Thierry talks about. Yashraj Rajani: Sure, that's super helpful. And then the second question is, again, on France. So I appreciate you commented that the market is difficult, but there's obviously all the self-help initiatives that you highlighted. So even if you assume that the market stays where it is, what is the absolute margin improvement you can see from all the things that you control even if like-for-likes are negative? Thierry Dominique Garnier: Yes. I think, Yash, we are still confident in our 5% to 7% profit margin for France in the medium term. We always said part of it is really our self-help action, and we are progressing on this. To remind you as well that some of the self-help action, you have very short-term impact, when you do a head office restructuring, you have short-term impact. Some other, like range reviews or the store network restructuring, you need a bit of time to realize, to crystallize all the benefits. So one, self-help actions. Second part is the market improvement. Personally, I'm convinced that we'll see market improvement. It's a question of time, and we need both to achieve those 5% to 7%. Yashraj Rajani: Got it. Got it. Super helpful. And the last one from my end, maybe quite a topical one is the Middle East. So can you just sort of quantify any sort of freight headwinds or more broadly disruption that you're seeing, which would probably create some availability issues, if any? Or just anything else you'd like to highlight on the Middle East? Thierry Dominique Garnier: So maybe I'll start with supply chain, and then Bhavesh will come on the cost side. First, it's obvious that we have no operation in the region. We have nearly two suppliers in the region. So you see it's really a very, very limited direct impact. And before Bhavesh will comment on gross margin and costs, again, remind you that 2/3 of our business is repair and maintenance and 30% is trade. We are high expectation to deliver on our strategy on trade and e-commerce in 2026 and beyond. So we expect this to give us resilience looking forward. Bhavesh Mistry: Yes. I mean you heard me mention it in my prepared remarks, but the direct impacts, based on what we know today, and as you know, things are changing every day, but the impact for us is fairly limited energy. On energy, our quantum energy costs are less than 1% of our sales, and the majority of that is hedged. And then on freight, again, a small proportion of our COGS, about 20% of our COGS are sourced from Asia, and we typically lock in annual contracts with carriers. So those contracts have what we call like a fuel index, so there may be a little bit of a headwind, but we've locked in those contracts for the year. We looked at previous situations, the markets have behaved pretty rationally on pricing and margin. And we continue to stay focused on managing our margin and being super disciplined on cost. And so that's our focus, right, to continue to do that as we navigate our way through. Operator: Our next question comes from Mia Strauss with BNP Paribas. Mia Strauss: I just want to check a few. I think last year, you talked maybe about doing consumer surveys for your trade sales partners. And what sort of pipeline they're seeing over the next few weeks. Maybe if you can just give us a comment on that for the current year? Thierry Dominique Garnier: Yes, absolutely, Mia. And by the way, you will see that in the appendix of our document we released, Page 34. Indeed, we do a monthly survey for Screwfix. What you see on the Page 34 is that 93% of our trades people are working. So it's 2 points year-on-year. So slightly higher than last year. But we have a second category that is working and have more work to come, 79% of the survey and is 6 points up year-on-year. So we do this survey every month for the past few years. So it's pretty reliable. So we feel those results will remain strong. Mia Strauss: And then maybe just on your share of the trade wallet. What share do you currently have? And essentially, what is the realistic opportunity of what share you could get in the future? Thierry Dominique Garnier: I think Screwfix, our estimate is around 15%, 1-5. So for our trade business, you could say it's still relatively low, and that's why we believe we have a lot of opportunity ahead on Screwfix share of wallet on the range, the size of the range, B2B. We have a plan that will address more of this share of wallet growth in the future. And you have seen as well in the presentation, the rewards program. For all the big boxes, our estimate that is a few percent. Our share wallet in B&Q in France, in Poland is just a few percent of a very large market. Very often, the trade people, they already come to our stores, but mainly for urgencies. And that's why all this plan is finally leveraging your assets to sell more to people that are already in your stores through your loyalty program, traders sales partners. So we really feel starting from this very low base of share of wallet in our other big boxes, there is significant opportunities. Bhavesh Mistry: And look, in the U.K., it's a big market, right, it's GBP 30 billion, total trade market. TradePoint sales are close to GBP 1 billion. So a lot for us to still go after. Mia Strauss: That's helpful. And then maybe just for you, Bhavesh, on the free cash flow. So the guidance is a little bit lower year-on-year. And I think it's -- last year, you also talked about achieving over GBP 500 million over the full current year. I guess, last year, you saw about a GBP 91 million increase in payables. What was that from? And I guess, going forward, why is it a little bit lower? Bhavesh Mistry: So look, yes, pleased with our free cash guidance. We've delivered more than GBP 500 million over the last 3 years. And our focus this year will be continued on the profit drivers we talked about and working capital, and particularly inventory. So again, some of the stuff we mentioned earlier, some of the structural initiatives. We set a range of GBP 450 million to GBP 510 million, midpoint GBP 480 million. That's about GBP 30 million higher than the midpoint we set last year. And so confident that we'll continue to deliver cash flow well. We also still have spent more on CapEx this year. The question somebody asked earlier, as we saw and navigated through the year that we are trading well and had a good cash performance, we chose to redeploy some of that both in buying freehold, but also at our maintenance and tech. So we kind of navigate through the year. And then you always get fluctuations, right, in year-on-year. So sometimes one-offs. But over the medium term, we're still guiding to around GBP 500 million per annum free cash and have done that in the last 3 years. Mia Strauss: Great. Maybe just on the -- if we look back to '25, what was the reason for that significant increase in payables maybe? Bhavesh Mistry: I think timing, largely. We look -- as you'd expect any retailer, we kind of look at payment terms as well as something we navigate, but also, our sales was higher, right? So that sort of drives our payables. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Georgina Johanan with JPMorgan. Georgina Johanan: Everyone, can you hear me okay? Thierry Dominique Garnier: Yes, Georgina. Bhavesh Mistry: Yes. Go ahead. Georgina Johanan: I've got three quick ones, please, really just following up some questions that have already been asked. The first one is very much appreciate that you prefer not to give current trading trends. But just in the context of maybe the consumer more broadly, particularly in the U.K., I think one of the early surveys that's been done since the start of the crisis and headlines around higher energy prices and so on, actually, we saw an 8-point fall in consumer confidence. So just wondering if you can kind of comment on how you're seeing consumer behavior rather than trading trends necessarily. The second one was, I appreciate you don't provide a like-for-like guidance, and of course, there are changes that will be made depending on trading performance. But if you were to see perhaps only a flat like-for-like this year, can you just confirm that you'd be able to hold profits in that scenario, please? And then finally, you very helpfully at the half year, I think, quantified some of the gross margin benefits from buying and sourcing initiatives. If I remember correctly, around 60 basis points. Is it reasonable to assume that you can actually achieve a similar level again in fiscal '27? And indeed, where did that land for fiscal '26 overall, please? Thierry Dominique Garnier: Thank you, Georgina. Let me start with the first one, and then Bhavesh will cover the two and three. So to be direct, indeed, we don't want to comment on the current trading. But I think it's an important topic, we have not seen up to now real impact on the customer. We have not seen a change of trend following the start of the Middle East crisis. Bhavesh Mistry: On your second question, we have different levers that we pull as we navigate through the year, margin, cost, investment in the business. We set our guidance range or profit range is the same as we said previously, GBP 60 million, around that midpoint, and we'll navigate and push and pull levers as trading evolves as you saw us do this year. On gross margin, I'm not going to quantify it, but I'd refer you to my previous response on the various puts and takes. We've got lots of things that are tailwinds, but we also have some things that are headwinds on gross margins. Operator: At this time, there are no further questions. I will now hand back to Thierry for closing remarks. Thierry Dominique Garnier: Just to thank you for joining us this morning, for your questions. Again, we are confident in our delivery of this year and our strategic progress. Confident in the fact we stay very disciplined on the thing we can control well as we did in the past. So again, thank you, and we are always available with the team if you have any questions. And for some of you, I think we'll meet in the coming days. Thank you very much. See you soon. Operator: Thank you for joining today's call. We are no longer live. Have a nice day.
Operator: Good morning, and welcome to the Dollarama Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2026 Results Conference Call. On today's call is Neil Rossy, President and CEO; and Patrick Bui, CFO. They will begin with brief remarks followed by a Q&A with financial analysts. Before we begin, please note that today's remarks may contain forward-looking statements about Dollarama's current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results or any other future events or developments. Forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to management and on reasonable estimates and assumptions made by management. Many factors could cause actual results, future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements represent management's expectations as of March 24, 2026. Except as may be required by law, Dollarama has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You are invited to consult the cautionary statement on forward-looking statements and Dollarama's management's discussion and analysis dated March 24, 2026. All forward-looking statements on today's call are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. In addition, Dollarama may refer to certain non-GAAP and other financial measures during the call. Please consult the non-GAAP and other financial measures section of Dollarama's with MD&A dated March 24, 2026, for definitions, reconciliations with the appropriate GAAP measures and other information. The disclosure documents related to this call are available in the Investor Relations section of dollarama.com and on SEDAR+. I will now turn the call over to Neil Rossy. Neil Rossy: Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. For fiscal 2026, we are pleased to have met or exceeded our financial guidance on all metrics, while we also advanced our growth ambitions. We generated same-store sales of 4.2% in Canada for the year and delivered strong earnings growth with EPS increasing nearly 14% year-over-year. Fiscal 2026 also marked a significant milestone in our international expansion with Dollarcity entry into Mexico and our acquisition of a national discount chain in Australia. In Canada, our compelling value continued to resonate in a economic environment that is weighed on consumer sentiment and discretionary spending. As Canadians face pressures on their household budgets, they turn to Dollarama for a year-round value and everyday convenience. Throughout the year, our full assortment contributed to solidifying Dollarama as a destination for affordable goods across our product categories. We experienced solid demand for general merchandise and seasonal items which speaks to the strength of our buying team and direct sourcing platform. We also saw continued sustained demand for consumable products, which speaks to our ability to offer strong value for sought after every day essentially. Unfortunately, the weather did hamper our fourth quarter performance, which was off to a good start. Unfavorable weather conditions across Canada directly impacted both store traffic and peak sale periods through to the end of January. However, we nonetheless generated 1.5% same-store sales growth in the quarter with basket growth driven by a positive seasonal performance. In Canada, we successfully opened an exceptional 75 net new stores in fiscal 2026. This brought our network across the country to 1,691 stores by the end of January. For fiscal 2027, we are returning to our historical cadence of annual net new store openings in the range of 60 to 70. This past February, we had another real estate milestone with the opening 1,700 store in Canada. We are making steady progress towards our long-term target of 2,200 stores by 2034. Reaching this threshold of stores requires us to grow our distribution and warehousing capacity in tandem. The development of our logistics hub in Western Canada is moving along well, having made significant progress building the structure. With everything moving along on time and on budget, we are on track to have our Calgary hub operational by the end of 2027. Having a 2-node logistics model support our long-term growth in Canada and bring added resilience to our logistics through redundancy. By applying our proven business model Dollarcity continues to generate strong top line momentum, margin expansion and footprint growth across our core markets in Latin America. This is translating into impressive year-over-year network and earnings growth. Consistent with the prior year, Dollarcity opened 100 net new stores in 2025 bringing into total store count to just over the 700 store threshold at year-end. This includes 11 stores in Mexico since entry last summer, where we are now building a new growth platform. Dollarcity is well on its way to achieving its store target of 1,050 stores by 2034. As a reminder, this excludes Mexico for which we have not yet set a long-term target. In fiscal 2027, Dollarcity will continue to grow in its first 4 countries of operation in LatAm with a focus on growth in Colombia and Peru. At the same time, we will be carefully scaling our presence and operations in Mexico. While it is still early days, we continue to be pleased with the team's execution and initial customer reception. Over the last few months, we have been firming up our plans in fiscal 2027 priorities for our multiyear transformation of our retail platform in Australia. We have several initiatives underway across 3 main pillars: merchandising, store experience and network growth and operational excellence. Deploying aspects of our model is impacting just about every facet of the business. In the near term and through fiscal 2027, this work will be both gradual and disruptive but it is a prerequisite to setting up our Australian operations for future success. Changing the merchandising strategy is the most important pillar of the transformation and the most complex to implement. We expect our first Dollarama in port SKUs to start hitting shelves during the second quarter of fiscal 2027, with imports primarily comprised of general merchandise and seasonal items. The target is to have about half of the Dollarama import SKUs sourced by the end of fiscal 2027. On the domestic side, which is primarily consumables, we are also looking at products SKU by SKU to deliver increased value to our customers. Under store experience and network growth, our goal is to renovate the layout and change fixtures in 60 to 80 stores this year, having done 4 last year. We also aim to open 15 to 25 net new stores, all with the dollar MLA out in fixtures, having opened 7 in fiscal 2026. On operational excellence, we are strengthening the IT infrastructure and optimizing various processes. Notably, we are working on migrating Australia's ERP system to ours to get all our business processes integrated to the same platform. On the logistics front, we are finalizing our plan to optimize operations and support long-term growth. We are also adding team members as we built the bench strength of the local team. Once a store feels like a Dollarama shop and reflects our value proposition through both the offering and open experience, we will convert that store to the Dollarama banner. By fiscal year-end, we will be in a better position to evaluate our progress on this front and initial customer reception. The objective is to build our brand equity in the market by introducing our strong and differentiated value and convenience position as we have done over time in all of our other markets. As you can see, the year ahead is shaping up to be both busy and exciting for Dollarama. Today, we have strong teams across 3 continents working to execute on their respective growth plans with each market bringing its own unique set of characteristics, priorities and opportunities. While the path may differ from one market to the next, the long-term vision guiding our efforts remains the same: to deliver unbeatable value to consumers in every market where we operate and to create long-term value for our shareholders. As we enter fiscal 2027, the macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop is evolving rapidly and remains uncertain. Considering the current economic environment in Canada, we expect that consumers will continue to be cautious and deliberate in their spending. In this context, the importance of value is only increasing. And we believe that the value, convenience and affordability we offer will continue resonating with consumers. Looking at the broader geopolitical environment, the conflict in the Middle East is beginning to have ripple effects on transportation and production costs. Our business model is resilient and provides us with a number of levers to help mitigate these impacts in the near term. The key variable will be the duration of the conflict which will determine how persistent these cost pressures will be. As always, we remain highly disciplined as price followers. We will only pass on price increases were absolutely necessary and while staying true to our year-round value proposition. Across the business, our focus is on the disciplined execution of our plans maintaining our strong value proposition and leveraging the strength of our business model to deliver for our customers and our shareholders. With that, I'll pass it over to Patrick. Patrick Bui: Thank you, Neil, and good morning, everyone. Let's start with a brief overview of our consolidated results before turning to segment performance. Q4 sales, which included 1 less week compared to last year, increased by 11.7% to $2.1 billion. For fiscal 2026, sales increased by 13.1% to $7.3 billion positively impacted by contributions from Australia as well as greater number of stores and SSS growth in Canada. Diluted EPS increased by 2.1% in Q4 to $1.43. This included a positive $0.03 impact from Australia. For the full fiscal year, EPS rose by 13.7% year-on-year to $4.73. Our Canadian segment met or exceeded all financial guidance targets. SSS came in at 1.5% for Q4 over and above SSS of 4.9% in Q4 last year. The increase was primarily driven by demand for seasonal products, offset by 2 important factors. The first is a calendar shift caused by a 52-week fiscal year following a 53-week fiscal year. In the quarter, this resulted in one less historically strong pre-holiday sales week and an additional historically low sales week at the end of January. It also included 4 less pre-Halloween shopping days compared to Q4 last year, which we recorded in Q3. Excluding the calendar shift, SSS would have been 3.5%. The second factor was the weather. As mentioned by Neil, a high volume of weather events, including cold temperatures and precipitation impacted store traffic and resulted in lost sales. This is reflected in the 1.6% decrease in the number of transactions. Despite this, Basket growth was healthy, growing 3.1%, and we met our annual SSS guidance for the year coming in at 4.2%. While the weather resulted in softer-than-anticipated SSS as weather conditions improved, so did traffic patterns. Store traffic continued to recover nicely as we entered fiscal 2027. Looking ahead to fiscal 2027, we anticipate generating SSS growth in Canada of between 3% and 4%. Consistent with our outlook last year, we continue to expect sustained demand for the compelling value we offer, which remains particularly relevant in the current environment. At the same time, we also remain mindful of the macro environment and the uncertainty it creates. Gross margin for the Canadian segment came in at 46.6% of sales in Q4 compared to 46.8% last year. The variance is primarily due to the 53rd week in fiscal 2025, with the 14th week in fiscal 2025, providing additional scaling benefits. Full year gross margin was 45.6% of sales, slightly exceeding the top end of our guidance. For fiscal 2027, our guidance range for gross margin in Canada is in line with last year at between 45% to 45.5% of sales based on our ability to actively manage product margins. Looking at early fiscal 2027 and given the current macro context, we are closely monitoring pressures in the global supply chain which may negatively impact gross margin during the year. SG&A for the Canadian segment in Q4 was 14.5% of sales compared to 14.7% last year. The improvement reflects the positive impact of scaling. Full year SG&A came in within guidance at 14.4%. For fiscal 2027, we expect scaling to help offset the impact of higher store labor and operating costs. As a result, our annual guidance range for SG&A in Canada is slightly better than in the prior year at between 14.1% and 14.6% of sales. Finally, CapEx for fiscal 2027 in Canada is between $420 million to $470 million. The year-over-year increase primarily reflects capital spend for our logistics hub project, a portion of which shifted over from last year. Turning to Dollarcity. Our share of their net earnings in Q4 increased by 22% to $70.5 million. For the year, our share reached $191.5 million, an over 47% increase. This was driven by SSS and store network growth, offset by the ramp-up of operations in Mexico. On a 100% basis, the Mexico business realized a net loss of USD 5.4 million and USD 11.7 million for Q4 and the full year, respectively. As the business is still in ramp-up mode, we expect a loss in fiscal 2027, consistent with the range provided last year of between USD 10 million to $20 million for 100% of the business. On February 5, Dollarcity declared a dividend of USD 125 million, with our share coming in at USD 75.1 million. The doubling of the dividend compared to the previous one declared speaks to Dollarcity's strong free cash flow generation with its profitable growth trajectory continuing to mirror Dollaramas. In early fiscal 2027, we made a capital contribution of USD 38 million towards Mexico expansion plans. This follows 2 USD 18 million contributions made last year. As with previous capital contributions, we allocated a portion of our share of the latest Dollarcity dividend. Looking now at Australia. For the approximately 6-month period since our acquisition in late July, the business had a neutral impact on consolidated net earnings for fiscal 2026. For perspective, looking at the full year and on a pro forma basis, Australia generated approximately $916 million in sales and a net loss of $10.6 million, all in Australian currency. Turning to fiscal 2027. It is expected to be an investment year as we ramp up the integration process. Neil spoke to our priorities across our strategic pillars. As a result, the Australian segment is expected to generate a net loss in fiscal 2027. These impacts are presented in our financial documents and in our investor presentation, which is available on the Event page, but I'd like to call out the main ones. First and most significant is the anticipated negative impact from the merchandise changeover and transition to lower-priced items. As you can appreciate, it is also the hardest to quantify at this stage of the transformation as it will depend on several factors. These include the timing of the product transition. The speed at which sales of incumbent higher-priced SKUs will be compensated by sales of the lower-priced Dollarama SKUs and impact on store traffic. That said, we anticipate a negative impact on sales for the year. The second is related to capital expenditures for store renovation and net new store openings. These are estimated at between AUD 400,000 and AUD 600,000 per renovated store and between AUD 800,000 and AUD 1 million per net new store. There is also a direct impact on sales during renovation related store closures. Third is P&L related. We expect to incur about $35 million to $45 million in incremental costs related to integration, IT transformation, additional head count and labor costs. These transformational changes are essential to set the business on a path for profitable growth. There's a lot of work to be done, but we are excited and motivated by the upside potential once we work through some of these major changes to the business. Our vision is to build a leading value retailer with a strong and favorable margin profile compared to global peers. The work we are undertaking in fiscal 2027 will represent a critical first step in our multiyear path to deliver attractive return on investments. Back to Dollarama, in terms of returning capital to shareholders, we repurchased over 4.4 million shares for cancellation during fiscal 2026 for a total cash consideration of $834.2 million. We also announced today that the Board has approved a 13.4% increase to the quarterly cash dividend, bringing it to $0.12 per share. Looking ahead, our priorities are clear. We will continue to allocate capital in a balanced manner as we pursue our profitable growth in Canada and LatAm and as we embark on the transformation of our Australian platform. Consistent with past practice, we also intend to allocate the majority of excess cash towards share buybacks and a dividend subject to quarterly approval. While the broader economic environment remains uncertain, the underlying fundamentals of our business are strong and our value proposition as relevant as ever. As we enter the next fiscal year, we are focused on disciplined execution to advance our growth initiatives across multiple geographies and support long-term value creation for our shareholders. With that, I'll now turn the call back to the operator for the Q&A. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Irene Nattell with RBC Capital Markets. Irene Nattel: I was wondering if we could spend a minute just unpacking that same-store sales number. You called out weather, you called out strong seasonal. Can you give us an idea of what the cadence was through the quarter, what the exit rate was, where we are quarter-to-date and what the demand is like across the store, please. Patrick Bui: Sure. Thanks for your question, Irene. Look, starting at a high level, we believe the overall consumer environment remains exactly the same, right? Canadians are faced with pressure on their household budgets and they turn to Dollarama for year-round value and everyday convenience. So if you look at it sequentially, we had strong momentum as we exited the third quarter. We had strong momentum as we started the fourth quarter in November. And then traffic then dropped off when we encountered unfavorable weather conditions in December and in January. But once those conditions were behind us, traffic resumed nicely in February and as we kicked off fiscal 2027. So it seems to suggest that the consumer environment that we've seen in the past few quarters, the past many few quarters is exactly the same that we're seeing as we start the new fiscal year. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Brian Morrison with TD Cowen. Brian Morrison: The second focus, I think, this morning is Dollarcity leverage with your sales up 28% and equity income up 22%. But when you look at the disclosure, the Mexico loss, I think you even called that on the call, would the LatAm growth have been 30% to 35% illustrating leverage, Patrick. Is that correct? And I know there was a pricing structure in Colombia. It was a positive driver last year that will be lapped but looking forward, how should we think about leverage drivers at LatAm and what your breakeven store target is for Mexico? Patrick Bui: Sure. So it is true when you look at those numbers of top line of 28% and bottom line of 22%. That does include Mexico. And so if you were to exclude Mexico, I think you're correct in saying that bottom line growth is over 30%. You need also to consider that when you look at the top line growth, it includes sales from Mexico this year. and we didn't have those sales obviously last year. So you would conclude that the Dollarcity business, excluding Mexico is still benefiting from leverage and scale as we move in time. So to conclude that the business is still growing at a good pace, and there is still scaling benefits to come in the future. I believe before I forget, there was a second part of your question about Mexico, we've provided in our financial statements the loss for 100% of Mexico this year. We've also commented that Mexico, while we're very happy with the progress is still in ramp-up mode. So we do expect a loss similar -- a range similar to last year, so about USD 10 million to USD 20 million. After that, hopefully, EBITDA losses will shrink, but a little too early, Brian to be -- to have a clear view on when that business will break even. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Chris Li with Desjardins. Christopher Li: Maybe just a 2-part question on Australia. First is, I know it's still super early, but for the stores that have been renovated so far, what's been the sales lift? And is it trending in line or better than your expectation? Patrick Bui: Yes. And just to take a step back. So what we're doing when we're converting stores, right? So we talked about renovating the layout of the stores, having the appropriate racking, lighting, flow of shopping as well. But it also provides us a higher density of products in the stores, which is an important condition when you're selling low price items and high-volume sales. And so one would expect a positive uplift. And even if all the products are currently all TRS products, if I could say, we did see a pickup in unit sales. That being said, the real power of the conversion is really when you combine the conversions with a good density of Dollarama SKUs, and we're not there yet. As Neil commented, we're going to start introducing some SKUs in the first part of -- the first part of the second half of the year. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Mark Petrie with CIBC. Mark Petrie: Neil, you touched on this in your prepared remarks, but obviously, the macro picture has gotten significantly murkier in the last month or so. Can you just add some color to what you said already with regards to the impacts that you've seen on your supply chain, costing and consumer demand. And obviously, as you said, the longer this goes on, the higher the risk is to affecting costs more materially. But what's the sort of over under on when you would expect this to affect your outlook and guidance. Neil Rossy: So it's still early days. And unfortunately, higher energy costs will permeate throughout the supply chain for all retailers and for consumers over the next few months to a year. The duration of the conflict will decide the scale of the effect. But certainly, inbound costs, outbound costs production costs, raw material costs are all being affected by the increased cost of oil. And that will eventually make its way down the supply chain. Our job as low-cost retailers and value retailers is to ensure that we're price following and to ensure that we are offering the best value -- relative value in the market that we can. But I don't believe that any retailer will be -- will escape the reality of global economics. And we just -- we all hope for the consumer and for the world, I would go so far as saying that the conflict ends as quickly as possible. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of John Zamparo with Scotiabank. John Zamparo: Perhaps a follow-up or 2 on that same topic. I wonder if you can elaborate on the ripple effects you've seen. It would be helpful to get a sense of some magnitude on how impactful you expect this to be? In other words, what the gross margin guide would have been prior to the start of the war? And just to clarify, have you seen any deceleration in same-store sales subsequent to the start of the war? Patrick Bui: Yes. Look, I mean, as Neil alluded to, this is early days, right? So we are seeing some increased costs in transportation. We're seeing some cost increase and even product costs. But if we're under the context of this is short term, all of this is -- some of it is included in our guide, right? So if you look at our guide, we're saying 45%, 45.5% million same as last year, recognizing that there might be some incremental costs that we're seeing right now. But very important is to Neil's point, if this is prolonged and/or deepens, well, there will be potentially over time, consequences on gross margins that we may or may not be able to pass on. But generally speaking, we have a resilient business model and we're in a good position to offset some of those costs. So I would say we've included some of what we're seeing in the guide. But obviously, if this gets prolonged and gets worse, well then there might be negative consequence on our gross margins and frankly, ripple effects throughout the whole industry and the whole economy. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Etienne Ricard with BMO Capital Markets. Etienne Ricard: Patrick, to circle back on Mexico. If you look at your experience in other markets for Dollarcity, at what level of scale from a store count perspective, do you typically reach breakeven levels in a given country? Patrick Bui: Every -- I would start out by saying we're following a recipe in all countries we open. So this is arguably the fifth time, but there are some nuances, right? Like certainly, in this case, Mexico is a bigger country, so does might take bigger investments to start off with. And so it's hard to compare with other countries. But just to give you some elements, think of the pace at which we're ramping up Mexico to be pretty much in line with the experience that we've had in a country like Colombia or Peru. So it gives us -- we'll give you a sense of what we're thinking in terms of ramp-up and related to that and a little bit to an earlier question, we're not breakeven. We weren't breakeven last year. We don't expect to be EBITDA positive next year. So maybe in the following year, we might be starting to curb EBITDA losses, but this is not bottom line, right? So you would need incremental time to derive a breakeven on the net income. But like I said, a little too early to say, have a look at the other countries, we'll give you a sense of direction but every country is slightly different. That's all we could say on that. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Ed Kelly with Wells Fargo. Edward Kelly: I wanted to dig in on Australia. I've heard you say a couple of things this morning around -- it sounds like a little bit of a comp headwind. You're going to be doing remodels. There's some transition costs. I'm not sure about the gross margin opportunity. But when you put all this together for a business that, I don't know, maybe it was a small loss in fiscal '26. Does the loss in this business grow to a range of sort of $30 million to $40 million in EBIT? I'm just kind of curious if you could help us frame that because it does look like maybe could matter from an earnings perspective. Patrick Bui: Sure. So let's take it piece by piece. As we think about the potential impact to fiscal year '27. So first point is the business on a stand-alone basis, so without transformation from Dollarama, you look at last year on a full year basis, what had a loss of AUD 10.6 million. So you need to start from that base to which when you look at the 3 pillars that we've laid out in our investor presentation, there are incremental integration costs. So we talk about $35 million to $45 million that you would need to factor in. Then you move to -- and I'm moving from third bucket and coming to the first, but the second bucket is a lot about CapEx. So we provide some color in terms of store renovations and new stores. There is a small P&L impact for the period during which we're going to close a source for the renovation. So we would need to factor that potentially a little bit of DNA. And then the first bucket is really the most uncertain. So this is about transitioning the products, and we talked about all the factors. But this one, as you might appreciate, we barely have a Dollarama product in the country. And so to start guessing the impact of the transition is a little dangerous at this point. But certainly, once we get greater clarity there, we'll be happy to share with you. But that's how I would think about framing the net income loss for this year. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Mark Carden with UBS. Mark Carden: I wanted to touch quickly on the competitive backdrop. Are you guys seeing any shifts in intensity, particularly from some of the mass merchants? And then population growth has also pulled in meaningfully any shifts in how you approach unit growth placement going forward in same-store sales, just given the change in dynamics there? Neil Rossy: No. I think the market in Canada is quite stable. Competition remained stable. There's no real new entrants to talk about. Overall, I would say it's business as usual in Canada. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Martin Landry with Stifel. Martin Landry: I would like to touch on your same-store sales guidance for fiscal '27. I would like to know a little bit what assumptions you've used in terms of traffic and basket size? And also if you can talk a little bit about price increases quantify maybe what you've done in terms of price increases in '26? And what's implied in your guidance for '27? Patrick Bui: Yes. Taking from a high level, the 3% to 4%, if you recall, it's the same guidance as we provided last year. And so to an earlier comment, when we think about the economic and demand side, it's a very similar setup than what we have seen last year. The slight nuance perhaps compared to last year is towards the end of fiscal '26. We started seeing some price increases from the domestic side, which will trickle into fiscal '27. So there's a little bit of an uplift when we think about the beginning of fiscal '27 but other than that, we expect a context that is very similar to this year. So the last year, sorry. I mean certainly, as we start the year, there's a lot happening out there and a lot of unknowns. And so we think it's prudent to start with the same guide as we've had last year at 3% to 4%. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Zhihan Ma with Bernstein. Zhihan Ma: I wanted to circle back on the Australia side. I think initially, you were kind of saying that it probably takes 3 to 4 years in that range to turn profitable in Australia. I'm wondering if that's still the right time line to think about it? And I'm assuming that probably means you'll have enough time to convert all the merchandising in stores, but probably not remodel the stores. How should we think about what does it take to turn profitable on the ground? Neil Rossy: Yes. Thanks for the question. So consistent with what we said in the past, this is a multiyear transformation, i.e., 4 years. And what the 4 years takes into account is think of the conversions being an important part of this transformation. So 400 stores, going at an average clip of 100 per year, that takes 4 years. So for us to say the transformation is complete. We need to make sure that we're well advanced, if not completed on the conversion side. And one is, hopefully, what we'll see in 4 years is that we'll have our stores converted and a strong assortment of Dollarama SKUs in the stores. And so yes, we remain consistent with that 4-year time line. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Luke Hannan with Canaccord Genuity. Luke Hannan: Patrick, you touched on the first bucket as it relates to the Australian business transformation as being the most important and talked about refreshing the assortment through the balance of this year. Just curious to know how did you target that initial cohort of SKUs that you're looking to swap out and put in your own? Are they concentrated within any particular price points or category as we think about your assortment? Neil Rossy: So the initial study was on, of course, Dollarama's strongest SKUs, taking into account, of course, the SKUs that are transferable to Australia since they have different compliance rules different standards and different products, different voltages in their electricity grids, different sizing in their note pads that they follow a U.K. standard on things in the stationary lines. So barring the exceptions that are different between Canada and Australia. The balance of the items we started with a focus on compliance first and foremost, the items that we were able to do compliance quickly on because the Australian compliance centers are entirely different from Canada. So an entire compliance study has to be done on every single SKU that goes into the country. But the goal is to get all dollar and the SKUs into Australia within the next 2 years or so. The priority started with our best SKUs and the most transferable SKUs. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Corey Tarlowe with Jefferies. Corey Tarlowe: Great. Patrick, you made a comment that around a $10 million loss from Australia and then, I think, building to like $35 million to $45 million as an investment or starting point I think that's like $0.15 to $0.25. Can you just clarify kind of the glide path on that and on the investments, I just wanted to double click on that. Patrick Bui: Yes. Sorry. Part of your question I cut off. But yes, you're starting from that $10 million base just as the business operating as normal. And then you would add on top of that $35 million to $45 million of incremental integration cost. And then I also talked about the 2 other buckets, the impact of the store opening. So there is some incremental P&L impact there, but that's mostly CapEx. And then you would need to factor in something. We're guiding that it will lead to a net loss in sales. So that would have an impact on your bottom line but you would need to add all those pieces. And so all of that transformation, especially when you think about integration costs, have started as we kicked off the new year, and the team is working very hard to transform the business, but also as a necessary condition are also incurring incremental costs. Neil Rossy: And I just wanted to add that clearly, the Dollarama team feels strongly that in the long term, this is a very exciting project and that bringing value to the Australian consumer has merit, both for the consumer and for our shareholders. So while this is a 4-year project, once you've established a low-cost retail platform in Australia with -- by that point, over 500, 600 stores, we feel very confident that being the 800-pound gorilla in the market will play very well for our shareholders. Operator: Thank you. And I'm showing no further questions at this time. This does conclude today's call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Smithfield Foods Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Julie MacMedan, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Julie MacMedan: Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Smithfield's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Call. Earlier this morning, we announced our results. A copy of the release as well as today's presentation are available on our IR website, investors.smithfieldfoods.com. Today's presentation contains projections and other forward-looking statements that are being provided pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all comments reflecting our expectations, assumptions or beliefs about future events or performance that do not relate solely to historical periods. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors identified in the release, in our annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or other factors. Please refer to our legal disclaimer on Slide 2 of the presentation for more information. Today's presentation will also include certain non-GAAP measures, including, but not limited to, adjusted operating profit and margin, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share and adjusted EBITDA. For a reconciliation of these and other non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures, please refer to our earnings press release and our slide presentation on our website. Finally, all references to retail volume and market share are based on Circana, MULO+ data. With me this morning are Shane Smith, President and CEO; Mark Hall, CFO; Steve France, President of Packaged Meats; and Donovan Owens, President of North America Pork. I will now turn the discussion over to Shane. Shane? Shane Smith: Thank you, Julie. Good morning, everyone. 2025 was an outstanding year. Solid execution on our strategies drove record profits, expanded margins and increased cash flow. We set the foundation for multiyear growth while maintaining a very strong financial position, investing in our business and returning value to our shareholders. Last January, we returned to the U.S. equity markets through an IPO that reintroduced us as the new Smithfield. While our history spans 90 years, the transformation underway over the past decade has fundamentally reshaped Smithfield into a leaner, more profitable and strategically focused company. We streamlined our Packaged Meats portfolio, exited non-core and high-cost operations, accelerated automation and built an accountable culture focused on profitable growth. This hard work prepared us for the IPO. In 2025, our first year as a public company, we delivered on our commitments, record operating profit, record net income, strengthened margins and disciplined execution across all segments. Importantly, these results were broad-based, reflecting the power of our diversified product portfolio, our vertically integrated model and our relentless focus on operational excellence. The advantages of our model were clear in 2025, and we see further opportunities for coordination across the value chain. I'm pleased to announce that we have named Donovan Owens, President of North America Pork. Under Donovan's leadership, the Fresh Pork segment adjusted operating profit increased to $209 million in 2025 from $30 million in 2022. This performance demonstrates our improved agility, channel mix and disciplined operating focus. Under the new structure, Fresh Pork, Hog Production and Commodity Risk Management will report to Donovan. Donovan will also oversee our Mexico operations, which are an integral part of our North America growth strategy. We are excited about the opportunity to unlock additional synergies across our upstream businesses in this new structure. Now, I'd like to review our fiscal 2025 accomplishments in more detail. On a consolidated basis, adjusted operating profit increased 30% to $1.3 billion, with profit margin expanding to 8.6%, up from 7.2% in 2024. Each segment executed effectively. Packaged Meats delivered its fourth consecutive year of operating profit above $1 billion and its second highest profit year despite higher raw material costs and a cautious consumer spending environment. Fresh Pork demonstrated strong execution amid a compressed industry market spread and trade disruptions due to tariffs. And Hog Production achieved its highest profit year since 2014, reflecting improved operations and market conditions. Across the company, continuous improvement and productivity initiatives delivered meaningful cost savings. Our rock-solid balance sheet with net debt to adjusted EBITDA of just 0.3x at the end of the year provides us with the financial flexibility to support our growth strategies and return value to our shareholders. In 2025, we returned value to shareholders through dividend payments of $1 per share. Today, we announced a quarterly dividend of $0.3125 per share, and we anticipate paying annual dividends of $1.25 per share in 2026. In January, we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Nathan's Famous for $102 per share. Successfully closing this acquisition will be immediately accretive and will secure a core national brand and create meaningful growth and synergy opportunities. In February, we announced that we have initiated the approval process to invest up to an estimated $1.3 billion over the next 3 years to build a new state-of-the-art packaged meats and fresh pork processing facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Building this innovative new plant from the ground up will represent one of the largest investments in American agriculture and will modernize our manufacturing footprint and unlock long-term cost and efficiency benefits. Now, let's turn to our growth outlook for fiscal 2026. Protein demand is strong and growing across consumer demographics, value for its nutrition and health benefits. Pork, which is not our only protein, but is our primary offering, is well positioned within the protein complex. Pork presents a strong relative value to beef and its nutritional profile with lean cuts like pork tenderloin offers a superior nutritional alternative to chicken breast. Pork is also central to Asian and Latin cuisines, which are popular with U.S. consumers, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials. We believe all these factors serve as a long-term tailwind for pork, and we expect 2026 to be another year of increased profitability, driven by margin expansion, disciplined cost management and continued execution of our core strategies. Our 5 strategic priorities remain unchanged, increase Packaged Meats profit through mix, volume growth and innovation, grow Fresh Pork profit by maximizing the net realizable value across channels in a best-in-class cost structure, achieve a best-in-class Hog Production cost structure, drive operating efficiencies in manufacturing, supply chain, distribution, procurement and SG&A and evaluate synergistic M&A opportunities. First, in Packaged Meats, which is our largest and most profitable segment, we are meeting the demand for protein with convenience, flavor and value through our strong brand portfolio as well as our private label offerings. Our strategy to grow Packaged Meats operating profit centers on 3 levels: mix improvement, volume growth and innovation. So first, product mix. We remain focused on accelerating the shift toward higher-margin, value-added product categories and expanding unit velocity while reducing volume of lower-margin commodity type product categories. Coming out of 2025, we saw strong momentum in these value-added categories. In the fourth quarter, we grew units and market share in our core higher-margin focus areas of lunch meat and cooked dinner sausage, among others, and we expect these higher-margin categories to again achieve strong volume growth in 2026. Second, volume growth. We participate in 25 key Packaged Meat subcategories at retail, 10 of which are valued at over $1 billion. In 2025, we grew branded volume share in 6 of these $1 billion-plus categories. This volume growth reflected strong increases in our points of distribution led by our national brands. Looking ahead, we see continued white space opportunities to grow volume and increase market share in each of these categories. We are driving volume in today's economy by delivering quality protein at a good value. Our portfolio of quality branded products spans multiple categories and price points and is an important competitive advantage for Smithfield. A great example is lunchmeat. We are attracting and retaining consumers within our branded portfolio even as they trade up and down the value spectrum. If they choose private label, we benefit as well. Over the past several years, we have improved private label profitability, which represents just under 40% of our retail channel sales. We are also supporting our brands by investing in direct-to-consumer advertising and effective trade promotion. In 2025, we increased foodservice sales by 10%, driving higher sales volumes with both new and existing customers. Our success in foodservice reflects our position as a scaled, trusted provider of high-quality products as well as our ability to deliver value-added solutions that save our foodservice customers time and money. We are also very agile in helping foodservice customers launch limited time offers, which help drive traffic. In 2025, we introduced 57 new limited time offers, which gave consumers reasons to keep coming back. Despite food away-from-home inflation nearly double that of food at home, we successfully grew foodservice volume 2% in 2025. In 2026, we expect to increase Packaged Meats volume across the retail and foodservice channels, driven by product innovation, strong marketing, advertising and trade investment. Next, product innovation. Innovation is an important pillar of our Packaged Meats growth strategy. We focus on introducing new flavors, convenient and easily prepared offerings and premium offerings. We have numerous innovative product offerings planned for 2026 in the retail channel for our 3 national brands: Smithfield, Eckrich and Nathan's. So in summary, we expect to grow Packaged Meats profitability by focusing on 3 levers: mix improvement, volume and innovation. Now, let's talk about our second core growth strategy, increasing Fresh Pork profitability. We are focused on maximizing net realizable value across channels and continuing to improve operating efficiencies. 2025 was a dynamic year for Fresh Pork due to both compressed market spreads and trade disruptions. Historically, compressed market spreads, the price between hogs and meat significantly reduced profitability. However, our Fresh Pork team demonstrated agility and delivered strong profitability even in tighter markets due to our improved cost structure and diversified channel strategy. In 2025, Fresh Pork profitability was strengthened by sales and volume growth in the U.S. retail channel, with profit enhanced by value-added case-ready items. We also grew volume and profitability in our pet food and pharmaceutical channels, executing well on our next best sales strategy. In addition, we continue to deliver operating efficiencies and cost savings, which helped mitigate the impact of the compressed market spread on segment profitability. In 2026, our priorities include growing volume in the U.S. retail channel, emphasizing higher-margin, value-added, case-ready and marinated offerings, expanding adjacent channel opportunities such as pet food and pharmaceuticals, increasing automation, plant efficiency, yield optimization and supply chain savings and optimizing harvest levels across our network. By focusing on these priorities, we will continue to outperform the market. Now, to our strategy to optimize Hog Production. We continue to progress toward a best-in-class cost structure in Hog Production. In 2025, we outperformed the Iowa State benchmark for hog grower profitability, reflecting improved genetics, feed management and herd health. In 2026, we will continue to focus on improving our operations, including herd health and feed conversion. We're also excited about unlocking more opportunities across our Hog Production and Fresh Pork segments under Donovan's leadership. With respect to the number of hogs internally produced, in 2025, we produced 11.1 million hogs, which is down from 17.6 million at the high point in 2019 and from 14.6 million in 2024. This reduction reflects the transfer of 3.8 million hogs to our external joint ventures, which was consistent with our rightsizing strategy. Over the medium term, we continue to target producing approximately 30% of Fresh Pork's needs internally. We believe this will provide an optimal balance of assured supply and cost risk management. Next, our strategy to optimize operations and deliver operating efficiencies in manufacturing, supply chain, distribution, procurement and SG&A was a meaningful contributor to our improved profitability in 2025. In 2026, we are looking to accelerate the use of innovative technologies across all aspects of our business. We are increasingly leveraging advanced technology to become a more efficient business and to further strengthen our competitive position. We deploy this technology to drive innovation, productivity and optimize performance on our farms in our processing facilities and across our corporate functions. For example, we recently formed a co-sourcing partnership with a third-party technology provider that will provide the benefits of artificial intelligence and robotic process automation for administrative and transactional work in our finance operations. This partnership gives us immediate access to the latest technology and provides flexibility as technology change continues to accelerate. Finally, we continue to evaluate opportunistic M&A to support our growth strategies. In January, we entered into an agreement to acquire one of our top national packaged meats brands, Nathan's Famous. Successfully closing the acquisition will secure our rights to this iconic brand into perpetuity and enable us to maximize Nathan's Famous brand growth across the retail and foodservice channels. With this acquisition, we will own all our major Packaged Meats brands. We will remain disciplined in evaluating additional complementary and synergistic M&A opportunities. In summary, we have returned to the U.S. equity market well positioned to deliver reliable, repeatable earnings and cash flow growth. Our business model has never been stronger. Our high-performing vertically integrated model led by Packaged Meats provides a competitive advantage and supports sustainable margin expansion over the long term. We are investing capital in a disciplined manner to support our growth strategies, to generate attractive returns and to build sustainable long-term value for our shareholders. With that, I will turn it over to Mark to review our financials in more detail. Mark Hall: Thanks, Shane, and good morning to everyone joining the call. Our strong 2025 results reflect the consistent execution and resilience of our teams. We closed the year with an outstanding fourth quarter. Total company sales increased 7% for the fourth quarter and 10% for the year with growth across all segments, reflecting higher market prices across the pork value chain and Packaged Meats ability to maintain pricing discipline through innovation and brand power. Record fourth quarter adjusted operating profit of $402 million fueled our record full year 2025 adjusted operating profit of $1.3 billion. Full year adjusted operating profit margin increased an impressive 140 basis points to 8.6%. Fourth quarter adjusted net income from continuing operations attributable to Smithfield was $329 million, which was our second highest on record. This helped us deliver a record $1 billion for the full year. Adjusted diluted EPS for the fourth quarter was $0.83 per share, up from $0.52 per share in 2024 and for the full year was $2.55 per share, representing a 36% increase from 2024. Now, on to our fiscal year 2025 segment results. Packaged Meats delivered fiscal year 2025 adjusted operating profit of $1.1 billion, which was the second highest profit on record and an adjusted operating profit margin of 12.4%. This strong profitability in the face of raw material input cost increases of $525 million and a challenging consumer spending environment demonstrates the success of our Packaged Meats segment strategy. Packaged Meats fiscal 2025 sales of $8.8 billion increased by 5.3% compared to fiscal 2024. This was driven by a 5.6% increase in average selling price with roughly flat sales volume. Industry-wide, volume growth has been challenged due to inflation and consumers' tight budgets. As Shane mentioned, we were able to maintain volume through the power of our strong branded portfolio, complemented with private label options and our diversified product portfolio offering convenience, flavor and value. The higher average selling price was driven primarily by higher market prices across the pork value chain with key raw materials such as bellies, up 19%; trim, up 19% to 35%; and ham, up 9% year-over-year. Next, Fresh Pork. For 2025, we delivered $209 million in adjusted operating profit despite $135 million year-over-year decline in the industry market spread, truly an outstanding job by the Fresh pork team. As Shane mentioned, Fresh Pork executed well on maximizing the net realizable value of each hog and continue to deliver operating efficiencies and cost savings, which largely mitigated the impact of the compressed market spread and export market disruption on segment profitability. Fresh Pork sales of $8.3 billion increased 6% year-over-year, primarily driven by a 5.8% increase in the average selling price and roughly flat volume. The higher average selling price was driven primarily by higher market prices across the pork value chain. Turning now to Hog Production. Hog Production generated $176 million in adjusted operating profit, the highest since 2014. The strong results were driven by improved commodity markets as well as actions we've taken to optimize our operations. 2025 Hog Production sales of $3.4 billion increased by 13% year-over-year. This was despite a 23% or approximately 3.4 million head reduction in the number of hogs produced as part of our planned rationalization strategy. The sales increase was primarily due to higher external sales to our new joint venture partners, both from ongoing sales of grain, feed and other services as well as from the initial transfer of commercial hog inventories. Our average market hog sales price was up 8.9% year-over-year, inclusive of the effects of hedging. Adjusted operating profit for our Other segment, which includes our Mexico and Bioscience operations, of $45 million increased $10 million compared to 2024. We see the Mexico market as a big opportunity for future growth. Our corporate expenses came in $26 million below the prior year, reflecting our disciplined cost management strategies. In summary, we delivered a record 2025 operating profit and net income due to solid consistent execution across our operations. Next, let's review our strong financial position and cash flow generation. At the end of 2025, our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 0.3x, well below our policy of no less than 2x. Our liquidity at the end of the year was $3.8 billion, including $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents. This is well above our liquidity policy threshold of $1 billion. During 2025, we generated cash flows from operations of over $1 billion, and it would have been a record of nearly $1.3 billion when adjusted for the repayment of an accounts receivable monetization facility. Capital expenditures for 2025 were $341 million compared to $350 million for 2024. Approximately 50% of our planned capital investments each year are to fund projects that will drive both top and bottom line growth. This consists primarily of various plant automation and improvement projects, as we continue to lower our manufacturing cost structure and better utilize labor. Reinforcing our commitment to return value to shareholders, we paid $1 per share in annual dividends in 2025. And as Shane mentioned today, we announced that our Board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.3125 per share and that we anticipate paying annual dividends of $1.25 in 2026. Our ample liquidity, including sizable cash balance and robust cash flow supports our investment in business growth and shareholder return while maintaining a strong financial position. Now, on to our outlook for fiscal 2026. First, I'd like to share our thoughts on potential market tailwinds and headwinds that could impact our 2026 results. First, tailwinds. We expect protein to remain in high demand in 2026 and for pork to be well positioned as a healthy, affordable option for consumers. We also see raw material costs as a tailwind. While we expect input costs to remain elevated by historical standards, they should be slightly lower than in 2025. Our raw material assumptions are supported by the USDA outlook for pork production to be up 2.5% in 2026. That said, we're monitoring herd health as a key variable impacting the outlook for U.S. pork production and raw material costs. Potential headwinds that we're monitoring include a continued cautious consumer spending environment and a dynamic geopolitical environment. It's still too early to predict the full impact from the conflict in Iran, but there are 3 main components of our business that this could impact. First, the direct impact of fuel costs such as diesel; second, corn prices, which are tightly correlated to the oil markets; third, the petroleum-derived supplies that we use such as resin-based packaging. Based on what we know today, we believe our outlook incorporates identified risks, but it will depend on the duration of the conflict. With these assumptions as a backdrop, our outlook for fiscal 2026 called for continued margin expansion driven by the strategies Shane just reviewed. This includes continued innovation, improved asset utilization, accelerated automation initiatives and cost savings that will help us achieve another record-setting year. First, we anticipate total company sales to be up low single digits compared to fiscal 2025. Our outlook for segment adjusted operating profit is as follows: for Packaged Meats, we anticipate adjusted operating profit in the range of $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion. For Fresh Pork, we anticipate adjusted operating profit of between $200 million to $260 million. And for Hog Production, our anticipated adjusted operating profit range is $150 million to $200 million. As a result, we anticipate total company adjusted operating profit in the range of $1.325 billion to $1.475 billion, reflecting broad-based performance. Please note that our outlook reflects 53 weeks of operations in 2026 and does not include the impact of the proposed Nathan's Famous acquisition and investment in the new processing facilities in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Our targeted capital spend for 2026 will be in the range of $350 million to $450 million. In addition, subject to permitting and other approvals, we expect to invest up to $1.3 billion over the next 3 years to construct the new state-of-the-art Packaged Meats and Fresh Pork processing facility in Sioux Falls. We currently anticipate groundbreaking to commence in the first half of 2027 and for operations to commence by the end of 2028. We'll provide more updates as we progress. In summary, 2025 demonstrated that our key strategies are working. We expect 2026 to be another year of increased profitability, as we continue to execute our core strategies. Now, I'll ask the operator to open up the call for Q&A. Operator? Operator: [Operator Instructions] And today's first question comes from Megan Clapp with Morgan Stanley. Megan Christine Alexander: I guess, maybe to pick up, Mark, where you left off there, I wanted to start with the Packaged Meats outlook specifically. You talked about low single-digit top line growth for the total company. I guess... Shane Smith: Megan, did we lose you? Megan Christine Alexander: Sorry, can you still hear me? Shane Smith: Yes, you cut out for a second, though, Megan. Megan Christine Alexander: Okay. Okay. I'll start over. So Packaged Meats outlook, I wanted to ask about that. As we think about the top line guide, you talked about low single-digit growth for the total company. Should we be thinking about Packaged Meats kind of in that range? And then, from a margin perspective, if we just kind of take the midpoint of your profit guidance, I think it does imply some modest margin expansion, but, yes, still kind of well below where you've been historically. And, Mark, you kind of talked about this a little bit in your remarks, but maybe you can just help us understand a little bit more of the puts and takes on margins, as we think about the year ahead in terms of input cost inflation, continued mix benefits, and then, anything you're taking into account on consumer demand given some of the macro factors? Mark Hall: Thanks, Megan, for the question. So just on the top line, it's important to note that the low single-digit revenue growth year-over-year includes $230 million of one-time inventory sales to the joint ventures in 2025 that, that won't repeat. So that's about 150 basis points. And then, consistent with the comments, we're looking for lower markets year-over-year with the USDA call for pork production to be up about 2.5% year-over-year. So that's going to have a ripple effect throughout the segment. And I'll let Steve talk specifically to the top line on Packaged Meats. Steven France: Thank you for the question. So I'd start out by saying that nothing has really changed with respect to our long-term outlook for Packaged Meats margins. In the short term, as Mark had mentioned, consumers are definitely stretched, and I would say that the grocery and foodservice industry are seeing people spend less or trade down to less expensive items or items that deliver more value. And think about the fact that in 2025, our raw material costs were up over $525 million. So although we do expect to see lower raw material costs, as Mark had mentioned, they're still going to be elevated versus historical norms. Now, despite some of these headwinds, we do believe that we are better positioned than most companies due to the family of brands and also the extensive product portfolio that we have. And as you know, we have a very successful private label business, which does provide us the ability to capture those consumers, as they move up and down those different price points. And by doing that, so when you think about the family of brands that we have and also the private label that we have, it actually helps to minimize some of the financial exposure that we have with consumers, as they do move up and down that pricing spectrum. Now, we are focused on building long-term value, but it's also about protecting our near-term profits. So that means we are investing in our brands. We're funding our innovation that aligns with consumer trends. We also continue to shift, as Shane had mentioned during his opening comments, shift our mix from commodity items to higher-margin value-added products. And then, we're also, of course, spending capital to expand on capacity where it supports our long-term growth and profitable growth. So as Shane and Mark had mentioned, for our outlook for 2026, at this point, it really reflects the best view that we have today. And it's really guiding our Packaged Meats profit to that $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion, which we believe represents a healthy level of profitability in the face of really cautious consumer spending, higher-than-normal raw material markets. And, of course, there's a big unknown tied to the Iranian war that's currently going on. So at the end of the day, we are very -- we still -- we are confident in the outlook that we have, and we'll be able to address some of these challenges as they come at us throughout the year. Megan Christine Alexander: Great. That's super helpful. And just a follow-up on Hog Production. So the guide for the year, $150 million to $200 million would suggest similar profitability to '25 at the midpoint. And the futures curve at this point does seem to imply similar producer profit levels as well. At the same time, you've talked extensively, including in the remarks here, about the structural improvements you're seeing in your own business and even talked about perhaps monitoring the herd health as a potential tailwind. So maybe you can just help us understand a little bit more about what's embedded in the guide from an industry perspective? And what you're seeing in terms of supply today and -- versus your own internal cost improvements? Shane Smith: Yes, Megan, when you look at supply, we don't see right now any material level of expansion taking place outside of productivity and improvements in health. And I think that's what the USDA is modeling it as well with their 2.5% increase. And as you know, when you look at last year, the real true impacts of the health across the U.S. industry really didn't become apparent until we were in -- really into the second quarter. So we're monitoring what's going on as a part of overall health and how that will impact meat in the back half of the year. We do think that the guide that we issued this morning encompasses what we see today from the grain markets, from the changes in diesel fuel that we're seeing have an impact on things like freight and animal movements. So we feel comfortable where we are. We think it feels like we're back in somewhat of a normal cycle in that Q1-Q4 versus Q2-Q3 scenario. And of course, as you know, we have different hedging strategies that we take advantage of throughout the year. So we're really comfortable with the guidance that we've issued today in hog production. To your point, we have seen some real structural changes in our business. And the genetics that we've talked about for the last couple of years, that really helped us in 2025. We saw a lean pig cost that was down probably 8% year-over-year, better feed initiatives and livability initiatives. Our overall feed cost was down over 5%. And so we're seeing all of those things manifest in the earnings. And so again, I think we're really comfortable with the guidance with what we see today. Operator: And our next question today comes from Ben Theurer with Barclays. Benjamin Theurer: Shane, Mark and team, 2 quick ones. So first of all, as we look into like the value chain as a whole, and we've kind of like talked a little bit about the Hog Production just now and before that about the Packaged Meat segment. So picking up on what's in the middle in the Fresh Pork segment. Clearly, it was, call it, potentially a somewhat challenging 2025 with all the trade restrictions, et cetera. But as we move into 2026 and as you kind of like pointed to the puts and takes, can you maybe elaborate a little bit more on the Fresh Pork business itself, what to think about, a, seasonality? And b, what are like the more Fresh Pork-specific risks and opportunities for 2026 in contrast to 2025? That would be my first question. Shane Smith: Yes. So, Ben, maybe I'll start and then hand over to Donovan. 2025, I'm really proud of how the Fresh Pork team executed. We saw $135 million degradation in the gross market spread, but yet our profits were only down about $17 million. And so we saw growth in retail and sales volumes. I think that was 4% in sales and 5% in U.S. retail channel volume, really leaning into the case-ready part of the business. But also looking at some of those alternative channels that we've discussed before with our pet food business and our pharmaceutical business. And so I would say the Fresh Pork team in the face of what was a really dynamic and ever-changing 2025 did an excellent job in executing that next best sales strategy. Donovan, do you want to add to that? Donovan Owens: Yes. I think Doug (sic) [ Ben ], and Shane, you said it well in your opening remarks. But yes, 2026 for Fresh was a challenging year. I think it led off with what Doug (sic) [ Ben ] might be referring to as the tariffs. So the tariffs started to have some impact. It had some impact on the year. But as we look at how we rebounded in our net realizable value efforts in 2025, they paid dividends. I mean, we focused on our core strategy of looking at our Fresh Pork, Fresh Pork value-added business, as Shane has mentioned earlier. Growing our Fresh Pork in that arena is going to be pivotal in 2026, as it was in 2025. So we're going to focus on our case-ready value-added pork. We're going to focus on our marinate offerings. We're also going to focus on our branded effort, branded fresh pork to tie into our Packaged Meats portfolio. So we want to connect the dots, Doug (sic) [ Ben ], on all of our business. I think that's been an opportunity for Smithfield for a while and leverage our strength of our Packaged Meats business and start putting our name on our Fresh Pork portfolio of Smithfield, not just a brand that we have to fight with other -- with our competitors in the industry. So look forward to it, Ben, sorry for that. I got your name mixed up. But nonetheless, 2026, I feel very confident that we will continue our strategy on fresh pork and look forward to improved results. Benjamin Theurer: Awesome. And then, real quick on the capacity expansion project, Sioux Falls. I think you said groundbreaking first half 2027. So probably within the CapEx of that $1.3 billion, probably nothing yet to be contemplated for 2026. But how should we think about the CapEx needs for that project splitting that into what would be '27 and '28? And how do you think about just the general timeline? If you could refresh me on that one, that would be much appreciated. Mark Hall: Yes. So, Ben, as you indicated, there is no capital included in our estimate of $350 million to $450 million for the current year. So there may be some incremental spending towards the end of the year, but the most significant portion of the spend will come in '27, '28 and a little bit of spillover into '29. So anticipate groundbreaking, as you said, in early 2027, hopefully, to have the first products running down the line at the end of 2028. And I would say that the capital spending will be paced pretty evenly throughout the construction period. Operator: Our next question today comes from Leah Jordan at Goldman Sachs. Leah Jordan: I wanted to follow up on Megan's question within Packaged Meats. Just seeing if you could provide more color on how we should think about the margin cadence in that segment as we go through the year. And any timing impacts we should keep in mind? I mean, we're going to be lapping some different input costs as we go through the year as well as potential shift in Easter and as well as the 53rd week. Steven France: Sure. Thank you for the question. So first, when you think about margins and also how that would potentially tie to promotions, what we're focused on is really -- it's on the quality merchandising side. So it's really going after the quality of it versus quantity because typically, if you're going after the quantity, you're going to run into some potential challenges from being unprofitable. But what we continue to see is improvement with our promoted volume sold as feature and display. And when we do that, that by far is the most impactful promotional vehicle. So we'll continue with our current promotional strategy, although the reality is we're not just counting on promotions to drive our volume, we're actually very fortunate because our consumers are incredibly loyal and our brands perform because people trust us to deliver that same great quality, flavor, value every time. And that consistency that we built over decades shows up in every product. And our customers and consumers know that they can count on us. So -- the other part of your question was, I guess, consistency. And when -- reality is when you look at the first half and second half of the year, it's -- even though we have some seasonality between different items, between seasonal hams, we also have growing items during the summer, but the reality is when you look at first half and second half, they're basically fairly equal from a profitability standpoint. Shane Smith: Leah, the only thing I would add there, and I think this was part of your question, we will see Easter a little earlier this year. So there will be some Q1 impact of last year we would have saw in Q2. And the 53rd week actually will fall at the end of December, which would be post-Christmas for us. Mark Hall: Right. So to Shane's point, on a segment profit margin perspective, it's a little lighter in the first and fourth quarters because of that seasonal ham influence. Leah Jordan: That's very helpful. And then just for a follow-up, I wanted to ask on the feed side, given lower feed costs were such a tailwind for you in Hog Production last year, and now, we've got maybe some potential headwinds emerging, so how are you planning for feed over the coming year? What have you locked in so far? And just any color around assumptions within the guidance range and your flexibility there? Should we see some movement? Shane Smith: Yes. On the feed side, and Leah, we don't necessarily talk specifically about our hedge positions, but we do use corn and soybean meal contracts to help lock in when we think it's advantageous. So -- but I would tell you, our overall feed strategy is more than just a grain. It's being efficient in what we do. It's about the livability, the animals coming out that we've been putting grain into. What I would tell you, as it relates to feed for 2026, we are seeing some increases, and those spikes coincide with what we see taking place in the Middle East. I think we've been very in front of that, I would say, as far as our hedging strategies and how we think about locking in those grain costs as we go forward. So I think, again, as I mentioned earlier, I think we're in a pretty good position, as we look at 2026 from where we stand on corn. And keep in mind, as we go through the year, the later in the year we get, the feed cost, that fed cost of corn really would show up in the back part of the year and into 2027. So I think from a 2026 standpoint, we're pretty well positioned. And we think, again, that guidance that we issued encompasses that variability that we think we'll see in corn. Operator: And our next question today comes from Heather Jones at Vertical Group (sic) [ Heather Jones Research LLC ]. Heather Jones: I wanted just to ask a quick clarifying question on the extra week. So I think you talked about expecting a low single-digit volume increase in -- on the Packaged Meat side in retail and foodservice. I was wondering, is that adjusted for the extra week? Or is it largely due to the extra week, so we should expect most of that increase in Q4? Mark Hall: That includes the extra week. So the extra week is falling after the Christmas holiday this year. So it's -- seasonally, it's a softer week in the year as all the loading has gone on leading up to the holiday season. So from a volume and profitability standpoint, it punches below the average week's weight. Heather Jones: Okay. So you're expecting growth in the other quarters as well, not just the Q4? Mark Hall: Correct. Heather Jones: Okay. And then, I just wanted to ask about the Hog Production outlook, and just, how you all are thinking about the cadence of that 2.5% growth? Because my understanding is that there was some expectation that there would be like an easy comparison because of the PED and PRRS we had in '25. But PRRS has hit pretty hard again. I think it's in the upper Midwest. And so I was wondering, do you think the 2.5% takes that fully into effect? And how you're thinking about industry volumes year-on-year as the year progresses? Shane Smith: Yes. If I understood your question correctly, we are hearing that same thing that you just mentioned that PRRS is really beginning to show up in the Midwest. But again, I think our guidance, as we've issued this morning, takes that into account, both from what we expect to see on a seasonality basis between Q1 and Q4 and in the middle part of the year as in Q2 and Q3. So we think from a disease standpoint, from a corn standpoint, transportation that we've got those things embedded. And of course, as we move through the year, things will become much clearer, and we'll continue to update that guidance as we move through the year. But as it sits today, we feel really comfortable with that range that we printed this morning. Operator: And our next question today comes from Chris Downing of Bank of America. Christopher Downing: This is Chris on for Pete. You noted that acquiring Nathan's will eliminate licensing fees and allow you to capture the full retail margin with immediate earnings growth expected. Can you quantify for us how much of the anticipated accretion comes from recapturing licensing economics versus incremental operating synergies? And how quickly those benefits should scale post close? Shane Smith: Yes, Chris, I'll begin, and maybe, I'll throw it over to Steve or Mark. As we're -- really kind of limited on what we can say and what we can share. Once we close this transaction, once we successfully close it, we'll be able to share a lot more detail on both our plans and some of the inherent numbers. But as it sits today, we're really limited in what we can share until the deal actually closes. Steve, do you want to add some things on Nathan's? Steven France: Yes, I can just add a couple of things. And first and foremost, we're very excited on the Packaged Meat side of the business about Nathan's and what that represents for the future of Smithfield. So we know the Nathan's brand incredibly well. Obviously, we've been making products for years and selling it into the retail channel. So there's virtually no integration risk, and that's a really big deal from an M&A standpoint. Owning the brand, that would let us scale, scale with utilizing our marketing, innovation and also distribution across retail. And then ultimately, we'd have access to that foodservice channel, which again would be a big plus for the total Smithfield business. I would like to share more about what we have planned. But at this point, since the deal is not finalized, I'm going to have to wait until the transaction closes. But it's a great question. We're very excited about the opportunity to purchase Nathan's. Shane Smith: Yes. And, Chris, the only other thing I would add to that is we do believe that the transaction will be immediately accretive to our earnings. And I think you can look at Nathan's disclosures and really get to the crux of your question about what that licensing fee has been. Operator: And our next question today comes from Max Gumport with BNP. Max Andrew Gumport: I was hoping to turn back to Sioux Falls. Obviously, it's a very big investment for the company. I realize it's early, but any color or quantification you can provide on the benefits that you will receive? It's replacing a very old plant. I think it's over 100 years old, so maybe particularly on the cost side, what this means for efficiencies, automations and cost savings? Shane Smith: Yes, Max. I'm really excited about this investment in Sioux Falls. And to your point, it's a large investment, but it's necessary. Sioux Falls is a key part of not only our Fresh Pork business, but also our Packaged Meats strategy in general. And so that facility is over 100 years old. And as you can imagine, there's a lot of upkeep on that facility. But not only that, the footprint of that facility makes it very difficult to implement some of the automation and technology that we as a company are really rolling out across our footprint. When this facility is done, it will be the largest fresh combined, Fresh Pork and Packaged Meats facility in our system. We are anticipating a best-in-class facility that will just deliver significant efficiency gains to both Fresh Pork and Packaged Meats. So I'm really excited about the investment. We're anticipating it's going to have a really strong intern investment, and we expect to see those benefits in year 1, as we move to that optimal production level. But the interesting thing about Sioux Falls for us is it's a key part of the country. There's a tremendous culture of Hog Production in that part of the country. And from a vertical integration standpoint, that plant is less than 1% vertically integrated. So this investment is not only good for us, it's good for South Dakota agriculture, the surrounding regions and American agriculture in general. And like I said in my opening comments, this investment really represents one of the largest single investments in American agriculture that I'm aware of. And so we, as a company, are extremely excited about the opportunity to do this. I think it's going to be transformative for us as a company. And I think it's going to lead the way in the industry, as it relates to cost structures, to competitiveness. And so I'm really looking forward to getting this project done. Max Andrew Gumport: Great. And then, on the first quarter, I realize we're essentially through the first quarter at this point already. So I was hoping maybe for a bit more color on any initial thoughts on the sales and profit realized, maybe you don't typically guide by quarter, but just given that there's essentially only a week left or so, maybe a bit of color on how the first quarter is looking. Mark Hall: Yes. It's really about continuing execution of our strategies, continue to improve that mix within the Packaged Meat side of the business, appealing to the consumer across that price spectrum, whether it's in our branded portfolio or in private label. And again, continuing optimization of our net realizable value within Fresh Pork. So we're seeing continued execution of our strategies, and we look forward to a solid first quarter. We'll be back in front of you in, what, about 5 weeks, I think, to report on the first quarter, but things are shaping up. Operator: We have time for one more question today. And our final question comes from Saumya Jain with UBS. Saumya Jain: Congrats on the quarter. A quick one. With more CapEx spend, as you noted in '27 and onwards, would you see more upgrades or bolt-ons on current facilities or acquisitions of new ones? And what would drive one versus the other? Mark Hall: Yes. So in terms of CapEx, again, the uptick in '27 and '28 is related to the Sioux Falls build-out. Our guide for this year is really in that $350 million to $450 million range. And what you've seen is over the recent past, we've really worked significantly to optimize our network and improve our cost structure. So most recently, we announced the closure of 2 lease facilities in Elizabeth, New Jersey and in Springfield, Massachusetts, and we're folding those into existing operations. So that along with the transfer of the $3.8 million head that Shane mentioned in Hog Production to our joint venture partners, it really brings reduced requirements for maintenance CapEx across the network. So we're going to continue to invest about half of that CapEx figure on growth capital and about the other half on infrastructure, so maintenance types of projects. But we have plenty of opportunities to invest in growth capital, drive capacity expansions and cost savings projects through automation. So again, the $350 million to $450 million is all encompassing on the base business with incremental spend related to Sioux Falls in '27, '28 and '29. Saumya Jain: Great. And then real quick, I noticed that the market share in the hot dogs Packaged Meat subcategory changed from third to fourth. So I guess just wanted to understand what was driving that last quarter. And how do you view your acquisitions of Nathan's then changing the competitive dynamic in the space? Steven France: No, it's a good question. So, as far as the total hot dog category, so this is for the total industry, obviously, we're seeing some historic beef markets, which is resulting in consumers seeking value or gravitating down to private label or value tiers. Now, keep in mind, when I say that, that even when they gravitate down into private label, we have the ability to capture that consumer with some of the private label products that we do produce or some of the regional brands that fit that value tier. Now, if you look at the total category, so not just where we were, but for the total hot dog category for the U.S., in Q4, the sales were down 5.2%. And for total 2025, sales were down 4.8%. Now, with all that said, despite some of the category declines and some of the consumer shifting, we're still able to grow our Nathan's volume share, unit share and dollar share in Q4. So we also increased our points of distribution by over 19% in 2025, and that's on the Nathan's brand. So that really highlights the strength of the brand and also consumer loyalty. So despite some of the category declines that we saw within the hot dog space, we're very comfortable with where we are from a Nathan's performance and also what we expect to see in 2026. Operator: That concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to President and CEO, Shane Smith, for closing remarks. Shane Smith: Thank you, and thanks to everyone who joined our call today. I want to thank all of our Smithfield Foods employees for their exceptional execution in 2025. It truly was an outstanding year, and we're proud that our strategies drove record results, but we're not stopping here. Instead, we're constantly challenging ourselves to grow our business and continuously improve our operations. I'm looking forward to speaking to you again when we report our first quarter results. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. The conference has now concluded, and we thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.
Operator: Good morning, and welcome to Cadeler's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Presentation. Presenting today are Mikkel Gleerup, Chief Executive Officer; and Peter Brogaard, Chief Financial Officer. Please be reminded that presenters' remarks today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated. The risks and uncertainties that could cause Cadeler's results to differ materially from today's forward-looking statements include those detailed in Cadeler's annual report on Form 20-F on file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements made this morning are based on assumptions as of today, and Cadeler undertakes no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events. This morning's presentation includes both IFRS and certain non-IFRS financial measures. A reconciliation of non-IFRS financial measures to the nearest IFRS equivalent is provided in Cadeler's annual report. The annual report and today's earnings presentation are available on Cadeler's website at cadeler.com/investor. We ask that you please hold all questions until the completion of the formal remarks, at which time in you will be given instructions to the question and answer session. As a reminder, this call is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. Mikkel Gleerup, you may begin. Mikkel Gleerup: Thank you very much, and thank you to everyone dialing in to listen to our presentation this morning/afternoon. Yes, I will ask everybody to read through the disclaimer in the presentation. So annual report 2025 and first, taking you through the highlights of 2025. Financial performance in Cadeler in 2025 were above our expectations. We ended at the top end of the range that we guided last year, ending the year with a robust contract backlog of EUR 2.8 billion, which really gives us that earnings visibility into the future that we have been discussing with our investors over the course of the last couple of years. We had 4 newbuilds scheduled for delivery in 2025, and they were all delivered on time and on budget. We added Wind Keeper to the fleet to support Nexra and our partners and really this new O&M service platform. We continued exceptional execution with significant progress made towards the delivering on the Hornsea 3 project. Wind Keeper upgrade successfully completed and multiple campaigns supported with vessel swaps. We have had strong utilization with vessels operating across the world in markets as Europe, U.S. and in APAC. Commercial highlights for the financial year '25. Scylla continued to work in the U.S. on Revolution Wind for Ørsted and have since shifted over to Sunrise Wind. The Wind Orca has been mobilizing for the Hornsea 3 project for Ørsted, where she will be executing the secondary steel scope. On Wind Osprey, we have been mobilizing for the EA3 turbine installation, which is a project we do for ScottishPower Renewables. On Wind Mover, we will shortly be commencing the turbine installation on the Baltic Power project, where she is taking over from another vessel that we previously had working on that project. The Wind Maker stays in Asia. And as we have announced over the course of the last couple of weeks, we'll be executing O&M campaigns for clients in Taiwan this year. Wind Pace came back from the U.S. after having supported the Vineyard Wind project and is also now mobilizing for the EA3 turbine installation project for ScottishPower Renewables. Wind Peak will continue to install turbines on the Sofia project for Siemens Gamesa. The Wind Keeper has been delivered to the client on an up to 5.5-year contract and is currently installing on the He Dreiht project for Vestas. Wind Ally is completing the last phase of the mobilization in Europe in Rotterdam and is preparing to go to the U.K. to start putting in monopiles for Ørsted on the Hornsea 3 project. And the Wind Zaratan project, for her 2026 is a transition year. We have decided to do some upgrades to Wind Zaratan, do some O&M work in Asia and then take the vessel back to Europe to start working both on O&M, but also on support jobs for foundation projects. At a glance, we now stand at 362 office-based employees, more than 800 seafarers. We have now installed more than 1,700 wind turbines, more than 900 foundations, a number that will go up significantly during this year due to the Hornsea 3 project and also have been working on more than 275 locations for operations and maintenance. So all in all, very busy and continuing to grow the business in the industry that is also growing with us. We have been discussing a lot with our investors and other stakeholders in the company, the transition to full scope T&I campaigns for the foundation work. And we have prepared a few slides to go through where we are now on the Hornsea 3 project and where we are as a company on the transition to taking on these full scope T&I campaigns. The company came from a charter-based day rate model where we could add services as requested by the client to now having a more integrated project delivery and construction platform, as we say, it's a solution-based offering to the clients. We have -- we used to have a very compact organization and moderate complexity in the organization, but also in the offerings we were offering to the clients. And now we are going into a much more complexity -- complex environment and really also where the organization has to deliver many different scopes from transport on heavy lift vessels to handling equipment in port, offloading, unloading very, very large pieces of equipment, storing them safely, Q&A on these products while we have them in our custody for the clients. We came from a utilization-driven model with a higher relative percentage margin to an execution driven with a higher absolute return and upside model on the T&I scopes. The vessels in the previous model was the primary revenue stream and where we today see vessels as strategic enablers to capture more scope as we take on these bigger projects for our clients. On Hornsea 3, trying to give you an overview of the time line for the first full T&I scope that we have embarked on. The project was signed in early '23, a very busy year for us signing both that project, but also working on the merger with Eneti, preparing for taking delivery of the vessel, a lot of supplier scopes starting to transport monopiles and secondary steel, starting to install monopiles and secondary steel and then also embarking on installing 50% of the turbines on the project and then commissioning and closing the project somewhere in '27. It is a very, very complicated project and something that we go into with a great deal of humility. But I think that I'm pleased to say that we are exactly where we want to be. And the Wind Ally delivered early, we were able to mobilize her in China directly from the newbuild yard and have taken her successfully back to Europe, finalizing mobilization now in Rotterdam before, as I said, starting to put in monopiles in April this year. Hornsea 3 really requires a lot of coordination. And we are also now experiencing being in the middle of the project, the complexity of the project and also the benefit of having built up the team and having worked close with our clients in terms of what was required to execute this because a project like this never goes to plan, I think it's fair to say. And we have also been met with requirements from our clients to change different things as we have worked since '23 and until today. But I'm pleased to say that we have taken on these challenges with our can-do attitude in the company, and we are exactly where we want to be in terms of being ready to install the project from April of this year. And a total capacity of 2.8 gigawatt when it's installed, 197 monopiles, 60 office-based staff working on it, 120 port and construction staff working out there for us in somewhere where there's a yellow dot on this map. We have 10 vessels in total, 3 from Cadeler working on the project. We are transporting more than 400,000 tonnes of material on the project. We have 10 ports involved and 12-plus partners involved in this. So in all fairness, a very complicated project, but also one where we are learning a lot. We've taken some pictures from the project to also demonstrate the scale of this project because I think it's hard to understand the size of these monopiles. All of them are the same size as the Los Angeles class submarine, and we are installing 197 of those in the U.K. from April this year and until 2027 and into 2027. We have also been working with our client to do a mockup trial of the secondary steel. These foundations are TPless, meaning that they don't have a transition piece on top. And that means that all the secondary steel is being installed by a tool that is being carried on board the Wind Orca that carries storage towers for secondary steel and then she's lifting the secondary steel on board on to the foundation in one lift with this tool. And together with our client, we build a mockup for this, a full-scale mockup in the port where we were able to test this tool and the functionality of this tool before going offshore. And it's been a pleasure to work with our client on these mockups and really refining the whole rehearsal of concept before we go into the actual execution offshore. And we have added some pictures on that as well. As we have been discussing, the changes in the project time line has led to increased, but delayed revenue for the foundation T&I. So Cadeler will earn more money on the Hornsea 3 project compared to what was originally envisaged when we signed the project. Not due to things that have happened on the Cadeler side, so to speak, but because our clients have had to change what they originally anticipated in terms of, for example, monopile delivery, whereas the monopiles coming from. Originally, we expected two fabrication yards, today we are working with four fabrication yards. That all means that we are receiving the monopiles in a different pace, but it also means that the project is stretching over a longer time and that we will be involved with some of the suppliers that we have on the project for a longer time. So what it means is that it's an increased revenue and an increased margin to Cadeler, but the project will stretch over a longer period of time. In terms of our commercial pipeline across the globe, I think I have to say that we are still continuing to grow, and we are still involved in a lot of projects and a lot of bidding on projects globally. Obviously, the European market is really the front runner in terms of new projects that we are working on. And as you can see from this slide, we are working on more than 50-plus open commercial opportunities in the market, and we are discussing projects with our clients, both for '27, '28, '29, 2030, but also well into the next decade, which gives us a very great deal of confidence in the market as such, but also a positive outlook for where we are going as an industry. And I'll come back to that a little bit later in the presentation. Asia continues to perform as well. We see new markets opening in Asia as we progress the ongoing market, which is Taiwan, Korea and Japan. We see also development now in the Philippines, but also development in Australia. And all in all, we are active where our clients want us to be active, and we are continuing to bid for projects in the region -- in a region that I would say is developing as expected. The U.S. market, it is what it is, and we have discussed it many times before. We don't see any short-term opportunities in the U.S. market, but we are still executing in the U.S. market. We sent the Wind Pace back to Europe from completion on Vineyard Wind, and we are now installing with the Scylla on the Sunrise Wind project. All in all, we expect to be busy in the U.S. for the years to come. And also, we are happy to engage with our clients for new projects in the U.S. region when that time is coming. We still sit on a significant backlog. Our backlog year-on-year has grown. We are standing at EUR 2.8 billion in backlog, which, as I said, really provides the earnings visibility that we would expect and also what we have communicated to our clients. We have things also that we are working on here that we have discussed in the market where we are preferred supplier on a foundation project that is not counted in our backlog, and it's also not sitting in our vessel reservation agreements because it has not reached that stage yet. But we still have work that will hit the backlog, and we are sure that in the coming quarters that we will have positive announcements around backlog development. As I said, the backlog stands at EUR 2.8 billion at the moment and 80% of the total backlog has reached FID. And we have discussed that before. And I think that that's really a sign of the quality of the backlog where we know that 80% has already been approved for the final investment decision at the client side, meaning that, that project has also reached a contractual milestone that is important for us. And as I said, we do have a preferred supplier agreement, a sizable preferred supplier agreement. And one of the things that we discussed around our Q3 announcement was that we had some projects in the site that we would like to secure. And one of them is what we have now a preferred supplier agreement on. It's for a significant foundation project in Europe and one of the projects that was important for us for our 2028 campaign. And I'm pleased to say that we have been moving ahead as we expected on that one with our client and that we are also now in the negotiation with the client to make this preferred supply agreement into a real contract. And on '27, '28 that we discussed at length in the Q3 presentation, I'm happy to say that in '27, we consider ourselves fully booked now. We are currently working with the yard to potentially deliver the Wind Apex slightly earlier because we have a client that is ready to take the vessel straight from the yard and into a project, meaning that we are -- with a few white spaces we have left in '27, we do consider that time that we want to keep available for clients should they run into some sort of supply chain issue and really have built a solid '27 for ourselves. In '28, we are also much more positive now than we were in Q3 due to the fact that we have secured the preferred supplier agreement on this large-scale foundation project and overall are seeing positive momentum for the '28 campaign overall. In terms of the progress on the newbuilds, Wind Ace, we are at 94% completion. The naming ceremony for the Wind Ace, the official naming ceremony will be on the 15th of April, and we are looking to deliver the vessel on time. On the Wind Apex, as I said, we are 34% completion, and we are currently discussing with the yard to do up to 1 month early delivery due to the fact that we have a client who would like to take that vessel straight from the yard and into a project for a sizable project on turbine installation. In terms of the progress from the yard, a few pictures as we always have. I think that I can say that on the Cosco shipyard side, things are progressing as planned. Not many surprises there and really pleasing to see that the collaboration we have with Cosco Shipyard continues to develop, and we are very, very pleased to work with Cosco Shipyard, the quality partner for us and for the development of the company. The fully delivered Cadeler fleet as it stands today with an average fleet age of 5 years, which I believe is a very good number to have, and really also shows that we have been building a young fleet that is ready to take on the positive developments of the future. Now, I will hand over to Peter for the financial highlights of 2025. Peter Hansen: Yes. Mikkel Gleerup: Peter Brogaard... Peter Hansen: Thank you very much. Yes, the financial highlights for '25. It was really a strong year seen from a financial and operational point of view. As Mikkel said, we ended in the high end of the range that we have guided revenue of EUR 620 million as compared to EUR 249 million. Equity ratio is now at 44%. It's a decrease as compared to last year. But it's also where we see it bottom out, the equity ratio and starts to increase again. Utilization also very high, 88.9% adjusted utilization as compared to 75% last year. And that is -- the adjustment is where we say, okay, we take out what is planned dry docking and transportation from the yard. We think that is a meaningful number to look at when we get all these new vessels delivered. Market cap of EUR 1.8 billion. EBITDA, EUR 425 million as compared to EUR 126 million last year. Net profit, important number for the shareholders, of course, EUR 280 million as compared to EUR 65 million last year. And as elaborated on a backlog of EUR 2.8 billion. Three months daily average turnover EUR 7.1 million on the stock exchanges. If we first look at the last 3 months of the year, Q4 '25, very, very strong quarter, EUR 167 million in revenue, an increase of EUR 82 million compared to Q4 '25, '24 and with the adjusted utilization of 87% cost of sales is, of course, going up with the delivered vessels. And SG&A also is up because of the ramp-up that we have talked about at previous releases where we build up the organization to be able to manage these foundation projects with increased complexity. Finance net isolated for Q4 is EUR 20 million, and that is a shift you see here in Q4 finances because we have capitalized borrowing cost to a greater extent while we had more vessels under construction. Now that the vessel has been delivered then a bigger part of the finance interest is going to the P&L, and that is something you will see in '26 as well. Of course, it's the same cash outflow, but it's just whether it's in P&L or it is in CapEx. EBITDA, I think very, very strong, EUR 104 million in a quarter where Ally and also Mover were not in operation as such, but in transport to first project. That was Q4 isolated. For the full year, some of the same remarks that we had in Q4, but also what we have seen during the year, it's fair to say everything has played out exact to plan. Revenue in the higher end of the guidance. Cost of sales, everything is as according to plan. SG&A the same. So we are very, very pleased with the financial result for '25, but also the underlying operation where we have control of the important things. EBITDA, EUR 425 million. Vessel OpEx per day is EUR 36.3 million, a small increase towards last year and I think also under control. Headcount onshore average 307. The consolidated balance sheet, now we have an equity of EUR 1.5 billion. an increase of nearly EUR 300 million as compared to last year. And we see the equity ratio of 44%. I think that is something we have all along said that approximately there where we will bottom out. And of course, it's a natural consequence of taking delivery of the vessels where your assets go up and your liabilities also go up correspondingly. We still have a CapEx program now on the Wind Ace and the Wind Apex, these installment with the yard that we show here. We have signed commitment for A Class Wind Ace and we are also having ongoing RCF facility of 148 million. So together with what we expect to raise of financing on the Wind Apex, we are EUR 637 million of total financing. We are in advanced discussion with Apex and are confident that we'll be able to sign that during '26. As you may recall, it's delivered in late Q2 '27. So we have really had the goal of signing a facility -- sign commitment 1 year ahead. So we are not paying unnecessary fees in commitment fees and so forth. Interest from banks are strong. So is it from the ECA. So it will be on similar term as you have seen on previous transactions. Cash, EUR 152 million. And you can see with the A Class payments we have outstanding, that's still a significant cash surplus. This is the financing overview. You can see here that we have the RCF A and B, we have not drawn up fully yet. And since Q3, September, we have signed a Holdco financing, a second one with HSBC and Clifford Capital unsecured loan, EUR 60 million with an accordion of EUR 0 million, and it was made on very similar terms as the original Holdco with HSBC and Standard Chartered. With Apex, I have talked to that, but that is progressing according to plan. We are very confident on that financing. Then there is the outlook for '26. I think what we guide is in revenue, EUR 854 million to EUR 944 million, and EBITDA, EUR 420 million to EUR 510 million. We have put up the comparison here, of course, '25 includes revenue that you are supposed to get in '28, but was postponed and we got termination fees for that. So of course, that should be adjusted for in the comparison, but a very strong outlook for '26. What is important to understand about the outlook in '26 is exactly what Mikkel has talked about earlier in the presentation. First of all, it's a transition year for Wind Zaratan, so isolated on '26, you could argue it is financially a transition year, but it will improve the returns in '27 and onwards. So it's actually a good year for Zaratan as it is an investment year. Wind Ally and Wind Ace will be delivered in Q3 '26, but will not go on any contract and have any contractual revenue in '26 simply because we will sell direct to first projects EA2 North. We have seen in the past that on some of the wind turbine installation vessels that we can do some work before first project, but it's simply not possible on a foundation project. And it's -- again, it's a good sign because the customer wants us to be at the site as early as possible. So we are simply doing everything that we can to arrive as early as possible we can in '27. And then this Hornsea 3, when -- Hornsea you can't look at Hornsea 3 isolated in one year. First of all, it's a project where you have revenue across several years we already had in '24, '25. But as illustrated by the slide, maybe the precent, we now see that the revenue on the project goes up due to changes on the project, not due to Cadeler-speific things, but due to something designed by the developer. But that means for Cadeler, two things. The total project goes up, earnings goes up, but the timing is different. So some is pushed into '27. So when you look at '26 and the outlook, you should also remember that. [indiscernible] evaluating that year. And back to you, Mikkel. Mikkel Gleerup: Thank you, Peter. As this is something that still remains very important between '24 and '25. We are -- we have been working on biofuel -- fuel blending in our fuels, and that has been successfully introduced across the fleet in 2025, together with our clients and our sustainability team. We have developed a new circularity strategy. We have more than 30% women in leadership, and that was achieved in 2025. We have set a new target of 40% women in leadership by 2030, and also on governance, the CSR leadership group established to execute key ESG priorities. In terms of our path to zero, we have set a target of a net zero target in 2035 and a 2030 target of 50% intensity reduction. Obviously, we are going up in intensity in the beginning, and that's largely due to the fact that we are delivering lots of vessels that are still burning fuel. But we have a path towards achieving our targets here, and we have maintained our targets. And it is as -- what is described on this slide, it's adoption of green fuels, it's enabling electrification, optimizing energy consumption, which we believe is one of the big things because really education and training of teams on board and clients is one of the real big savers here. And that is how we will achieve the first part of this journey. Second part of the journey is continuing to enable electrification and again, optimizing the energy consumption. And also as we start to see it, getting the green fuels on board, which will form a larger part in the second part of this journey. At the moment, the reality is that the green fuels are not available to us. So although we have a portion of our fleet on the newbuilds that can burn these green fuel types, we are not able to buy them at the quantity that we need them, and it would more be an R&D project at the moment. So we believe that the second part of the journey will have a greater availability of this fuel type, and that is something that we at least will support that with the demand for these green fuel types when it is available to us. In terms of commercial outlook, which, of course, is important because I think in all honesty, we are coming from a 2025 where we were facing a very negative narrative in general in the industry due to a lot of factors. We are seeing milder winds blowing over the offshore wind space and also continued growth of the industry and the deployment of offshore wind globally. And as we say here, after '28, '29, we expect a very strong growth towards the end of the decade. Europe has been raising the bar and as declared by the North Sea Summit, the 9 member states of the North Sea Summit have declared a target of 15 gigawatts per year outbuild between 2030 and 2040, and we are very, very pleased with a target like that, because that is, in our opinion, how you build a supply chain that you actually set a target what should the supply chain be able to push out per year in this region. And this is not the entire European target. This is for the member states of the Green Sea -- the North Sea Summit, sorry. So in all Europe will be a higher number than this. Outside the fact that there's an annual outbuild target, there's also a financial plan to how to achieve this. And that is also what has been lacking in the more arbitrary targets that were more setting a target for 2040, 2050 in the past. So all in all, we really are pleased with seeing these targets, and we believe that, that's a very strong data point for the future and also for the demand situation for the future. Another very real data point is the U.K. auction round 7, where the U.K. government awarded record volumes. Really, it was 70% above what was expected and the budget went up to 200% of what was the original budget. So also a very strong data point. But another strong data point is that the U.K. auction round 8 has already been shifted forward, so we can expect that already to happen in July 2026. And these are projects that are happening towards the end of this decade and the beginning of the next decade. So already today, we are in dialogue with clients for work that is taking place in '29, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033 and so on. So that is a very, very positive data point for us. And then we also do see a lot of private capital coming back into offshore wind, Apollo committing USD 6.5 billion to acquire 50% of Hornsea 3 and KKR forming a joint venture with RWE for offshore wind projects, and there are many, many other examples of this. Altogether, strong growth in the space and in the industry. And as we have said, a much better feeling about the '28 situation for Cadeler, although we still recognize that for the industry, '28 for some can be a difficult year, then we say today that we have a much better feeling about 2028. We still believe that there will be an undersupply of capable vessels in the market, and that will start in '29, 2030. We believe that, in particular, on the foundation side to begin with, of course, because they go in first and then secondly, on the VTG side. It happens for a multitude of different reasons. It's efficiencies. It's the efficiency on the larger turbines. It's the more complicated projects. It's the raw efficiencies in terms of how many turbines and foundations these vessels can transit with, but it's also the fact that there are a lot of vessels that are reaching the end of the useful life in the beginning of the next decade. So vessels that are counted today because they, in theory, can install a turbine, they will not be counted after the beginning of the 2030 because simply they are falling out because they are coming to end of useful life. As the fleet stand today, Cadeler still sits on the largest fleet in the world, and we believe we have the most versatile fleet of really the Tier 1 assets that can support our clients with the targets they have for continued outbuild of offshore wind. We have also decided to distribute this slightly different and first look at which vessels do we believe are able to efficiently install 15-megawatt turbines, and the picture looks somewhat different here. And with the targets that are being set in the North Sea Summit by European government, by Asian governments at the moment, then we believe that there is still a significant undersupply as we come into the next decade of the capable vessels that will always be chosen first by the clients. And if we look on the foundation side, the picture is even more problematic if we want to deliver the targets that are currently being set and also backed up by auctions in many different countries around the world. A few words on Nexra, our business platform for the aftermarket services in offshore wind. We believe that the O&M market will continue to demand -- the demand increase will continue to grow, and we believe that the market is shifting towards long-term agreements. We have seen that with our agreement on Wind Keeper with Vestas, and I think there are other examples in the market as well. So we believe that the whole O&M story and strategy for Cadeler is an important strategy because it will create a longer and more transparent revenue stream on part of the fleet and also it will be able to generate utilization on the installation fleet if there are small gaps between installation projects. And that is important because we have always talked about the importance of keeping a high utilization. And hence, that is something that we really believe is a strong advocate for the whole development of the Nexra business platform. We also believe that Nexra will grow as a business and also at some point in time, potentially even be a bigger business than the installation business, but that is in the years out in the future. But of course, every time we install a turbine, the whole ecosystem for turbines installed grows, meaning that there are more work to do for the Nexra platform to service our clients with -- as it stands today, mainly -- the main component exchanges that we do from a jack-up. In terms of the development of Nexra and an update on that, I think that we saw it and have always seen it as a very strong market, a market that can stand on its own 2 feet, a market that is profitable and it's also a diversification of income streams for Cadeler. We signed the first contract for an O&M campaign in Taiwan and showing that when a vessel is sitting in a region that is complicated to transit back to, for example, Europe from, then you can do these O&M campaigns in the spot market and still upkeep a very healthy financial year for the asset. And I think that, that is something that is important because after this, we have also announced another project yesterday morning in the same region for the same vessel. There's a dedicated team for Nexra today, we are continuing to build the team. I think that it's also fair to say that we get positive feedback from our clients and the fact that we are now having a dedicated team to discuss aftermarket services with them because they have dedicated teams to handle that part of the value chain for them. We believe that as we grow, we will also be better at understanding the needs and the execution requirements and really a very, very strong mandate from all over this company here and from top to bottom to grow Nexra into the strength vehicle we believe it can be. We did strategic fleet expansion in Nexra last year with the acquisition of Wind Keeper, we believe that we did a very, very strong deal and executed very, very fast on this, but also was able to pin a contract -- a commercial contract to that vessel very, very soon after the acquisition of the asset. We took the vessel back to Europe. We did the modification to the vessel that we believe was necessary, and we are now working with the client on a project with the vessel and very pleased to see that. And O&M services in 2025 forms around 1/5 of our total revenues, and that also shows the significance of what we already are doing in O&M. Continuing the growth journey, as we have said, we are in an industry that growth and as we're also saying to you today, we are more positive and have a very positive and optimistic view about the years out in the future. And that is also why that we are looking at continuing the story of Cadeler. We evaluate opportunities to expand into attractive and synergetic systems -- segments, sorry, like, for example, the strategic O&M offering. We are open to both organic and nonorganic growth. We believe that scaling the organization and have a bigger, more versatile, more flexible offering to our client is something that the client is willing to pay a premium for and something that will also secure that Cadeler will always take more than our proportional share of projects in the industry simply due to the derisking of our clients' projects that we can provide. In terms of regional expansion, we are where our clients want us to be, and we are working with the projects that we believe in and the projects that we believe will go from development to FID and to finally execution. That is how we look at it. That's how we have always looked at it, and that's how we'll continue to look at it. We are monitoring and applying new technologies, and we believe that efficiency still will be driving a lot of the value in the industry and also a lot of the sustainability in the industry. So we are very open to discussing efficiency gains with our clients. And we are also willing to do our part in what was the North Sea Summit, which was really trying to make a more competitive offshore wind industry by being more efficient with what we do. And we believe that, that is definitely something we can do if we work together in the whole value chain. And then strategic partnerships have been one of the foundation and one of the pillars that Cadeler is standing on really making sure that we are developing structure -- strategy to strengthen our key strategic partnerships with our clients, including the long-term agreement that we believe is out there and also doing the scopes with the clients that, that they are asking for. So really trying to understand, be early with our clients, trying to understand what it is that they require from us and then be able to deliver that quality-wise and safety-wise when they need it. That is very important. In terms of key investment highlights, largest and most capable and versatile fleet. We believe that, that means redundancy for our clients. And as I already said, that is something that our clients are willing to pay a premium for and also what we believe will secure a more than proportional share of market to Cadeler. We believe that strong relationships and partnerships and our industry-leading position is also something that will be continuing to support the whole growth of the company. We have global reach and experience. We have worked in all key markets, and we are happy to continue to work in all key markets if our clients want us to do so. We believe there's a structural undersupply and an increasing market demand, and we are already starting to see signs of very, very, very strong demand as we move into the next decade. We have a strong track record and backlog, and we are very, very much looking forward to continue to work with our clients in the future. With that said, I think that we are moving into Q&A. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Martin Karlsen from DNB Carnegie. Martin Karlsen: I understand that -- can you hear me okay, sorry, it was some... Mikkel Gleerup: We can hear you, yes. Martin Karlsen: I think I heard during the prepared remarks that you said the Wind Apex would be delivered early and do turbine work. Could you talk a little bit about the background for using the vessels for turbines and not foundations and the decision process behind that? Mikkel Gleerup: Yes, that is a good question. The reason we are discussing it directly that we are looking at delivering the Wind Apex early is because we have been asked whether we were looking at potentially delivering her late. And just to make clear that that is not a thought at all, it's the opposite. We have evaluated opportunities in the industry and the best opportunity, we believe, for Apex right after the yard is to embark on a turbine installation project. The reason for that is that working with the client on a turbine installation project potentially opens up opportunity for other things. And hence, we have decided that here, the best use of the capacity we do have available, as you also heard in my presentation, I said that we consider ourselves fully booked in '27 now. So basically, what we have available for clients now is becoming limited. And this is the opportunity we have for the client, and hence, we have decided to go with the client because we believe that it's the best overall decision for Cadeler to start with a turbine installation project. It doesn't mean that Apex will stay on turbine installation projects, but the first project will be a turbine installation project. So what it means is that she will earlier generate revenue compared to if we did a foundation project. And with the long -- duration of the contract we're looking into, that will also run into a significant part of 2028, but also a potential for something coming on the back of that with the same client. Martin Karlsen: Could you remind us about how much time and cost there would be to get it back to foundation mode? Mikkel Gleerup: So there is a mission spread, but that is typically part of the project. When you sell a foundation project, the client is contributing to the mission spread there. And typically, it would take somewhere around 2 to 4 months to put her into foundation mode with mobilizing all the equipment on the vessel. Martin Karlsen: And for 2028, you definitely came across as more optimistic, but it seems to be more Cadeler specific than for the industry as a whole. Can you talk a little bit to why Cadeler have been more successful than the industry for '28 and what has changed since last quarter? Mikkel Gleerup: Yes. I think that what we do say, when we talked about '28 after the Q3 announcement, we also said that it looked like a year that could be challenging for the industry. And what we are saying now is that we -- that is still the case. We believe that there are still some companies that will have challenges in 2028, but that we today feel much better about '28 than we did around the Q3 because there were still some things that we believed in at that point in time, but that had to happen. And now we are saying that we are seeing that, that is happening. And hence, we are much more confident on 2028. And one of them is, of course, the preferred supplier agreement on a large-scale foundation project. That is important for '28, but that's not the only thing. It is also how other things we are working on have progressed. So all in all, we are much more positive about '28. But it doesn't mean that everybody else will have the same feeling. But for Cadeler, that is the case. But I also think there is a progression from the Q3 call to now where we are saying today that 2027, we can say we're fully booked now. Martin Karlsen: And last question, you're about to get into a real cash-generating mode with all the newbuilds and delivered. Could you talk to how you look to allocate capital ahead between shareholder returns, delevering, and you also spent some time in the presentation today talking about growth opportunities. Mikkel Gleerup: Yes. I think that, as we have said before, capital allocation ultimately is a Board decision. But I think it's realistic to believe that we will be spending our capital in 3 buckets. One is to delever the company. One is to continue to maintain the position we have in the industry. And then the last bucket is, of course, returning capital to shareholders in some shape or form. And I think that if we look at where we are moving in terms of generating capital, all 3 buckets are possible at the same time. And I think that, that's where I will land it at this point in time. Operator: Our next question is from Jamie Franklin from Jefferies. Jamie Franklin: So firstly, I just wanted to clarify on Hornsea 3 and appreciate the useful slides in the presentation. If I look at Slide 12 specifically, as you understand it correctly, essentially, we're now going to have a much more progressive ramp-up in revenue through the year from that project. So it's going to be very back half weighted. And it looks like the expectation is first turbine installed around 3Q. So if I assume that the margin and EBITDA contribution should really start to sort of kick in from the second half. Is that a fair assumption? Mikkel Gleerup: Yes. I think overall, what you're saying is a fair assumption. And as we are saying that -- and of course, this is what is complicated to sometimes explain when you have projects and calendar years because overall, Hornsea 3 for us is a more value-creating project today than it was when we signed it. But the way the revenues and profits are stretched over time is different. And I think that, that is what we are trying to explain today, and it's due to decisions that have been made by others than Cadeler, but where -- it's in our interest, but also where we are contractually obligated to deliver on this new method. And I think one of the key things on the project without diving too much into the detail is that the flow of the foundations when they come into the project is slower. So we are not building up the buffer we had in the beginning. So the monopile delivery is over a longer period of time, and that is out of Cadeler's control. And it's due to things that is related to the fabrication yards on the monopile foundations. Jamie Franklin: Okay. Got it. And then secondly, just on operations and maintenance. So obviously, you've announced a few shorter duration awards to Nexra platform recently. And as you mentioned, there's been this 10-year O&M contract announced by one of your peers. Could you give us a sense of how you expect to balance the sort of longer-term agreements with the shorter-term contracts? Is the idea to sort of keep Zaratan and Scylla available for more spot O&M while Wind Keeper kind of takes the longer-term contracts? Or could we see you enter into a longer-term contract with a specific one client on those assets? Mikkel Gleerup: The question is, yes, that could be expected that, that would happen, but it all depends on the project economics. There are limits where we believe that it's better to stay in the spot market rather than to sign up to a long term. And for us, that is an internal evaluation that is happening between us and the team that is dealing with the clients on these long-term opportunities because obviously, there are benefits of having a long-term contract, but the benefit of that can be outweighed by, let's say, what you're sacrificing in terms of annual revenues. So for us, it's a balance. And if we believe that we can generate more money by having the vessel in the spot market and being available to our clients when they need us, then that is the decision we will go for. And I think we have discussed it before as well that one of the real benefits of being, let's say, active in the O&M market is the social capital you're building with your client because when they have problems, if you are able to come and help them and fix them, that is something that is very much appreciated and also where you're able to generate stronger relationships and partnerships with your clients. So I -- per se that the long-term agreement is not just what we are aiming for, but of course, if they are good enough, if they live up to our criteria, then we are happy to enter into them. Jamie Franklin: Okay. Very clear. And finally, there was a wind turbine installation vessel order announced by shipyard Hanwha Ocean for about $530 million last month, very high price tag, obviously, relative to what you paid for your newbuilds. Is there anything you can say in terms of what is driving those higher vessel prices? Is it simply a function of kind of shipyard capacity or material inflation? Any thoughts there would be helpful. Mikkel Gleerup: I think the reality that we are looking at today is that the shipyards are incredibly busy. So even if you wanted to deliver a vessel in short time, you were not able to. I know that this vessel is it looks on paper like a short time line, but that is mainly because they have been working on it a long time before they actually announced it. It's a vessel targeting the domestic Korean market with a lot of Korean companies going together in that vessel. It's a repeat M-Class vessel more or less that they have paid $530 million for. I think that the underlying practice for the price is a real tightness in the yards, but also in general, what it costs to build a jack-up today. And I think that there are, let's say, that is -- if you look at the price for ordering one vessel, I think that, that is -- you're probably seeing significantly increased prices to what we built at back in -- when we ordered our vessels. Operator: Our next question comes from Anders Rosenlund from SEB. Anders Rosenlund: Could you break down the order backlog indicatively on '26, '27, '28 and '29 and beyond? Mikkel Gleerup: Unfortunately, we don't do that, Anders. We only give guidance 1 year ahead. So we don't give guidance year-by-year on the backlog. Anders Rosenlund: Also, do you expect to see more of your competitors to place newbuilding orders for '29 and 2030 or beyond delivery given the outlook comments that you coming with today? Mikkel Gleerup: I believe that based on the supply and demand balance we are looking into in the beginning of the next decade and the tightness in the yards that I would be surprised if there were not several companies already looking in the yards. Operator: Our next question comes from Daniel Haugland from ABG Sundal Collier. Unknown Analyst: This is [indiscernible] from China Securities. And thank you for taking my questions. I have 2 questions. The first question is about the foundation installation business. And I noticed that actually the foundation business includes quite large preparation works and it has larger amount. And could you please share with us what's your target of the foundation business in the future? Would the volume or the amount be higher than next year? You just mentioned that next year, the future revenue would be -- maybe would be higher than the installation revenue. So could you please share with us about the foundation business in the future? And your target or your strategy? This is my first question. And the second question maybe for... Mikkel Gleerup: Can we take them one by one. Can we just take them one by one. Unknown Analyst: Okay, okay. Mikkel Gleerup: Thank you. I think that to answer your question, we have had a humble approach to the full scope foundation C&I projects. And in 2026, we will be executing the Hornsea 3 project. In 2027, we will be embarking on the EA2 project with ScottishPower Renewables. So we are on a journey here where we are building up together with our clients, two of the biggest developers in offshore wind worldwide. And together with them, we are building up these capabilities to ensure that we do this safely and with the quality that both we and they expect fairly. But our long-term target is, of course, to execute several foundation projects in parallel in a year. That is how we have built the fleet, and that is how we are building the team and, let's say, the protocols around this. So let's say, we have a fully delivered capacity three A Class vessels that are targeting the foundation market. And we would certainly expect that these three A Class vessels would all be doing foundation work in parallel at some point in time in the future. But when I address the fact that I believe that the O&M market could be as big as the installation market, it is because with the outbuild targets that we are seeing in the industry, there will be a lot of requirements for O&M. And hence, we say this, but we cannot say when it will happen or whether they will inflect or whatever. But we do believe that there will be a case for the fact that the O&M market as such will be a very value-creating market to be in and also potentially bigger than the installation market. Operator: Okay. Great. And the second question is about the financial expenses. And I noticed that in 2025, the financial expenses are a little bit higher. Could you give us some color about the financial expenses in the near term or in the 1 to 3 years? Because with our 2 vessels delivered in 2026 and 2027, these expenses cannot be go into the -- cannot be capitalized and this should be go to the P&L. And could you give us some colors about that? Peter Hansen: That is absolutely correct, and also what I talked to in Q4 where you saw net or -- finance net was around EUR 20 million. And that is what you should expect to see going forward and then less and less goes to CapEx when we get one vessel delivered here in '26, then it will be less '27, we get the last one delivered and then it will be to current plans, nothing that we can capitalize. So that is the picture we see. So Q4 is more representative for '26 than the full year. Unknown Analyst: Okay, great. Thank you so much. That's very helpful. Thank you. Mikkel Gleerup: Thank you. I don't know whether we missed Daniel from ABG. Operator: Yes, we have a question from Daniel. Daniel Vårdal Haugland: I was a little bit back in the line there. So I have a couple of questions on 2027 that you maybe can kind of enlighten me on because I think you now say that 2027 is getting fully booked from your perspective. So what type of utilization level are you kind of targeting or at least some kind of range when you're talking about kind of fully booked this because I think based on announcements, it looks like there's a lot of white space, but obviously, you guys have looked it through. So... Mikkel Gleerup: Yes, so I think... Daniel Vårdal Haugland: Any commentary on that would be helpful. Mikkel Gleerup: Yes. No, that's a totally fair question. I think we have guided from the beginning of the journey of utilization between 75% to 90%, and that is also the target in 2027. And that is an adjusted utilization because, obviously, to assume that a vessel is busy when it's transiting from Asia and back to Europe, for example, that is not possible, even though we would love to install turbines all the way. But -- so that's how we look at it. And then as Peter also said, when he went through his numbers that we exclude planned dry dockings and stuff like that. So the adjusted number, we are expecting between 75% to 90%. And for '27, yes, it is correct that we are considering ourselves to be at the moment fully booked. Daniel Vårdal Haugland: Yes. And just to clarify, then you kind of include this potential contract that you talked about for the Apex. Mikkel Gleerup: Yes, that's how we have to do it because there is a potential contract that is negotiated. And -- but of course, nothing is firmed before it's signed and there's ink on paper. But of course, when we are in a process where we believe that this is something that will materialize, then it's also something where we are saying with what we know today, we think that we are in a situation where we don't have much other stuff to sell. Daniel Vårdal Haugland: Okay. And one question on the Orca. It seems like that will be working together with the Ally on Hornsea 3 on secondary steel. It seems from the slide that you kind of indicate that going through Q1, maybe into Q2. Is that kind of correctly assumed? Mikkel Gleerup: Yes, it's correct that Orca is starting almost side by side with the Ally being mobilized now for the campaign to go to -- on to Hornsea 3, sorry. It was a valuation we did when we secured the project because it was our option to either go with an offshore construction vessel or with one of our jack-ups. There were benefits in the jack-up in terms of the weather downtime during the winter and hence, the progression on the project. And that's why -- and with the project economics, of course, that we were able to provide to our -- one of our own assets that we decided that the O Class vessel was the best option for the task. Operator: Thank you. That's all we have time for today, and thank you for your participation. I will now hand the floor back to Mikkel Gleerup for any closing remarks. Mikkel Gleerup: Yes. Thank you, everybody. And if we did not have time to take your questions, then you all know where to reach Peter and myself or Alexander. And we are, of course, happy to take offline discussions with all of you. But thanks a lot for taking the time to listen to us today. We're looking forward to catch up with you as we move ahead. Thank you.
Operator: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Concentrix First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the call over to Elise Brasell, Corporate Communications. Please go ahead. Elise Brasell: Thank you, operator, and good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Concentrix First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. This call is the property of Concentrix and may not be recorded or rebroadcast without the written permission of Concentrix. This call contains forward-looking statements that address our expected future performance and that, by their nature, address matters that are uncertain. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future expectations, events or developments. Please refer to today's earnings release and our most recent filings with the SEC for additional information regarding uncertainties that could affect our future financial results. This includes the risk factors provided in our annual report on Form 10-K and in our other public filings with the SEC. Also during the call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted free cash flow, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP operating margin, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP EPS and constant currency revenue growth. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures is available in the news release and on the company Investor Relations website under Financials. With me on the call today are Chris Caldwell, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Andre Valentine, our Chief Financial Officer. Chris will provide a summary of our operating performance and growth strategy, and Andre will cover our financial results and business outlook. Then we'll open the call for your questions. Now I'll turn the call over to Chris. Christopher Caldwell: Thank you, Elise. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Today, I'd like to start by giving you an overview of how we're thinking about the quarter, and then I'll turn it over to Andre to talk more about the specifics of our results. Overall, in the first quarter, we continue to win the right business, drive the right revenue mix and execute on our strategy, allowing us to come within our guide for both revenue and profit. Our solutions are driving value both from automating work or when combined with the human to drive performance. Our overall wins with technology are up more than 61% year-over-year in the first quarter, highlighting the shift in our go-to-market offerings and client acceptance. When we look at our bookings quarter-on-quarter, our signed annual contract value for solutions, including AI, more than doubled, and we're seeing sequential increases in expanding AI license consumption across our client base. Our pipeline of opportunities to continue to be solid and represent a continued progression and shift to a higher solution mix. Our proprietary iX suite of AI products our third-party technology partners and our deep domain expertise continue to be differentiators that open the door for us to win larger, more transformative deals with our clients. While this might initially compress some existing revenue and margin, when these programs reach scale and full production, the margin is accretive, and we generally see revenue growth across our portfolio of services into these clients. As an example, we closed, close to 60 enterprise iX suite deals in the quarter including our largest iX Hero contracts to date with 2 Fortune 50 companies. Both clients will use our proprietary AI technologies to modernize their ability to create more efficient personalized and effective interactions with their customers while allowing us to sell additional solutions into these accounts. Looking forward, we are continuing with our focus of securing complex work and high-value services in our client base, growing our share of wallet, using our extended offerings, allowing clients to consolidate work with us, leveraging our own IP and third-party platforms to differentiate ourselves in the market and driving internal efficiencies to fuel continued investment in areas of new growth. In summary, we delivered another quarter with revenue growth, and we are on track to meet our expectations for the year. We are winning the right business and successfully executing while making the right investments in the business for long-term revenue and margin growth. I would like to thank our game changers for their tireless pursuit of excellence with our clients and their trust and partnership that we have with our clients. With that, Andre, I'll turn it over to you. Andre Valentine: Well, thanks, Chris, and good morning. I'll review the details of the first quarter and then discuss our outlook for the second quarter, remainder of 2026. We delivered revenue of approximately $2.5 billion, an increase of 1.9% on a constant currency basis and over 5% on a reported basis. Looking at constant currency growth by vertical. Revenue from banking and financial services clients grew 13% year-over-year. Revenue from retail, travel and e-commerce clients grew 6% largely driven by growth with travel and e-commerce clients. Media and Communications revenues grew 3%, largely with clients outside the U.S. and global entertainment and media companies. Our technology and consumer electronics vertical and our health care vertical both decreased about 6% driven by lighter volumes than clients expected and shore mix. Turning to profitability. Our non-GAAP operating income was $295 million. The midpoint of the guidance range we provided on our last call. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $348 million, a margin of 13.9%. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $2.61 in line with the guidance range we provided in January. GAAP results for the first quarter reflect a $6 million loss on the sale of 2 small nonstrategic businesses. One of these sales closed in the quarter with the second expected to close later this year. The assets and liabilities of the pending sale are reflected in the balance sheet as assets held for sale. Total net proceeds from the 2 sales will be approximately $20 million. Our GAAP results for the first quarter and our expectations for GAAP results for the second quarter also reflect restructuring charges related to cost actions that we're taking to align our cost structure and invest in higher growth and higher profit areas. We expect the combination of the actions taken in the first and second quarters of 2026 to drive approximately $40 million in annualized savings over and above investments in growth. This will contribute to sequential profitability growth in the second half of 2026. Complete reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measures are provided in today's earnings release. Adjusted free cash flow was negative $145 million [ in the ] quarter, reflects an increase in accounts receivable at the end of the quarter, resulting from the timing of cash receipts. The related receivables were all collected in the first week of March. As a reminder, free cash flow in our business is seasonal with negative free cash flow in the first quarter and robust free cash flow generation in each subsequent quarter. This pattern is expected to recur in fiscal year 2026. We're confident in repeating our previous guidance for between $630 million and $650 million in adjusted free cash flow this year. We returned approximately $65 million to shareholders in the quarter, which included repurchasing $42 million of our common shares or approximately 1.05 million shares at an average price of approximately $40 per share. The remaining $23 million in shareholder return was in the form of our quarterly dividend. In February, we issued $600 million of 3-year senior notes maturing March 1, 2029. The new notes carry an interest rate coupon of 6.50%. The proceeds from the new notes were used to retire $600 million of 6.65% senior notes that mature in August 2026. $200 million of the 6.65% senior notes maturing in August 2026 remain outstanding, and we expect to repay them with strong free cash flow in the second and third quarters. At the end of the first quarter, cash and cash equivalents were $234 million and total debt was approximately $4.75 billion, bringing our net debt to $4.51 billion. Our off-balance sheet factored accounts receivable borrowings were approximately $129 million at the end of the quarter. At the end of the quarter, our liquidity was nearly $1.4 billion including our $1.1 billion revolving credit facility, which was undrawn. To summarize, in the first quarter, we delivered revenue and profitability in line with our guidance range. We also took proactive steps to manage upcoming debt maturities while continuing to invest in growth. Now I'll turn to our outlook. For the second quarter, we expect the following: second quarter revenue of $2.46 billion to $2.485 billion. Based on current exchange rates, we expect an approximate 75 basis points positive impact of foreign exchange rates compared with the prior period. The guidance implies constant currency revenue growth for the quarter, ranging from 1% to 2%. As we've said, our goal is to be conservative in our revenue guidance, and we are being prudent with the current geopolitical situation. We expect second quarter non-GAAP operating income of $290 million to $300 million, this implies a non-GAAP operating margin of 11.8% to 12.1%. Second quarter non-GAAP earnings per share will be expected to be $2.57 to $2.69 per share, assuming approximately $67 million in interest expense, 60.9 million in diluted common shares outstanding and approximately 4.9% of net income attributable to participating securities. The non-GAAP effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 25% for the second quarter. Our expectations for the full year non-GAAP metrics remain unchanged from our earnings call in January and can be found in today's release. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to expect to generate between $630 million and $650 million in adjusted free cash flow this year. In addition to our strong free cash flow, we expect aggregate proceeds for approximately $40 million from asset sales, including the sale of the 2 businesses I mentioned earlier. The remaining proceeds will come from the sale of owned properties that are no longer being utilized. We are committed to reducing our net leverage to below 2.6x adjusted EBITDA by the end of fiscal 2026. In summary, our overall demand environment remains solid. The margin headwinds we have seen in recent quarters are being managed, and we are confident in our ability to drive year-over-year profitability growth in the second half of 2026. We're confident in the continued strong free cash flow generation of the business and our plan to reduce net leverage over the balance of the year and we are in a strong competitive position to drive long-term outperformance. Now operator, please open the line for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Ruplu Bhattacharya with Bank of America. Ruplu Bhattacharya: Chris, can you specify approximately how much revenue in 1Q was related to AI and the iX suite? And how are you pricing these solutions? And can you give us an idea of how you're looking at investments related to AI in 2026? Christopher Caldwell: So let me answer the questions in a bit of a backwards way. So just in terms of how we're pricing these solutions, our iX Hello solution, which is the fully autonomous solution that we have basically is priced by consumption. So we put it in for very small or de minimis fees. And then based on how many contacts that are fully automated, we get paid for. And so as you can imagine, when we put it in, we see a negative margin for the first little while. And then as it scales and grows, we see a positive margin similar to what you'd expect from a SaaS or software type of business. On our Hero product, it is a subscription basis, where we sell on a per-seat subscription of how many humans are actually using the product to drive the business. And as we talked about, at the end of last year, we ended Q4 at $60 million of ARR. We continue to add to that. We're not releasing numbers on a quarterly basis, but our expectation is to be at or above $100 million by the end of this fiscal year. If we reach that sooner, we will update you on that. But so far, we're actually a little ahead of plan from where we expected based on what we've sold within the first quarter. And we have a very, very strong pipeline going into the second quarter that we've already started to see some good uptake with -- on our proprietary AI products. In terms of the percentage of our business with AI within our business in Q1. Ruplu, the challenge that we have is that what we're seeing in the marketplace is that as you think about AI solutions, we're seeing clients adopt more than one AI solution, and sometimes they're adopting more than one AI solution from us. Sometimes, they're doing some things internally. So the way we look at it is of the revenue we service -- of the clients we service, how much of that has AI involved in it? And the reality is it's the vast majority of our clients are using our AI, their own AI, some other bits and pieces of AI. What we also look at is our success rate of AI implementations because in the marketplace, there's a lot of people who are talking about AI, but they're not getting the success rate. And we're seeing very, very high success rates. Very, very high success rates on our AI implementations driving real tangible value for clients. And so that's what we're very excited about as we're going into the second quarter. Ruplu Bhattacharya: Okay. details there, Chris. For my follow-up, Andre, can I ask you a question related to the cadence of margin improvement. If we look at the guidance, the implied operating margins go from 11.8% this quarter to about 12.5% in the -- for the full fiscal year. You mentioned a couple of things like there's cost reduction actions you're taking. I think Chris mentioned like the pipeline indicates a better mix. And I think you also said that margins improve over time in contracts. Can you help us get comfortable with how we should think about this margin progression? It looks like the EPS guide for next quarter is slightly below the Street estimates. So can you help us just think about how you're thinking about the ramp and what's giving you confidence that you can get to 12.5%, which would mean above 13% operating margin for the fourth quarter? Andre Valentine: Sure. Happy to do that, Ruplu. And the guidance is very much consistent with what we said entering the year, which was we thought that margins would be somewhat compressed in the first half, and then we would see sequential margin expansion in the second half of the year that would get us to year-over-year margin increases in the second half of the year. Driving that is certainly the result of the cost actions that we're taking in the first half. Other drivers are -- if you look at the revenue guide, there's roughly, depending on where you are in the guide, $100 million to $150 million of additional revenue coming online in the second half of the year over the first half. That's going to flow through at absorb the capacity that we've added into the business and will certainly drive revenue at a fairly high flow through as we go forward. Then you have some of the transformational deals, as Chris alluded to, getting to kind of full scale and full production and reaching the intended margins on those projects. And then that's really it. And so we have a great deal of confidence in our ability to drive the expansion in margin that begins. First, you see kind of stable to slightly expanding margin here in Q2, a bigger uptick in Q3 as we go sequentially, thanks to revenue coming online and the cost actions and then a further step up in the fourth quarter, which is kind of a traditional pattern of a step-up in margin as you go from Q3 to Q4. Ruplu Bhattacharya: If I can just ask a clarification on that. Andre, you had also mentioned in prior quarters that some customers, both in Europe as well as North America. We're looking to move operations offshore, and that was impacting revenues in the near term and the margins would have improved over time. Can you update us on how that is impacting results currently? Also, you had talked about supporting some customers whose volumes were not materializing and you had laid out 2 or 3 options that you had. Can you give us an update on where that stands? And are customer volumes coming back as you had expected? Or are you taking some remedial actions? Andre Valentine: Sure. Happy to do that. Well, yes, absolutely, the trend towards moving work offshore continues. As we talked about, I believe, on the last call, we have as we see it roughly 15% of our revenue is delivered out of North America and Western Europe that we think over time, as the capacity to perhaps move offshore, we provided in our revenue guide entering the year. for roughly a 2-point headwind from shore movement. We think we're still in line with that. And as we think about what that means from a margin perspective, particularly the commentary that I made about utilizing capacity that we've built ahead of revenue. A big piece of that is that shift offshore filling up capacity that we've added over the last couple of quarters in advance of that revenue. So that is how we would think about the impact of shore movement. Obviously, when those programs get offshore, margins are improved. When they get -- when the programs get the full run rate. Back to the commentary about volumes not materializing. As you recall last year, second half of the year, actually starting in the second quarter, we saw impacts from tariffs, delaying some programs. We said that, that would eventually -- we've worked that through the system through either having the volumes materialize or shedding the excess capacity that we've added in advance of those programs. That is pretty much playing out in line with our expectation. We saw improvement in that situation as we expected in Q1, and we think that's fully out of our system kind of as we exit Q2. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Luke Morison with Canaccord Genuity. Lucas Morison: Starting with Andre. So you sold those 2 small nonstrategic businesses in the quarter for, I think you said, $20 million combined, obviously, pretty small, but can you just talk about the philosophy behind those divestitures? Is this potentially the beginning of a more active portfolio pruning effort? Were those more opportunistic? Are there other parts of the portfolio that you consider noncore? Just any help there. Andre Valentine: Yes, happy to do that. Yes, so we're not really looking to shed anything else at this point in time. We're always kind of looking at the portfolio of what we have in the business. These 2 businesses were quite small, not strategic, not growing, not accretive to overall margins. And so it just made sense to exit those. We'll continue to look at the portfolio over time and see if there are other things that make sense, but I wouldn't expect certainly nothing imminent there and nothing really that we're working on. Lucas Morison: Got it. Helpful. And then, Andre, the 2 verticals you mentioned that were down 6% in the quarter. I wonder if that was related to the customers that you were referencing in your last question. And then maybe double-clicking there. You attributed that to lighter volumes than clients expected and shore mix. Can you just help us disaggregate those 2 factors and then whether or not you have line of sight to those verticals stabilizing in the back half of this year? Andre Valentine: Yes. So I'll bifurcate the 2 because they're not exactly the same. So health care, we actually saw lighter volumes than expected, largely related to changes in Medicare membership for some of our clients as well as participation in the Affordable Care Act program. And so that impacted our revenues in the health care vertical. We don't see that really returning to growth here for a couple of quarters. And so that is kind of where that vertical stands. With respect to tech and consumer electronics, there -- the impact is a little bit around underlying volumes. Even as we consolidate a share within some of those clients, underlying volumes are down, a little bit of impact of automation there. That's about half of the revenue change there and then shore mix being the other half of that kind of 6% constant currency reduction. That vertical, you've seen some volatility in the past 8 quarters. Some quarters we grow a little bit, some we shrink. We think that could go up or down as we go through the second half of 2026 based on what we see in the pipeline and opportunities to continue to gain share within the client base. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of David Koning with Baird. David Koning: I guess my first question, just longer-term margins. I know you've had some puts and takes, but if we think back to, I think, '22 to '24, you had 14% or so margins. We're lower than that now. And I know there's some factors. But things that should make it go up, the Webhelp synergies, scale, shift to AI, offshore, like all those should be positive tailwinds can those tailwinds drive margins back to at least where margins have been or hopefully higher? And how fast could they get there? Christopher Caldwell: David, it's Chris. You're right. I mean when we look at the business and kind of some of those AI; implementation, the transformational implementation and look at sort of programs that are running at scale, running the way we'd expect and everything else that kind of goes along with it. We're in that range. And our expectation is we continue to build on that as we get some of these other programs up to scale as we put in the new AI. A lot of the Webhelp synergies we've invested in developing our AI and changing our go-to-market platform, which we talked about last year and this year. And as we talked about in the prepared remarks in terms of the annual contract values effectively doubling as we went into Q1 as we talk about sort of our attach rates increasing, all of those are going to kind of give us some momentum and leverage. I don't want to guide past 2026, but it's very clear to Andre and I, that our expectations is we get this back to historical margins and then we can progress past there. Timeline, I think, as earlier question around where we see our margins at the end of Q4 this year, you can start to see kind of how we're incrementing up to get back to those historic margins. David Koning: Yes. Okay. That's helpful on that. And then, I guess, banking was very strong in the quarter as was the retail segment. Maybe just refresh a little bit on those, is growth in those 2 sustainable? And is it some market factors happening right now or any one-off impacts that are happening? Maybe just kind of walk through those again. Christopher Caldwell: Yes. So banking, you saw last quarter was quite strong, and we expect there to be fairly strong strength through the course of the year, sort of high single-digit, low double-digit growth based. And what we like about it is that it's very widespread. We're doing very well in banking, BFSI across both fintechs, top kind of 200 global banks, sort of the traditional enterprise banks and some new entrants who are trying to disrupt the market. And so really, we're seeing broad-based success in that. What's really driving a lot of the growth is actually this combination of the solutions of the banks now coming to us for more complex work. So very large transformational deal we won last year that we talked about is in the BFSI. That's starting to come through to fruition this year and driving the performance and profitability as we expected. And we're seeing more of that coming through where traditionally, we haven't been able to sell some of our tech solutions into the banking and BFSI sector, and now we are. So we see that kind of sustained growth. In the travel, transportation and e-commerce sector, it's really both e-commerce and travel that are doing well. In the e-commerce side, we see that quite sustainable. We are winning net new clients as well as consolidating share in that. And again, it's a mix of the new solutions we're bringing to the table as well as people looking at our footprint and seeing benefit in how we can deliver consistently around the world. And then on the travel side, we've got a strong travel portfolio, both in short-term stays portfolio to longer stay portfolio to airlines, to consolidators to e-commerce platforms that deal with travel. And again, we're seeing broad-based support. And what we like is what's going into those accounts is, again, these kind of complete solution sets that's allowing us to get spend that historically hasn't been outsourced. Technology spend, which historically hasn't come to us and then consolidation as well. So we see that as sustainable as well. Don't ask me if jet fuel goes up to $200 a barrel. But at this point, we're very confident in what we can see with the pipeline in that -- in those verticals. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Vincent Colicchio with Barrington Research. Vincent Colicchio: Chris, did you see any change or any signs of sentiment change or client behavior once the geopolitical issues started recently here? Christopher Caldwell: Yes. So Vince, we've talked to a significant amount of our clients. Some are being impacted, but very de minimisly so far, things have been fairly robust. Our exposure to this is about 1% of revenue, give or take, which is sort of our Middle Eastern operations. And so far, we haven't seen sort of an impact at this point in time. I think people are just being very, very cautious right now. But so far, it's fairly steady. Vincent Colicchio: And Andre, to what extent did excess capacity negatively impact margin this quarter? Andre Valentine: Yes. It's in the 20 to 40 basis point range. And so that as we think about opportunities to improve profitability as we get into the second half of the year, we think that -- and here I'm just really talking about the physical capacity mostly. As we grow into the physical capacity, we think we see a 20 to 40 basis point improvement in second half. Operator: There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Cheetah Mobile Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Helen Jing Zhu, Investor Relations of Cheetah Mobile. Please go ahead. Jing Zhu: Thank you, operator. Welcome to Cheetah Mobile's Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. With us today are our company's Chairman and CEO, Mr. Fu Sheng; and our company's Director and CFO, Mr. Thomas Ren. Following management's prepared remarks, we will conduct the Q&A section. Please note that the management's prepared remarks are presented by AI agent. Before we begin, I refer you to the safe harbor statement in our earnings release, which also applies to our conference call today as we will make forward-looking statements. At this time, I would now like to turn the conference call over to our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Fu Sheng. Please go ahead, Fu Sheng. Sheng Fu: Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us. In 2025, we finished stabilizing the business and built a stronger foundation for Cheetah Mobile. During the year, our total revenue grew 43% year-over-year, driven by continued growth in both our Internet business and AI and Others segments. In the fourth quarter, AI and Others already accounted for half of total revenues, reflecting the increasing contribution of our new growth initiatives. More importantly, we achieved full year non-GAAP operating profitability, our first time in 6 years. Our Internet business remained resilient in 2025, generating approximately RMB 460,000 in adjusted operating profit every working day. This consistent operating cash flow forms the financial backbone of the company and allows us to invest in robotics and AI in a disciplined and sustainable way. Our second highlight is robotics, which is emerging as a key structural growth driver. For full year, robotics revenue grew approximately 31%. In the fourth quarter alone, robotics revenue reached about RMB 60 million, up 94% year-over-year and 43% quarter-over-quarter. A voice robot in China achieved 100% year-over-year growth for 3 consecutive quarters, accounting for high single digits of the fourth quarter's total revenues. This progress is driven by our strategic focus on core strength in voice robotics and the integration of AI agent technology to enhance product experience. We are now seeing our voice robot become a must-have solution in receptions, guided tours, retail environment, hospitals and service halls as they deliver proven measurable value. We recently introduced a new version of our voice robots, which comes with built-in skills like guiding, patrolling and advertising, enabling end customers to start using them right away, our robotic arm business mainly in serving overseas markets is making up high single digit of the first quarter's total revenues. We focus on long-term demand from research institutions and the R&D teams that value openness and the customization. This customer base is sticky and repeatable, supporting long-term demand, building on our proven indoor autonomous mobility technologies. We are introducing a smart wheelchair, targeting developed regions such as Western Europe and North America. This product is positioned as a premium solution for users who value safety, independence and confidence in daily mobility. We are seeing a clear shift in demand as users increasingly value safety, assistance, and intelligent features in mobility products, while scalable solutions in the market remain limited. By applying our experience in service robots we are able to meaningfully improve the user experience. During my own recent recovery, I personally used our smart wheelchair and saw a clear improvement in safety and convenience. Importantly, we can deliver these benefits without significantly increasing the costs compared to traditional high-end electric wheelchairs, making this a more practical and accessible product for users. We have entered into framework agreements with established mobility brands who will manage branding, distribution and aftersales services. Initial shipments are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2026, representing an early-stage commercial validation of this product category. Across the industry, more companies are starting to test and deploy service robots. We believe the next 1 to 2 years will be a validation phase, where ROI and reliability will matter most. You don't need a robot that looks like a human. You need a robot that works every day, delivers measurable value and it's easy to operate at scale. This is exactly where our current products are positioned. Our Internet business remains strong, generating steady cash flow, which allows us to invest in AI in a disciplined and sustainable way. For more than a decade, we have built utility applications serving hundreds of millions of users. This product DNA shapes how we approach AI, rather than competing in model development we focused on turning AI capabilities into practical tools that help users complete real tasks. During the Chinese New Year, I spend a lot of efforts experimenting with an AI agent system built on the OpenCloud framework starting from a single agent that could barely complete basic tasks, the system evolved into a multi-agent team capable of running tests continuously. In one scenario, the system generated personalized New Year messages for more than 600 colleagues and managed the entire sending workflow automatically. What we see emerging is not simply a new AI tool but a new way to organize digital work. AI agents can automate entire workflows from information gathering to processing and distribution, significantly improving productivity. Building on these learnings, we introduced EasyClaw based on OpenCloud and open source agent framework for both domestic and overseas markets. EasyClaw is our AI coworker platform that helps users create and deploy task-oriented AI agents capable of executing real-world tasks autonomously. At this stage, we focus on execution capability rather than scale. We are already seeing a continued increase in user engagement as reflected in the rapid growth of our total token usage. We are building EasyClaw into an agentic operating system that changes how users interact with software and machines. By integrating EasyClaw into our PC products, we are improving user experience and driving higher conversion and ARPU. In robotics, EasyClaw allows users to program and customize robots using natural language, lowering customization barriers. This helps us deploy faster, reduce cost and scale more easily, making our products more competitive. Some investors may ask how we compete with our training foundation models. We believe the real advantage in the agent era lies not in the model itself, but in the systems built on top of it, including task orchestration, tool usage and cost management. By leveraging open ecosystems and leading APIs, our product can evolve as models continue to improve. Finally, our global DNA remains a core competitive advantage. We continue to expand both our AI tools and robotics businesses internationally with a disciplined approach. Looking ahead to 2026, we do not provide specific financial guidance, but we see continued structural improvements. We believe our robotics business will maintain strong growth momentum as commercial validation deepens and become a more important part of our revenue mix. At the same time, AI-enabled products will gradually enhance engagement and monetization efficiency across our software ecosystem. We will increasingly apply AI internally to accelerate the development, aiming to further improve operational efficiency. As we grow, we will continue improving transparency and disclosure, credibility to data and our focus remains clear. Execute with discipline and net results compound over time. Cheetah is entering its next phase of development combining digital coworkers through AI agents and physical coworkers through service robots supported by real operating cash flow and disciplined financial management. We are building the foundation for our next stage of growth. Thank you. Thomas Jintao Ren: Thank you, Fu Sheng. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Unless otherwise stated, all financial figures are presented in RMB. 2025 marked a year of meaningful operational recovery and improved financial discipline for Cheetah Mobile. During the year, we continued improving operating discipline and cost structure across the company. We concentrated resources on commercially validated use cases in robotic products and practical AI applications, while leveraging open source ecosystem and third-party models to improve R&D efficiency and optimize infrastructure costs. This approach allows us to accelerate iteration without significantly increasing fixed costs. For the full year 2025, total revenue grew approximately 43% year-over-year to RMB 1,150 million. Although we reported a GAAP operating loss of RMB 179 million for the year, this represented a substantial improvement compared with operating loss of RMB 437 million in 2024. On a non-GAAP basis, operating profit reached RMB 14 million compared with a non-GAAP operating loss of RMB 232 million, in the prior year, reflecting improved operating leverage. We ended the year with USD 215 million cash and cash equivalents. Turning to our segment performance. Our Internet business continued to serve as a stable cash generating platform for the company in 2025. Revenue from Internet business increased 19% year-over-year to RMB 615 million with Internet revenue, Internet value-added services revenue increased 21% year-over-year in 2025, contributing 65% of segment revenue, supported by both paying user growth and ARPU expansion. In addition, we observed that many users subscribe for periods longer than 12 months, reflecting the recurring nature of our utility applications and strengthening revenue visibility. In terms of profitability, the Internet business generated approximately RMB 115 million in adjusted operating profit in 2025, maintaining healthy margins and strong operating cash flow. As Fu Sheng mentioned earlier, the Internet business generates roughly RMB 460,000 in adjusted operating profit per working day which provides predictable cash flow to support strategic investments in new initiatives. Looking ahead, we expect the Internet business to remain stable and profitable while continuing to provide financial flexibility for the company to invest in long-term growth opportunities. Turning to our AI and Others segment. Revenue from this segment increased 85% year-over-year to RMB 535 million in 2025, as a result, this segment accounted for 46.5% of our total revenue compared with 35.9% in 2024, reflecting the growing contribution from our emerging businesses. Within the segment, the robotics business continued to scale since the second half of 2025, making up 27% of the segment's revenue and 13% of total revenue in 2025. Robotics revenue increased 31% in 2025 driven by deployment of voice robot in China and continued demand for robotic arms in overseas markets. Other businesses, namely overseas advertising agencies, service and multi-cloud management platform within this segment also contributed significantly to revenue growth, benefiting from increasing overseas expansion by Chinese enterprises. At the same time, we continued to improve operating efficiency to more selective investment and disciplined cost control. For the full year, adjusted operating loss from the AI and Others segments reduced by 42% year-over-year to RMB 274 million as we continued scaling the business while maintaining disciplined investments. Turning briefly to the first quarter performance. Total revenue reached RMB 309 million representing a 30% year-over-year increase and a 7% quarter-over-quarter increase, while Internet revenue declined slightly year-over-year, in the fourth quarter it increased quarter-over-quarter as we continue shifting toward a subscription-driven business model. In addition, user subscription revenue within the Internet segment increased 32% year-over-year and 16% quarter-over-quarter as we chose to focus on subscription business model, which supports a healthier product and user experience. Revenue from the AI and Others segment reached RMB 153 million, accounting for nearly half of total revenue in the quarter. With this segment, robotics revenues increased by 94% year-over-year and 43% quarter-over-quarter to about 19% of the fourth quarter's total revenue. Other than that, our revenues from overseas advertising agency service and multi cloud management platform also contributed to this segment's year-over-year growth. On a non-GAAP basis, the company generated operating profit of RMB 15 million in the fourth quarter compared to RMB 42 million operating losses in the same period last year. We believe the improvement we achieved in 2025 reflected structural improvements in both our cost structure and revenue mix. Looking ahead, our priorities remain clear: disciplined growth, continued improvement in operating efficiency, balanced and disciplined capital allocation with stronger financial discipline, clearer strategic focus and increasing contribution from our emerging businesses, we believe the company is entering a more stable and predictable operating phase. Thank you. We are now ready to take your questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Thomas Chong with Jefferies. Thomas Chong: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, can we move to the next question? Operator: The next question comes from [ Nancy Lu ] with JPMorgan. Unknown Analyst: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Thank you. Operator: The next question comes from Cheng Ru Li from Guoyuan Securities. Cheng Ru Li: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Thank you. Operator: The next question comes from [ Yongping Diao ] with Guotai Haitong. Unknown Analyst: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Thank you, operator. Please move to the next question. Operator: The next question comes from [ Jie Zhu ] with GF Securities. Unknown Analyst: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Operator: The next question comes from [ Wei Feng ] with Mizuho Securities. Unknown Analyst: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Operator: The next question comes from Lydia Lin with Morgan Stanley. Chenyueya Lin: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Operator: The next question comes from Vicky Wei with Citi. Yi Jing Wei: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Operator, please move to the next question. Operator: The next question comes from Zeping Zhao with ICBC. Zeping Zhao: [Foreign Language] Unknown Executive: [Foreign Language] Jing Zhu: Yes. Thank you. Operator, please check if we have any further questions. Operator: We have no further questions at this time, which concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks. Jing Zhu: Thank you so much for joining our conference call today. And if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to let us know. Thank you so much. Bye. Sheng Fu: Bye-bye. Operator: The conference has now concluded, and we thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Operator: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Perma-Fix Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2025 Business Update Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, David Waldman of Crescendo Communications. David, the floor is yours. David Waldman: Thank you, Jenny. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Perma-Fix Environmental Services Fourth Quarter and Year-end 2025 Conference Call. On the call with us this morning is Mark Duff, President and CEO; Dr. Lou Centofanti, Executive Vice President of Strategic Initiatives; and Ben Naccarato, Chief Financial Officer. The company issued a press release this morning containing fourth quarter and 2025 financial results, which is also posted on the company's website. If you have any questions after the call or would like any additional information about the company, please contact Crescendo Communications at (212) 671-1020. I'd also like to remind everyone that certain statements contained within this conference call may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and include certain non-GAAP financial measures. All statements on this conference call other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results and performance of the company to differ materially from such statements. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as well as this morning's press release. Company makes no commitment to disclose any revisions to forward-looking statements or any facts, events or circumstances after the date hereof that bear upon forward-looking statements. In addition, today's discussion will include references to non-GAAP measures. Perma-Fix believes that such information provides an additional measurement and consistent historical comparison of its performance. A reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in today's news release on our website. I'd now like to turn the call over to Mark Duff. Please go ahead, Mark. Mark Duff: All right. Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. 2025 was an important year for Perma-Fix as we focused on strengthening our operational foundation and positioning the company for the next phase of growth tied to the Department of Energy's Hanford cleanup mission. For the full year, revenue totaled approximately $61.7 million, reflecting stronger performance in our Treatment segment and improving waste volumes across several of our treatment facilities. While the timing of certain government programs affected activity levels during the year, we made significant progress preparing our facilities, workforce and infrastructure to support the increased waste volumes expected as the Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste or DFLAW, program transitions into its operational phase. Throughout the year, we also made targeted investments in personnel, infrastructure and plant capabilities to ensure we're fully prepared to support the next phase of activity at Hanford and across other DOE cleanup programs. As many of you know, the DFLAW program and the Hanford tank waste program represents one of the most significant environmental remediation efforts currently underway in the United States, and we believe Perma-Fix is uniquely positioned to support this mission, given our specialized treatment capabilities and our long history of supporting DOE waste management programs. One of the most significant milestones in the year was the renewal of the permit for our Perma-Fix Northwest facility. This permit significantly expands our permitted processing capacity to approximately 1.2 million gallons of liquid mixed waste annually, effectively tripling our liquid processing capacity and also authorizes treatment of up to 175,000 tons of waste through macro encapsulation annually. Combined with our investments in automation, facility upgrades and workforce expansion, these improvements meaningfully strengthen the role Perma-Fix Northwest can play in support of multiple Hanford-related waste streams and other DOE emission objectives as activity ramps in the coming quarters. In the recent press release, DOE announced the need to extend the DFLAW hot commissioning phase. However, waste is expected to be received through the DFLAW liquid waste treatment processes beginning in May at our Northwest facility with dry waste expected to be received in April. The liquid waste streams are -- anticipated waste streams are expected to grow above original estimates by as much as 20% as described by DOE based on changes made and the process flow, which will include grouting a portion of the effluent waste instead of using DFLAW vitrification processes as originally designed. Our regulatory supplemental analysis is under review that includes using Perma-Fix Northwest grouting capacity, to treat the affluent to enhance production levels at the DFLAW facility. The DFLAW facility has processed about 50,000 gallons of tank waste through February and the melters remain hot which produces steam resulting in generation of waste to be included as affluent to Perma-Fix Northwest. For investors trying to better frame the timing of the DFLAW opportunity, DOE planning documents indicate the system is expected to ramp progressively through hot commissioning, beginning -- which began in October of of 2025. And within 12 to 18 months of that start date debut plans to reach operational phase at approximately 40% capacity before increasing towards 80% capacity as additional systems come online and that's required to be done within 3 years based on the tri-party agreement at Hanford. We view this as an important indicator of the size and durability of the opportunity in front of us, while also recognizing the exact pace of that ramp remains completely dependent on DOE execution and site operating conditions. Initial estimates regarding revenue potentials remain at about $1 million to $2 million per month beginning in Q2 and ramping up through the year. At a recent Waste Management Conference in March, DOE leadership specifically addressed the importance of implementing a grouting program to supplement DFLAW towards meeting the department's goals for diving tank closures by 2040. DOE stated that this program is working towards treating up to 200 million gallons of waste by 2040 from the Hanford tanks through the DFLAW program and supplemented by the Grouting program to be initiated in 2026. The number has grown from the original 56 million gallons estimated based on the expectations due to the fact that they will be generating 1 to 3 gallons of wastewater from each gallon retrieved due to the need to add liquids to the tank to retrieve the waste. Over the past several months, Perma-Fix Northwest has continued to make significant investments in automation and information systems of personnel training to ensure the facility can operate efficiently at high throughput levels and meet or exceed expected production rates as a broader range of waste streams begin to arrive. The Hanford remediation programs are expected to generate sustainable waste streams over time, which we believe can create consistent long-term treatment demand and recurring activity for our facilities. In addition to supporting DFLAW program, we expect to participate in several other Hanford related waste streams and site programs that will generate additional treatment demand over time. These increases in receipts include providing solidification, treatment support to high-volume contaminated water from the Hanford site as well as increasing our Transuranic Waste Processing program by 100% beginning this month, supported by additional shifts at the Perma-Fix Northwest facility. As waste receipts increase, we expect to utilize the expanded capacity to support a growing volume of treatment activity tied to both Hanford Mission and other DOE programs. Operationally, our Treatment segments delivered meaningful improvement during the year. We saw higher waste volumes, improved plant throughput and stronger waste mix, which together drove significant year-over-year growth in treatment revenue. As a result, treatment revenue increased approximately 29% year-over-year, reflecting both higher activity levels and stronger pricing dynamics associated with the waste streams we processed. Importantly, our treatment backlog increased by approximately 51% year-over-year and approximately -- to approximately $1.9 million in revenue, providing improved visibility as we enter 2026. This backlog growth reflects increasing demand for our specialized treatment capabilities across both government and commercial waste streams. Another area of progress during the year was international activity. Revenue from foreign entities increased approximately 163% year-over-year to approximately $6.4 million, reflecting growing global demand for our specialized waste treatment services. Our international markets continue to represent an attractive growth opportunity for us as many countries face similar challenges related to complex nuclear and hazardous waste management and we continue to see an expanding pipeline of potential treatment projects in Canada and other international markets. Turning to productivity more broadly. We have seen a number of encouraging developments over the past several months that we believe support our growth outlook for 2026. These include opportunities tied to Soil Sorting, work for a commercial uranium mining client, additional treatment work related to Canada and other international markets, our weapons production-related waste treatment programs and remediation work supporting a major university laboratory environment. Some of these opportunities are already moving into execution, while others remain in final [indiscernible] and start-up phases and together, they reinforce our confidence in improving activity as we move through the year. We also want to set expectations appropriately for the first quarter. While Perma-Fix does not typically provide formal guidance, it's important to recognize that factors are expected to make the first quarter softer than the stronger activity we tend to expect to begin for the second quarter. These factors include recent delays in the DFLAW affluent receipts, which shifted expected waste receipts out by several months, also normal seasonal weaknesses in field activity during January and February and ongoing efforts at Perma-Fix Northwest to process stored waste and prepare all -- to prepare all of our resources for the increase in Hanford-related activity expected later in the coming months. While the Q1 numbers are not finalized, losses in Q1 will likely exceed $4 million in negative EBITDA on about $13 million in revenue. Despite those near-term impacts, we've seen strong activity in March and I believe the second quarter should represent an inflection point as additional waste receipts and project activity begin to ramp. The focus on stored waste, I mentioned has resulted in timing-related shift in revenues from Q1 to Q2 due to applicable revenue recognition rules, resulting in a movement of approximately $2 million in revenue generated at Perma-Fix Northwest to be recognized in Q2, while they're actually processed in Q1. We also continued advancing the development and commercialization of our PFAS destruction technology. During the quarter, our engineering team focused on completing construction and installation of our new generation 2.0 PFAS Destruction System at our Oak Ridge facility, the upgrade system -- the upgraded system is designed to increase our PFAS destruction capacity by up to 3x our current rate, while incorporating engineering improvements intended to reduce operating costs and improve reliability and production rates. PFAS continues -- PFAS contamination continues to receive increasing regulatory and environmental attention worldwide, and we believe technology is capable of permanently destroying these compounds will play an important role in the future of remediation efforts. We also continue to see strong interest in our technology as an alternative to incineration with our PFAS Perma-FAS system, providing permanent destruction of PFAS compounds at a lower total cost, while affording air emissions. We believe the ability to permanently destroy PFAS compounds and eliminate long-term environmental liability represents a compelling advantage for our customers evaluating alternatives, traditional -- to traditional disposal methods. Over the past several months, we've secured several field projects supporting PFAS remediation at regional airports and continue to see additional airport-related opportunities currently moving through procurement processes. More broadly, we're continuing to develop strategic relationships with companies involved in PFAS remediation and AFFF removal as we work to expand the deployment of our technology across both government and commercial markets. Taken together, we believe these developments position our PFAS platform to support increasing demand for cost-effective permanent PFAS destruction solutions as remediation activities continue to expand. In our Services segment, revenue declined during the year, primarily due to the timing of project mobilizations and procurement cycles, including delays earlier in the year associated with the transition to the new administration and related policy adjustments. The partial federal government shutdown in October also impacted procurement for timing of government-related customers. In addition, we've seen the normal seasonal timing efforts of weather and delayed project mobilization is during the first quarter. Importantly, our Services business remains project-based and therefore, quarterly activity levels can vary depending on project timing and scope. Nevertheless, we continue to see opportunities in this segment tied to nuclear services, decommissioning work and government remediation programs, and we believe the progress we've made during the year positions us well as activity levels increase. In fact, I'm pleased to report we've won over $30 million in new Services backlog and submitted over $40 million in new bids just during Q1. We look forward to providing further updates on our bid pipeline in the future. Finally, I want to highlight what we believe is one of the most significant long-term opportunities in front of the company. In December, the Hanford tank contractor issued an RFP tied to the tri-party agreement to retrieve 22 tanks over approximately the next 12 years for commercial grouting and offsite disposition of the waste as part of a long-term remediation effort tied to the retrieval and stabilization of tank waste at the Hanford site. The RFP estimated that this contract will begin in January '28 for total -- for a volume of tank waste up to 50 million gallons to be grouted at commercial facilities. Perma-Fix Northwest is exceptionally well positioned for this opportunity given its location within the mile of the Hanford site as currently permitting -- its current permitting profile and its expanding processing capability currently available. While this opportunity is not expected to begin until later in the development cycle, we believe it underscores the scale of the long-term duration of Hanford-related work and is now taking shape and the strategic advantage Perma-Fix can provide and is recognized by DOE. So when we step back and look at the broader picture, we see the recent delays in DFLAW effluent receipts from hot commissioning activities as relatively modest in relation to the size of the opportunities in front of us. Between the DFLAW ramp, additional Hanford related-waste streams, the grouting program now in development for up to 200 million gallons of waste to be treated, expanding international work, a growing treatment backlog and advancing PFAS and remediation opportunities, we believe the opportunity for Perma-Fix to deliver meaningful growth and improved profitability beginning in the second quarter and continuing into the coming years has never been stronger. Thank you, and I'll now turn the call over to Ben for the financial discussion. Ben Naccarato: Thank you, Mark. Beginning with revenue, our total revenue from the continuing operations in the Fourth Quarter was $15.7 million compared to last year's fourth quarter of $14.7 million, an increase of $1 million or 6.9%. Our Treatment segment revenue increased by $2.6 million, while Services segment was down $1.6 million. In the Treatment segment, the increase was a result of higher volume, offset by lower average price, which was the result of a change in waste mix. Reduction in the Services segment revenue was due to lower start-up of new projects to replace completed projects from prior year. For the year ended 2025, our revenue was $61.7 million compared to $59.1 million in 2024, an increase of $2.6 million or 4.3%. In the Treatment segment, revenue was up $10.1 million, while the Service segment dropped by $7.6 million. As with the quarter, the Treatment segment benefited from increased volume and it also had higher average pricing related to waste mix. The Services segment continued to feel the effects of reduced project work related to timing of project start-ups and awards. Turning to our gross profit. For the fourth quarter, gross profit was $1.2 million compared to $594,000 in Q4 2024. Gross profit in the Treatment segment increased by $983,000 as a result of increased revenue, offset by higher labor and maintenance expense. Services segment gross profit was below prior year by $365,000 due to lower revenue and lower margin projects. However, that was offset, partially, by reduced fixed overhead costs. For the year ended 2025, gross profit was up by $6 million. Most of the improvement came from the Treatment segment where higher revenue and improved margins were partially offset by the increase in fixed cost at the plants. Gross profit from the Services segment was relatively flat as the impact of lower revenue was offset by drops in both variable expenses and drops in fixed overhead. Our total SG&A costs for the fourth quarter were $4.2 million compared to $3.9 million in the fourth quarter last year, while SG&A for the full year was $16.4 million compared to -- in 2025 compared to $14.4 million in 2024. Our SG&A expenses in the quarter were up from higher marketing costs related to payroll and trade shows, while administrative expenses increased due to payroll and legal expenses. Our SG&A costs for the fiscal year 2025 were up by $1.9 million from higher payroll expenses in both marketing and admin as well as higher trade show and legal expenses. Our net loss for the quarter was $5.7 million compared to last year's net loss of $3.5 million. Note that the current year results include an adjustment to one of the company's discontinued operations of $2.7 million related to a long-term remediation cleanup. For the year ended December 2025, net loss was $13.8 million compared to a net loss of $20 million in the prior year. Again, our net loss for 2025 included the $2.7 million recorded in the remediation reserve for our discontinued operations, as previously discussed. And note also that in 2024, our net loss included approximately $8.2 million of income tax expense related to the full valuation allowance established on our U.S. tax deferred tax assets. Our basic and diluted net loss per share for the quarter was $0.31 compared to a loss per share of 22% in the prior year. This includes the impact of $0.15 per share from the adjustment to the remediation reserve within our discontinued operations. Loss per share for the year ended December 31 was $0.75 per share compared to a loss per share of $1.33 per share in 2024. EBITDA from continuing operations, as we described in this morning's press release, was a loss of $2.7 million compared to a loss of $3 million last year. For the year ended 2025 EBITDA was a loss of $9.7 million compared to a loss of $13.8 million in 2024. Turning to balance sheet in comparison to 2024. Cash on the balance sheet was $11.8 million compared to $29 million in the year ended 2024. Unbilled receivables were higher in '25 compared to '24 by $3.8 million, primarily due to the timing of waste shipments in the Treatment segment. Our net property and equipment was up $3.5 million, primarily from capital spending which included the construction of our PFAS reactors. Intangibles and other assets were up $1.4 million from interest earned on the finite risk sinking fund as well as increase to permits and joint venture investments. Our waste treatment backlog for the year-end was $11.9 million compared to $7.9 million in the prior year. Long-term liabilities related to discontinued ops were up $2.7 million, again, due to the increase in the remediation liability at one of our [indiscernible] discussed facility. Total debt at quarter end was $2 million, excluding debt issuance costs, which is mostly owed to PNC Bank. Finally, I'll summarize our cash flow activity, cash used by continuing operations was $10.3 million, cash used by discontinued operations, of $441,000. Cash used for investing in continuing operations was $4.9 million, primarily for cap spending and permits. Cash used for investing of discontinued ops was $54,000. And cash used for financing was $981,000 representing monthly payments to our term and capital loans of $631,000, payments related to finance lease and other debt of $327,000. The payment of offering costs from last year's equity raise of $195,000 and offset by net proceeds from option exercises of $172,000. With that, operator, I'll now turn the call over for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Howard Brous of Wellington Shields. Howard Brous: I just have a couple of quick questions. You started talking about Q2 and the performance. Can you give us a better sense of what you're referring to? Mark Duff: Sure, Howard. Yes, we have a lot of confidence in Q2, Howard, based on a couple of things. One is, as you know, it's really been about 2.5 years since our Services Group has really established a strong backlog of projects. And for numerous different reasons, a lot of it was just a cyclical thing with the changing of contractors at the prime levels and other market conditions. But that's really changed significantly in the last several months, and we're excited about where the Services Group is going. First, we just received a new contract award for a demolition project for a radiological facility at a National Lab. We hope to be announcing that in details -- some details on that in the next few days. We've also mobilized 3 new projects into the field in the last 2 weeks that will generate waste that we'll receive in process. There's projects that have better margins than most. And we've also got a pretty significant backlog of -- probably I should say, pipeline of opportunities we've submitted bids on, with -- squarely within our core competencies for radiological facility demolition and remediation as well as decontamination. So those looked really good for the summer, and it puts services in -- back in a position of carrying more weight than it has. And that typically bolsters our treatment shop as well. But along with that, we're also -- the other component or why we believe Q2 will be better, is related to Northwest. Just a little more detail on Northwest. There's a project up there that includes taking all the surface water waste that Hanford accumulates in selling ponds on site. And the -- evaporate that and make a brine out of it and they sent us the brine. And that program will start up, as we plan to start April 1, and we'll start receiving waste a few days after that. That's about $1.5 million or so a month revenue stream that's very important to us, and that will go for an extended period of time. It's a very sustainable waste stream as a runoff and from rainfall as well as from groundwater treatment activities and those types of things all comes to us, and we treat it and send it back. Secondly, DFLAW, as I briefly mentioned in this somewhat complicated, but bottom line is that they're in high commissioning now and they're run -- they're still running waste through the facility in smaller quantities not at a sustainable level. But they do generate what they call blowdown water. That's the water they use in the scrubber systems to address their effluent requirements. That waste was going to be pumped back into DFLAW and make glass out of it. In a press release a couple of weeks ago, about a month ago, I do -- we said, instead of us making glass out of that blowdown water why don't we treat it, and then we can do more tank waste, 20% more. And so they work with us, and they're going to be shipping us that waste here as soon as their supplemental analysis gets through the public comment period, which is mid -- late April, and then we should start seeing that sometime in May. So that should also be an additional waste stream from DFLAW along with some dry waste from processing. And lastly, the TRU waste program, as I mentioned, has doubled in size. So going from 1 shift to 2 shifts. That's added about $750,000 to $1 million a month as well. All this together, along with the $2 million I mentioned is going to be bumped from Q1 to Q2 due to revenue recognition rules. April looks like a great month and the Q2 altogether and Q3, looks like a very sustainable return back to profitability based on what we're seeing right now. So we're excited about Q2, Howard. Howard Brous: Going back to grouting. It seems that the -- excuse my voice, the 200 East area where the waste treatment plant is, they have a plan to grout the waste of the 200 West area. Can you comment about that? Mark Duff: Yes. It's important to understand there's 2 different components of the Hanford site. The West area is where there's -- the DFLAW does not have an infrastructure included. It's a distance, a good distance from the actual DFLAW plant. So as determined they're going to basically commercially grout all the tanks out there. And under the Trump administration, they're being very aggressive about it. And that's what the large RFP I mentioned in my script is all about. It's basically a $4 billion estimated value. There's a lot of flexibility in it. In other words, they may use other contract vehicles that may make multiple awards. But the bottom line is they're set up to really begin high-volume grouting at about the 3 million to 4 million-gallon a year range, but it does expand a little beyond that in the next 2 to 4 years. And we're in a great position for that being the only local facility local. And I'm sure they want backups to us or maybe supplementals to us. That remains to be awarded here sometime in the third quarter. But in parallel with that, the East side where DFLAW is, DOE has been somewhat vocal that instead of all the waste going to DFLAW that's currently being pumped into staging tanks to go to DFLAW, they can start grouting some of that waste. In other words, they have 1 million gallons of storage for DFLAW while that's sitting there, they could be pumping it out for grouting as well as probably get the DFLAW. So there's an opportunity for supplemental grouting to occur and we're in a really good position for that as well. And that's something we're looking at doing in the third quarter or fourth quarter if they get to the regulatory hurdles they're planning to. So both those components could start impacting us in the next 12 months and certainly in the next couple of years, but presents a very significant backlog opportunity for the company. Howard Brous: Last question, I want to address PFAS. In terms of volume and capacity, where are we headed? Mark Duff: Yes. With new systems have been delayed a couple of months due to supply chain issues, which we seem to be facing all the time. Everything is on site now. We're going through the installation process. We poured concrete and things are rolling. So we're really on track for late April, early May to start testing. And once that new system comes online, we'll be basically in a position to do about 3,000 gallons a day. And backlog has been pretty good at the Gen 1 system. We've made some improvements through the last quarter, 2 quarters, really, where we are able to start recycling our chemistry, and that allows us to lower our rates. As I mentioned before, our target is really to undercut incineration. We can do PFAS treatment cheaper than the incinerators can and that's been kind of the shift in the industry to total destruction. It's kind of our competition. So our sales focus is squarely right now on making sure we're getting as much incineration competitor waste as we possibly can. And it's going really well. And again, we continue to do a lot of partnering on that. And we believe once we get the capacity up to 3,000 gallons a day total capacity with the new system and the old system as well that we'll be able to get even greater backlog because we can store more and commit to higher our throughput. So that's really where we're going. We're still doing some R&D on the smaller components, smaller systems to be field deployed. Right now, we're really focused on the new system and getting it operationally ready and rolling. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our next question is coming from Aaron Spychalla of Craig Hallum. Aaron Spychalla: Maybe first on DFLAW, can you just kind of speak to the visibility into that waste stream starting. You mentioned some solids in April and liquids in May. And it sounds like still expecting that $3 million to $6 million a quarter as that ramps. Maybe just kind of walk through that timeline as well. Mark Duff: Sure, Aaron. It's been difficult. DOE has not been real public on the operations of DFLAW overall other than it's operating. And so it's difficult to understand how much waste is going in. What the issues are they're dealing with to get to an operational phase. In other words, getting through their punch list to make everything -- make sure everything is working at capacity. So it's difficult to project it. But we do know that, that blowdown water, the EMF water I mentioned should be -- as soon as this supplement analysis is done to change the direction where it was originally tended ongoing. We should start to see that in -- at about 10,000 gallons a month and ramp to 4x that as operations gets underway. So that's an important waste stream for us. That's a big portion of the overall DFLAW waste incineration itself. Not all of it, probably not even half of it. And there's a lot of other waste that are being generated that are basically being stored with -- at the Bechtel facility that we expect to start receiving in April. We don't have a lot of clarity on that at this point, Aaron, in regards to volumes and that type of thing, what the overall impact will be. But we know between the 2, we should be, as I mentioned, in $1million, $1.5 million to $2 million a month here, particularly by mid-quarter of Q2. And the clarity on that, I think, will increase as they get through some of these punch list items. DOE is totally dedicated to getting this facility up and running as fast as safely possible. And so it's difficult to really nail down schedules on when the waste really beginning to flow like we anticipate it will. Aaron Spychalla: Understood. And then maybe on international volumes, you kind of highlighted growth there in 2025. Just how are you thinking about the opportunities there as we look to 2026 and beyond? Mark Duff: Yes. We just wanted some work, Aaron, from Canada again to do some liquid treatment and at our Florida facility as well as the DSSI facility here in Oak Ridge. That's going to be a pretty good backlog. That will begin here mid-April and run pretty much through the summer and could be going longer than that. We've also got several other projects for different clients throughout Canada that would be likely to begin in Q3. The Mexico waste we did last year, there'll be another tranche of that out for bid here. It's already been out for bid. That won't likely get rolling probably until Q3 or Q4. And we continue to get strong waste from Germany, and that also is expected to be sustainable here through the latter part of the year. Then our TRC project is going very well in Italy. Unfortunately, even though it's ahead of schedule, actually, the remediation process is for pulling the is for pulling the drones out of the ground that will start here in April. So all the permits are done, all the paperwork is done and now it's actually a field work. That's not our scope. That's another company, another contract. And our scope will be to characterize as drums as come out, they come out and that won't start until Q3. And we'll start seeing any of that waste probably until Q1 of '27. So to answer your question, we probably won't see the same revenue levels as last year, but they'll be close, but probably 25%, 30% less than we saw last year with it ramping up in Q4 and have a stronger '27 of international waste. Aaron Spychalla: All right. And then on the permit, the expanding the capacity with everything going on at Hanford, just maybe talk about -- you've made investments, but just how you're preparing to handle all the volumes there? Mark Duff: Yes, Aaron. We just submitted our proposal on that a few weeks ago, and we've been pretty vocal about what our capacity expectations are. Right now, as I mentioned, we can do 1.2 million gallons a year of liquids. And what we're proposing DOE is that we will be submitting a permit mod through that permit here in the next few weeks and that permit mod will include ramping that up to an additional 3 million gallons on top of that. So worth a total of 4.2 million gallons total capacity for liquid treatment. That will cover all the waste streams we're talking about, plus the 3 million or 4 million in grouting for the tanks. And that permit mod is expected to take 6 to 9 months to get through the system. And we will be beginning to install or modify our facility to support that as well with investments here beginning in the second half of the year to get to that level. So the big deal about that permit renewal is a lot of things that are important to it, but the one that's probably most important since it's approved, now we can do permit mods. While they were reviewing that permit application, renewal application. For the last 16 years, we couldn't do mods to it because they kept saying, if you want to do a mod, we're going to stall on you or put your renewal down and pick up your mods, so you won't get your renewal. Now we have a renewal, we can do mods, and they'll be quicker and more efficient because they're not that complicated and allows us to be flexible on these things and to implement some new technologies, expand our current capacities and those kinds of things. So we really feel like being at a capacity of 4.2 million gallons a year based on the fact that the new administration is looking at such a large volume of waste that we should be able to get pretty much full capacity in the future. I don't know when that will be, a lot of it depends on how fast they can get it out of the tanks. But our capacity is not going to be a critical path, and we'll be very aggressive on what we can produce and what we can treat based on our capability. Aaron Spychalla: And then just maybe one last one on the balance sheet. Can you kind of talk about cash flow expectations? It sounds like there's some receivables at year end? And then just how you're thinking about CapEx and investments in '26, you kind of talked about some maybe in the back half. Ben Naccarato: Aaron, yes, the balance sheet, we still have a number of capital initiatives to support the increased productivity expected. And -- but our working capital remains in good shape. We don't normally comment on any kind of cash raises at this time. So right now, we're comfortable with our balance sheet at 12/31, and we will evaluate that as the opportunities and the capital needs come above. Operator: Our next question is coming from Walter Schenker of MAZ Partners. Walter Schenker: Just to get back to PFAS. So the original unit is -- it's a question, is operating commercially and treating waste streams currently, while you build the second unit? That's the first question. Mark Duff: That's correct, Walter. It runs -- it does about 650 gallons a day, and it's running about 4 days a week consistently. There was some downtime associated with it, our average is around 4 days a week. And again, we've taken what we've learned from that system and engineering issues with that and perfected it to the next system. So that next system will be more efficient in operations. But yes, it does about 650 for the gallons today. Walter Schenker: And as a range, not a specific number, for your ability to eliminate those PFAS chemicals, pricing is roughly where? For gallons? Mark Duff: Really, it depends on volume, but if we get a big volume, we typically discount, and it also depends on the characteristics of the PFAS concentrations and those types of things. But to give you a range, for bigger totes, we can do between $11 and $15 a gallon. For smaller quantities like a drum or buckets, a lot of that AFFF comes in smaller quantities, it can be above $30 a gallon. So it just depends on the quantities we're getting. As we get to the larger volumes that we can handle with the new system, we'll be pushing for larger volumes to receive, so we don't have to handle as much. But just to kind of give you a range, Walter, $10 to $15 a gallon is a pretty good range for higher volumes. Walter Schenker: And on higher volumes with that price range, a range for some sort of operating profit margin? Mark Duff: It's typical -- we try to design our system from the very beginning to stay in alignment with our other waste treatment margins, which incrementally our target is 60% to 70% incremental margins on average. So some maybe more, some maybe less depending on a lot of different factors, but it's generally alter in line with our treatment margins across the company. Walter Schenker: And my last question, the second unit to get you up to 3,000 gallons, the CapEx to build that was roughly what? Or is roughly what? Since it's not up yet? Mark Duff: Yes. It's in the -- correct me if I'm wrong, Ben, the $5 million -- $4 million to $5 million range, yes. Operator: Thank you very much. While we appear to have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I will now hand it back over to the management team for their closing comments. Mark Duff: Okay. Thank you, Jenny. And overall, we believe that Perma-Fix is entering a period where the strategic investments we've made over the past several years are beginning to translate into meaningful growth opportunities. We've significantly expanded our treatment capacity at our Perma-Fix Northwest facility strengthened our operational infrastructure, increased our treatment backlog and expanded our international project activity. At the same time, we continue to advance our additional opportunities across government and commercial markets, including projects related to nuclear remediation, weapons production and waste treatment, international waste streams and emerging PFAS destruction solutions. Importantly, the transition of the DFLAW system into its operational phase along with several additional infra-related waste streams and long-term remuneration initiatives currently under development represent meaningful catalysts for increased activity at our Northwest facility. While the timing of certain waste receipts and project mobilizations may create some variability in near-term quarterly results, we believe the second quarter should mark the beginning of a broader ramp and activity as additional waste streams begin moving through the -- and for cleanup system and new product work begins contributing to the revenue. As activity levels increase and we utilize more of this expanded treatment capacity, we believe higher throughput across our facilities should allow us to better absorb fixed operating costs and achieve meaningful margin improvement. When we consider the combined impact of the DFLAW ramp, additional Hanford cleanup programs, the tank retrieval and grouting initiatives currently under development, expanding international opportunities and the continued advancement of our PFAS technology, we believe the long-term opportunity for Perma-Fix has never been stronger. With that operator, thank you. Operator: Thank you very much. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation.
Laurence Tam: Good morning, everyone, for those who are based in China and Hong Kong; and good evening for those based in the U.S. This is the 2025 WuXi AppTec results call. My name is Laurence Tam. I'm a China health care analyst at Morgan Stanley. We're honored today to have the full team from WuXi AppTec to present the 2025 results in English. The format of the call will be 2 parts. First, I'll let management go through their prepared remarks. You can refer to the slides on the webcast. And then the second part will be a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]. With that, let me now pass it on to the Head of IR at WuXi AppTec, Ms. Tang Ruijia, to introduce management and to start the prepared remarks. I'll pass it on to you, Ruijia. Ruijia Tang: Okay. Thank you, Laurence. Welcome, everyone, to WuXi AppTec's 2025 Annual Results Conference Call. We released our financial results last night and have posted the latest on our company website. During today's call, we will make forward-looking statements. Although we believe that our predictions are reasonable, future events are uncertain, and our forward-looking statements may turn out to be incorrect. Accordingly, you are strongly cautioned that the reliance on any forward-looking statements involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties. In addition, to supplement the company's consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with IFRS, we provide adjusted IFRS financial data. We believe the adjusted financial measures are useful for understanding and assessing our core business performance, and we believe that investors may benefit from referring to these adjusted financial measures by eliminating the impact of certain unusual and nonrecurring items that are not indicative of the performance of our core business. However, these adjusted measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information under IFRS. All IP rights and other rights pertaining to the information and materials presented are owned by WuXi AppTec. Audio recording, video recording or disclosure of such materials by any means without the prior consent of WuXi AppTec is prohibited. This call does not intend to provide a complete statement of relevant matters. For relevant information, please refer to the company's disclosure documents and information on Shanghai Stock Exchange, Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the company's website. As usual, in today's call, there will be a Q&A session after our presentation. Please kindly share with us your name and institution before asking questions. With that, please allow me to introduce our Co-CEO, Dr. Minzhang Chen, to present our 2025 annual results. Minzhang, please? Minzhang Chen: Thanks, Ruijia. Good morning, and good evening. Thank you for joining our 2025 annual earnings call. We will begin on Slide #5. In 2025, WuXi AppTec beat full year guidance and achieved record performance in both revenue and profit. Total revenue achieved RMB 45.46 billion. Notably, revenue from continuing operations grew 21.4% year-over-year to reach RMB 43.42 billion. Our adjusted non-IFRS net profit grew 41.3% year-over-year to RMB 14.96 billion with non-IFRS net profit margin further improved 5.9 percentage points year-over-year to 32.9%. Next slide, please. The company remains focused on enhancing our core capabilities and capacity to better meet customer demand. With continuous capacity expansion by end of 2025, our backlog for continuing operations reached RMB 58 billion, growing 28.8% year-over-year. This does not include business operations we sold or discontinued such as clinical research services. Next slide, please. Slide 7 shows our diversified revenue streams of continuing operations. Based on customer headquarters, revenue generated from U.S. market grew 34.3% year-over-year. Japan, Korea and other regions grew 4.1%. Europe and China saw some decline, mainly due to fluctuations in project delivery timing. This diversified revenue structure reflects our global footprint and capabilities to enable health care innovations. We believe it will continue to underpin the stability and the resilience of our performance. Slide 8, please. So as an enabler of innovation and a trusted partner and contributor to the global pharmaceutical and life science industry, the company continues to drive sustainability, embrace initiatives with sustained recognition by leading global ratings. In 2025, we achieved our first MSCI AAA and CDP Climate Change A Rating, maintained CDP Water Security A, and EcoVadis Gold rating, and were included in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook for the fourth consecutive year. And meanwhile, our near-term greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets have been successfully validated by SBTi. As a committed UNGC participant and PSCI supplier partner, we actively embrace global initiatives and are dedicated to integrating sustainability into our business strategy and operations. Next slide, please. For over 2 decades, WuXi AppTec has remained steadfast in our commitment to safeguarding customers' IP and adhering to the highest standards for quality and compliance. In 2025, we completed 741 quality audits and inspections from global customers, regulatory authorities and independent third parties as well as 60 information security audits by global customers. This means, on average, we welcome 3 quality audits per day and over 1 information security audit per week, all with no critical findings. Currently, 20 of our main sites are ISO and IEC 27001 Certified, covering all main sites in China. IP is a lifeline for both our company and our customers. We uphold integrity as our foundation and enforce a zero tolerance policy against any infringement. This is our core value and our highest responsibility and commitment to our customers. Now let's move on to the segment performance. So please turn to Page 9. WuXi Chemistry's CRDMO business model drives continuous growth. In 2025, WuXi Chemistry revenue grew 25.5% year-over-year to RMB 36.47 billion, benefiting from continued process optimization and enhanced capacity efficiency driven by the growth of late-stage clinical and commercial projects. Our adjusted non-IFRS gross profit margin steadily improved 5.9 percentage points year-over-year, reaching 52.3%. Our Small Molecule Drug Discovery (R) business continues to generate downstream opportunities. In 2025, we have successfully synthesized and delivered over 420,000 new compounds to our customers. Meanwhile, 310 molecules were converted from R to D in 2022 (sic) [ 2025 ]. As we continue to strengthen the capabilities of our integrated CRDMO platform, we consistently enhance the internal conversion of molecules at different stages. Our Small Molecule D&M business remains strong, and the Small Molecule CDMO pipeline continued to expand. In 2025, Small Molecule D&M business revenue grew 11.4% year-over-year to RMB 19.92 billion. Meanwhile, the company continued to build small molecule capacity. In 2025, our Changzhou, Taixing and Jinshan API sites all successfully passed FDA on-site inspections with no single observation. By year-end, total reactor volume of small molecule APIs reached over 4,000 cubic meters. WuXi TIDES, our New Modalities business, sustained rapid growth. With the sequential ramp-up of new capacity released in 2024 and 2025, TIDES' revenue almost doubled to reach RMB 11.37 billion in 2025. As of year-end, TIDES' backlog grew 20.2% year-over-year. TIDES' D&M customers increased 25% year-over-year and its number of molecules increased 45% year-over-year. In September 2025, we completed Taixing peptide capacity construction ahead of schedule. The company's total reactor volume of Solid Phase Peptide Synthesizers has reached over 100,000 liters. Next page, please. So driven by Following the Molecule and Win the Molecule strategies, WuXi Chemistry's Small Molecule CRDMO pipeline efficiently converts and captures high-quality molecules and delivering sustained business growth. This reflects our customers' strong trust in our technical capabilities, our service efficiency and our quality system. In R stage, we delivered more than 420,000 new compounds in 2025, representing a significant scale. At the same time, the complexity of these molecules continue to increase, demonstrating the sustained demand from early-stage R&D customers for high-quality services. Building on this strong foundation, we continue to enhance the synergy between our R and D capabilities by strengthening the conversion of molecules from R to D. The new compounds synthesized in R stage serve as a continuous funnel, driving downstream demand for our D&M services. Moving to the D&M stage, we added 839 molecules to our pipeline in 2025 with 310 of them converted from R to D. As of year-end, our Small Molecule D&M pipeline reached 3,452 molecules, including 53 (sic) [ 83 ] commercial projects, 91 in Phase III, 377 in Phase II and 2,901 in Phase I and preclinical. Notably, commercial and Phase III projects increased by 22. As our late-stage pipeline grows, the complexity and the quality of molecules continue to grow. This deepens our collaboration with customers and lays a solid foundation for sustained long-term growth. Next page, please. Our TIDES business has maintained rapid growth over the past few years. So in 2025, TIDES' revenue grew a strong 96% year-over-year to reach RMB 11.37 billion, nearly double. We have been continuously enhancing our capabilities and capacity to better meet customer demand. Now I will hand over to our Co-CEO, Dr. Steve Yang, to talk about WuXi Testing and WuXi Biology. Steve, please. Qing Yang: Thanks, Minzhang. Please turn to Slide #14. In 2025, WuXi Testing revenue returned to positive growth, increasing 4.7% year-over-year to RMB 4.04 billion, of which revenue from drug safety evaluation service grew 4.6% year-over-year, maintained its leadership position in Asia Pacific. Adjusted non-IFRS gross profit margin declined year-over-year as the impact of market pricing were gradually reflected in revenue through backlog conversion. However, with our differentiated capabilities and enhanced operation management, margins continue to improve sequentially quarter-over-quarter. We actively enable customers in global licensing deals, supporting nearly 40% of the successful out-licensing projects from Chinese customers since 2022. Our new modality business continued to expand with revenue contributions exceeding 30% in 2025, maintaining a leading position in multiple areas. Meanwhile, we continue to advance automation. Our DMPK team launched a proprietary all-in-one compound identification software solution, improved efficiency by 80% (sic) [ 83% ] in spectral interpretation and metabolite identification for nucleic acids and peptide test articles. Finally, in 2025, our Suzhou and Shanghai facilities successfully passed multiple regulatory inspections by FDA, by OECD, NMPA and PMDA. This underscores the high quality of our GLP operations and our quality systems. Let's turn to Slide #15, please. WuXi Biology follows the science, strategically builds differentiated capabilities in emerging areas, and we actively expand our global customer outreach. This allows us to efficiently generate downstream opportunities for our CRDMO model, continuously contributing more than 20% of our new customers. We efficiently enable global customers through our integrated in vitro and in vivo drug discovery capabilities for biology, the cross-regional collaboration, end-to-end point in emerging areas. WuXi Biology revenue resumed positive growth in 2025, growing 5.2% year-over-year to RMB 2.68 billion. The adjusted non-IFRS gross profit margin was 36.9%, down 1.9 percentage point, reflecting market pricing dynamics. We closely follow market conditions with a flexible pricing strategy, maximize our value in generating downstream opportunities. Our revenue growth was driven by advancement in our comprehensive in vitro screening platform and enhanced in vivo pharmacology capabilities. Our non-oncology in vivo business maintained a competitive edge, serving as a key growth contributor to WuXi Biology. Our new modality business continued the momentum with the revenue contribution exceeding 30% in 2025, supported by rapid new customer expansion in multiple areas. Now I would like to turn the call to our CFO, Florence, to discuss our financial performance. Florence, please? Florence Shi: Thank you, Steve. Let's turn to Slide 17. We would like to recap on the company's financials. In 2025, we beat our full year guidance and achieved record high performance in revenue, profit and cash flow, all aspects. Thanks to the visibility provided by our CRDMO business model, we proactively planned our capacity and capabilities. As new capacity ramped up efficiently quarter-over-quarter, we timely supported the growing demand from late-stage clinical and commercial projects. Meanwhile, we continued to drive quality growth, strengthen our technological expertise and improve operational efficiency. In 2025, our adjusted non-IFRS gross profit reached RMB 21.89 billion. Adjusted non-IFRS gross profit margin expanded to 48.2%, up 6.6 percentage points year-over-year. Adjusted non-IFRS net profit grew 41.3% to RMB 14.96 billion. Correspondingly, adjusted non-IFRS net profit margin improved by 5.9 percentage points to reach 32.9%. Net profit after deducting nonrecurring items grew 32.6% to RMB 13.24 billion and net profit attributable to the owners of the company surged 102.6% (sic) [ 105.2% ] to RMB 19.15 billion (sic) [ RMB 19.19 billion ]. Building on our robust business growth, we sharpened our focus on the CRDMO core business and continue to enhance our investment management capabilities. This resulted in pretax investment gains exceeding RMB 8 billion in 2025. further boosting our net profit attributable to the owners of the company. Consequently, our diluted earnings per share reached RMB 6.61 (sic) [ RMB 6.63 ], more than doubling year-over-year. Please turn to Slide 18. With sustained business growth, particularly the rapid increase in late-stage clinical and commercial projects, combined with enhanced operational efficiency and financial management, our 2025 adjusted operating cash flow reached a record high of RMB 16.67 billion, growing 39.1% year-over-year. This fully demonstrates the sustainable momentum driven by our high-quality molecules and projects. We continue to actively advance our global capacity expansion as planned with CapEx payment of RMB 5.54 billion in 2025. Now I'd like to hand over to Minzhang to share the company outlook. Minzhang, please. Minzhang Chen: Okay. Please turn to Slide 20. Okay. We remain focused on our unique integrated CRDMO core business, accelerating the growth of our global capabilities and capacity. We provide highly efficient and exceptional services to our customers, benefiting patients worldwide and driving long-term growth. We will also drive the O in our CRDMO model operations. By driving optimized management and operations, we aim to continuously improve, improving efficiency and strengthen organizational resilience to navigate dynamic market conditions. With customers' ongoing demand for enabling services, our CRDMO business model and management execution, the company is confident to sustain rapid business growth. We expect total revenue to reach RMB 51.3 billion to RMB 53 billion in 2026, with continuing operations revenue growing 18% to 22% year-over-year. By continuously driving quality growth, realizing scale efficiency and enhancing operational excellence, while proactively managing new capacity ramp-up and exchange rate challenges, we are confident in maintaining a stable and resilient adjusted non-IFRS net profit margin in 2026. Finally, CapEx for 2026 is expected to reach RMB 6.5 billion to RMB 7.5 billion. Along with business growth and efficiency improvements, we expect adjusted free cash flow to reach RMB 10.5 billion to RMB 11.5 billion. Next page, please. While accelerating the growth of our global capacity and capabilities, we remain committed to rewarding shareholders and actively upholding the company's value. The Board proposes a cash dividend distribution plan totaling a record RMB 5.7 billion in 2026. Specifically, we plan to maintain the 30% annual cash dividend payout ratio, expecting to distribute 2025 dividend of RMB 4.71 billion, while continuing our interim dividend plan of RMB 1 billion in 2026. To continuously attract and retain top talent, we proposed the 2026 H-share incentive Trust plan. Under this plan, no more than HKD 1.5 billion worth of H-shares will be granted if 2026 revenue reaches RMB 51.3 billion. An additional HKD 1 billion worth of H-shares will be granted if revenue reaches RMB 53.0 billion or above. This aims to strengthen management resilience and align our team for long-term shared growth. Importantly, all underlying H-shares will be purchased in the open market at prevailing market prices with no dilution to existing shareholders. Thanks for your attention, and we are now open for questions. Laurence Tam: Thanks a lot, Minzhang Chen, Steve Yang, Florence and also Ruijia. We will now enter the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] So let me start off with the first question. First of all, let me congratulate management on a fantastic 2025 and a very positive 2026 guidance. Obviously, this year, there's a lot of uncertainty in the markets and also, we have experienced a lot of volatility. Despite that, the company delivered a very positive 2025 and a continuing operations revenue growth range expected for 2026 of 18% to 22%, which means that the midpoint is 20% growth in 2026 for continuing operations, which gives investors a lot of visibility. One of the key concerns this year from investors for the CXO industry is the exchange rate. Year-to-date, the U.S. dollar has depreciated against the RMB. So the first question is, in the context of this renewed guidance, how does management think about the impact of currency exchange? And what is your outlook or guidance for each of the 3 business units? Ruijia Tang: Yes, thanks. We do consider the FX movement and the challenges. So I also would like to appreciate everyone who recognize, even with not only the FX, but with all the complexity and the volatility in the macro environment we are navigating, every company is navigating today, we still provide a very clear and narrow guidance range of our total revenue, which is only about like 3% of our top line, at the beginning of the year, which is pretty consistent with our historical practice. Basically, that reflects the strong visibility in our CRDMO business model and our confidence in our execution capabilities, same as the management capabilities on the FX movement as well. Laurence Tam: Thanks a lot, Ruijia. So the second question is a little bit on geopolitics. Obviously, the situation in the Middle East has escalated in recent weeks, and investors are worried about the rise in oil prices and the impact on raw material costs. Your margins improved significantly last year. And this year, the guidance is that margins would be stable. How would you think about the impact of geopolitics and oil prices on your margins going forward? Florence Shi: Yes, I will comment on the cost fluctuations that could be impacted. So first of all, our global operations are running smoothly as usual, okay? We acknowledge there are potential risk to certain upstream raw material costs, but it takes time to transmit through the broader supply chain. We haven't seen any direct or quantifiable impact on our operations or cost, but we will closely monitor the situation and the market dynamics as everyone did. We have mature and diversified procurement network in place in past 25 years. On top of that, we are constantly optimizing our manufacturing process, driving operational efficiency, which helps us focus on the certainty of meeting the customer demands in need and remain committed to deliver exceptional services. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Florence. So we get to sell-side and investor questions now. So I will first start with 2 questions from Goldman Sachs, Chen Ziyi. So his first question is the company continued to be highly committed to TIDES' CapEx. So he would like to understand a bit more on the pipeline behind the CapEx budget beyond injectable peptides, which has been a key driver in the past 3 years? And what would be the next key modalities that could potentially be the new focus, for example, siRNA, antisense oligos, oral peptides or any new modalities that biopharma is thinking about at the early stages? Minzhang Chen: Well, so right now, there are many modalities. It's a combination. So there is no single modality that can replace all. So we have small molecules, we have peptides, and we have oligos, and we have all kinds of conjugates. But currently, the demand for peptides itself is so high, so we continue to build the capacity and to meet the market demand for the peptides. At the same time, we're also seeing oligonucleotide is growing. And although the market is still small, but we see that there are many, many molecules in the pipeline, and also it's going from rare disease now to a very broad to general disease. So the growth will be fast. And also small molecule. Now the molecules became more and more complex. So to manufacture, in large scale, very complex molecules, needed very technical capabilities as well as manufacturing capacities to meet the market demand. So we are doing all this. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Chen. So Ziyi's next question is there's been some debate on what will be the impact of pharma's announced big CapEx on building internal capacity, particularly in the U.S.? What is WuXi AppTec's view on that? Have you sensed any change on client outsourcing strategy in the past 6 to 12 months? Minzhang Chen: Yes. So in the pharmaceutical industry, historically, all the API drug products are manufactured internally. And then some of the work is done by the CMO, CDMO. And so this has a long history. So it's nothing new that the large pharma is also manufactured internally, nothing new. But we just committed continuously to improve our capabilities and to invest in capacities and provide the best service and meet the customer needs. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Chen. So the next few questions are coming from Michael Luo of CLSA. His first question is, can WuXi AppTec give us some color on the current utilization rate of the company's 4,000 cubic meter small molecule API capacity? And also, do you still have any plan to expand capacity in this area this year? Minzhang Chen: Yes. Our current capacity is highly utilized. And we have the -- well, because we don't really talk about the capacity for the -- we are building the capacity for small molecules, but actually, we have the land and we continuously build the small molecule capacities to meet the demand. So we grow double digit, over 11% last year, to almost RMB 20 billion for the Small Molecule D&M. So that means a lot of capacity. And this year, we expect accelerated growing from the Small Molecule D&M. So there will be more capacity. So we continue to build new capacity for small molecules. And if you go to our Taixing site, we have the land and we continue to build the new plants all the time. Laurence Tam: And his next question is, beyond obesity and diabetes-related projects, can management highlight any pipeline products or areas that may become meaningful contributors to revenue growth in the next 3 to 5 years? Minzhang Chen: Yes. So our business model is a CRDMO business model. So we have a very broad pipeline. So for example, currently, our D&M pipeline for small molecules, we have more than 3,000 molecules. And so, as a funnel, we continuously have the project moving to the late phase and the commercial projects. And many of those projects are very high-quality molecules. Clearly, GLP-1 right now has the most demand in terms of volume. But also, we have quite a few very promising high-quality molecules into the late phase and the commercial stage. For example, the PCSK9 molecule, autoimmune molecule, pain, neuroscience. So we have a number of that. Just the number I gave in the Investor Day last year, 2024, the Drug Hunter named top 10 molecules, and we work on 8 of them. Again, just a few days ago, they published 2025 top 10 molecules, and we work on 7 of them; and the best-selling small molecules, the top 10, we work on 4 of them. So we work on many of the high quality as big large volume molecules. But of course, right now, GLP-1 is still the #1, no doubt about that. Laurence Tam: Thank you. His next question is, can management share how you're thinking about CapEx allocation this year, in particular, which business areas or capacity building are likely to be the key focus going forward? Florence Shi: Yes. I think the CapEx spending really reflects our business model and our global expansion strategy. So a majority of our CapEx spending will be put on the CDMO capacity expansion, because our business generates more and more downstream D&M projects. And also, we're accelerating our global expansion in U.S., Europe and also the Middle East in future. But at the same time, we are also expanding the capacity for both small molecule and new modalities in China as well. Laurence Tam: Okay. Thank you, Florence. His last question is, given the recent volatility in the Middle East, has the company's strategic approach to the region changed in any way? And also which types of business or operations, if any, do you see as potentially suitable for the Middle East over time? Qing Yang: Yes, our global capacity and capability building is our long-term strategy. Clearly, that will continue. And we have announced a memorandum of understanding with government agencies with Saudi Arabia late last year. And our strategic initiatives in Saudi Arabia continue to proceed. We are engaging with relevant stakeholders and develop tactical plans for the next step. So that continue. Our CRDMO business model and our globalization of our capacity and capability is really the key to our continued growth, and we will continue to build the global capacities. In terms of what suitable area in Saudi Arabia, we are going through a deep dive with the advisory of local strategic advisory firms to understand local regulatory requirement and what are the suitable capabilities we should localize. Based on our preliminary feedback, clearly, there are lots of opportunities. We will likely start in the discovery space and then gradually expand to other part of our global platform. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Yang. Next, we have 3 questions coming from CICC's Wanhua. First question is, what is the current capacity utilization rate of the company's solid phase peptide capacity, which now exceeds 100,000 liters? What level of utilization does the company expect to reach in 2026? Are there any plans for further capacity expansion? Minzhang Chen: Yes. The peptide capacity currently is highly used. So as a result, actually, we just started 2 new TIDES buildings, so for both peptide and oligo, we just started 2 TIDES building construction in our Taixing site. In the meantime, we also built a new plant in Singapore for TIDES. So in short, yes, our capacity is highly utilized right now, and we are building new capacities to meet the growing demand. Laurence Tam: Thank you, Dr. Chen. Her second question is, what is the progress of U.S. and Singapore sites? And is it currently in line with expectations? How will these new facilities coordinate with the company's domestic capacity? And has there been any change to the expected time line for commencing operations? Minzhang Chen: Both projects are on time, on schedule and on budget. So our U.S. plant, which is in Middletown, Delaware, is for drug products. So it will have both oral solid dosage and injectables once completely operational. So hope Q4 this year, we're going to start the operation of the oral solid dosage, and a year later, Q4 next year, we're going to start the injectable business. Yes, this is the U.S. plant side. For the Singapore side, it's also on schedule and on budget, and the first plant will be operational next year, '27, and that is for API. So this way, then we will have a dual supply chain for the customers, so they can either get made in China or made outside China, which is in Singapore, for API. On the drug product, U.S. side is mainly for the U.S., North American market customers. And we also have a drug product facility in Switzerland, which is mainly for the European market. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Chen. Her last question is, the company has seen a significant increase in inventory. Is this mainly related to stocking for large orders? When are the corresponding orders for these inventories expected to be recognized as revenue? Florence Shi: Yes. I think this truly reflects our business model of our CRDMO business. Our inventory is being built based on the orders in hand. At the same time, as we have the capabilities to capture the high-quality molecules, which is more complex and takes longer manufacturing process, so that's why the inventory growth is higher than the revenue growth. I think that's a further validation of the high-quality growth trajectory of our business. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Florence. So next, we'll go back to Ziyi Chen from Goldman Sachs. He has a question on AI. So in the past 2 months, U.S. CRO company share prices have been hit hard by concerns on AI and how it could pose competitive pressure on pricing or volume for lab services and clinical services. What is WuXi AppTec's view on the impact of AI, particularly on its Testing and Biology segments? Qing Yang: So first of all, our Biology and Testing business remain robust, both in terms of the return to positive growth, as we reported, and also our outlook for 2026. We actually believe AI in combination with human intelligence could be a huge enabler, not only for our industry, but specifically for our company, and help us to increase efficiency, at the same time, increase our ability to anticipate and forecast the future in terms of customer needs and in terms of capacity utilization. This is an area we have invested heavily in terms of our ability to using operational data to make our animal room scheduling, study scheduling, reactor cleaning as well as other aspects of work become more efficient. The example we cited during the presentation on spectral resolution and interpretation for our DMPK team is a good sign. That situation is obviously very different from as we have seen in other sectors such as in enterprise software. Secondly, we do believe our wet lab capabilities to generate massive data and with high quality and consistency is actually very important for companies who are interested to build a new model and algorithms to increase their prediction capabilities. And we had opportunity to work with many leading companies in this space. And so while they may have models that have the potential to generate new hypothesis, at this stage most of those models require high-quality data, and we are uniquely positioned to provide those data. So this is actually a driver to more business for our Biology and Testing business. And finally, we believe, for our CRDMO model, with more advancement in ability to unlock either target space or come with new hypothesis to design molecules, it will only accelerate the flow of new ideas into project start, and that will ultimately benefit the funnel, the CRDMO funnel, in a world where research and discovery become even more globalized and decentralized. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Yang. So now we have 2 questions coming from Chen Chen of UBS. First, U.S. FDA has announced that it plans to drop the standard requirement of 2 Phase III or pivotal trials. Instead, the FDA's default position will be for Phase III trial for drug approvals. Do you think that it would accelerate drug approvals and benefit your new orders growth? Qing Yang: I will start and then invite Minzhang for additional comments. So first of all, any regulatory streamlined process will benefit from patients. Secondly, any acceleration in clinical development potentially will drive more demand and more timely demand for drug substance and drug product to supply clinical trial. And if that shortens clinical development time frame, it will help actually accelerate the commercialization drive. So we think all of those initiatives that shorten the time to patients will be beneficial for our CRDMO model. Minzhang, any additional comments? Minzhang Chen: No, I think that's well said. Laurence Tam: Thank you, Dr. Yang, Dr. Chen. So her next question is, one of your biggest clients announced a 10-year plan to invest USD 3 billion in expanding its oral dosage supply chain in China, focusing on oral GLP-1 manufacturing. And one of your peers, a CDMO, has received part of this investment, actually USD 200 million initially. Do you think you can also benefit from this multinational investment in China and to what extent? Minzhang Chen: Well, so we all know that GLP-1 drugs, no matter it's peptide or small molecule, has a huge demand and so this announcement, this investment just further proved that, yes, the demand is very high for the molecule. So because the demand is very high, and we are the major player in this field, so we believe we will benefit from the opportunities. I don't want to comment on the specific partnership or collaborations, but -- so the USD 3 billion investment, right now it's only USD 200 million, so we have to spend the rest. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Chen. So the next question comes from Huang Yang of JPMorgan. What is WuXi AppTec's positioning in oral small molecule GLP-1 CDMO business? Minzhang Chen: Well, we had a double-digit growth last year, and we are accelerating the growth for the small molecule this year. And part of the contribution of this growth is from the GLP-1 small molecule. Laurence Tam: Okay. And his next question is, it seems that Small Molecule D&M business will have better growth in 2026 versus 2025. What would be the main drivers for that? Minzhang Chen: Well, it's just demand, high demand, because the drug will be approved this year, I believe. Laurence Tam: Okay. Next, we have 2 questions coming from an investor from Franklin Templeton. "Hi, this is Harry from Franklin Templeton. Congrats on the robust performance. So firstly, what is the revenue breakdown? What is the mix do you see? And how do you see the geographical mix changing? Growth, obviously, is very strong in the U.S., while Europe and China are showing some recovery." So let's first address this question. Minzhang Chen: Florence, do you want to comment on the mix? Florence Shi: Okay. Yes. I think because we follow the customer, follow the molecule, and follow the science. So the geographic revenue growth really demonstrates where the innovation comes from, where's the customer need, our capabilities and the capacities. We do see the strong growth from across all the regions, and we believe that we can better deliver and execute in 2026. Minzhang Chen: Thanks, Florence. Yes, we see the PO growth across all the regions for 2025. So we believe that's growth for all the regions in 2026, but particularly the growth was strong last year in U.S. So that's why the percentage of the other regions relatively becomes smaller, but we expect the growth for all regions this year. And the small decline in China and Europe last year was mainly due to the delivery schedule of some large projects, but the growth momentum is there. Florence Shi: Yes. I think that's basically proof we have very good position everywhere. And we continue to see the strong growth in U.S., in China, and Europe and all the other regions. Laurence Tam: Okay. And his next question is on the TIDES business. How do you see sustainability of its growth? Minzhang Chen: Yes. So the largest product that we are making, the demand will continue to grow in the next many years by market forecast. So the demand will continue to grow. We also are working on quite a few late phase, very promising projects, which potentially could be big products as well. One more step back, we are a CRDMO, so we have a very big pipeline, not only in small molecules, but also in peptides and also in oligonucleotides. We have a pipeline and that pipeline continues to funnel the projects into the late phase and commercial projects. And that's where our sustained long-term growth comes from. Laurence Tam: Okay. And on oligonucleotides, what is WuXi AppTec's differentiation from the other oligo CDMOs or manufacturers? Minzhang Chen: Yes. So like all other modalities like peptides small molecule, if you can find a place that has quality, speed, cost, technical capability and the capacity, you tell me. So I think it's the same. So we put all this together, and I think that's our unique advantage. Laurence Tam: And his last question is, can you give us some color on the general time line that it takes for a new facility to be built and to contribute in a meaningful way to earnings? Minzhang Chen: So in China, we can do that in less than 12 months from start to fully operational. Laurence Tam: So we have 2 questions next coming from Nomura's Zhang Jialin. So firstly, what is the range for the TIDES business gross margin? Do we calculate over 60%, is this about the right range? And how should we think about the margin trend for TIDES? Minzhang Chen: Well, I don't believe we disclose the margin for TIDES. Florence, can you answer that? Florence Shi: Yes. We don't disclose the specific margin. But I think the margin naturally reflects our capabilities, the capacities and the value creation to the customers. Laurence Tam: Okay. His next question is, how is the current Middle East situation or conflict impacting the company's investment view in Saudi Arabia in the midterm? Qing Yang: As I already mentioned earlier, we don't see any near-term disturbance changing our long-term strategy. Our long-term strategy is strengthen CRDMO model, build global capacity wherever there is a customer need. And we're continually engaging with stakeholders in Saudi Arabia and proceed with evaluation of different localization options. Those continue to proceed based on our plan. Laurence Tam: Thanks, Dr. Yang. So next, we'll go to Citi's John Yung. You initially guided continuing operations revenue to grow 10% to 15% for 2025, and you delivered 21% plus. Now the same guidance for 2026 is a range of 18% to 22%. Should we also expect this guidance to be prudent and that you are confident to beat it? Florence Shi: Rather than calling our guidance prudent, I would view it as responsible to the market, right? And I appreciate you track our records. We are navigating a lot of the complex and volatile macro environments today, but we do have the confidence to execute the guidance we provide to the market. Of course, we will closely monitor and give the updated time line to all the investors if we see any different situation. Laurence Tam: Thank you, Florence. So next, we'll go back to Ziyi Chen's question. So 2026 guidance has been very clear and exciting. He would like to understand the growth sustainability a bit more. What is the reasonable growth expectation beyond 2026, when the TIDES business will be slowing down given the large base and key product cycles. What could be the key growth driver beyond 2026? Florence Shi: I think we have the confidence to keep the sustainable growth. And basically, we follow the molecules, and the CRDMO model really gives us the confidence. We will continuously capture the high-quality molecules and follow the science. And we do have the capabilities and capacities to better serve our customers. Laurence Tam: Okay. And going back to Nomura's Zhang Jialin, he has a follow-up question. Can management help us understand the competitive landscape of siRNA CRO space and the growth outlook? How much will it contribute to the current TIDES segment? Minzhang Chen: Yes. So there are many players out there that have provided the CDMO service on the oligonucleotides, specifically, I think siRNA. And also siRNA has a very large percentage in our pipeline as well. Like I said, we continue to focus on the service we provide, and we continue to focus on both the quality service, the capacity, the speed and the competitive cost. So I think with our unique advantage, we just focus on providing the best service and win the competition in the end, just like we do in every modality in our business. Laurence Tam: So next, we have an investor question. WuXi AppTec has RMB 42-plus billion of backlog expected to be converted in 2026, but you're guiding for RMB 51.3 billion to RMB 53 billion of total revenue. So that means roughly an extra RMB 9 billion to RMB 11 billion will need to come from new orders signed and delivered within the year. In the current environment, with trade policy uncertainty, how confident are you in that year booking assumption? And has Q1 2026 order activity remained consistent with that trajectory? Florence Shi: Yes. I think you're right. You noticed. Actually, in our total backlog, it is expected to convert -- like 70% of our total backlog is expected to convert into the revenue in 2026, which is within the next 12 months. I think our ability to convert orders into revenue with speed and efficiency actually reflects our strong execution capabilities across our whole organization. And if you compare with the historical number, actually the percentage is significantly improved, which also demonstrates we have more and more late-stage clinical and commercial projects on hand. That really enhances the near-term visibilities and the certainty of our growth trajectory. As I mentioned, with all the efforts we are making, we do have the confidence to deliver our guidance. And of course, we always try to beat it, right? So I don't see there is any big concern about the new orders coming in the conversion. Laurence Tam: Okay. Great. Thanks, Florence. So last question, let me wrap up by touching a bit on geopolitics. We haven't really talked about the 1260H list from the U.S. Pentagon. Obviously, it was released shortly in February and then withdrawn within like an hour. And a lot of investors looked at that list and saw WuXi AppTec being on there together with a lot of big Chinese companies. Does the company have anything to say on that? Obviously, Sino-U.S. relations were moving in a positive direction in the months prior to that with obviously, the BIOSECURE bill not naming the WuXi companies. What is the company's view on relations between the 2? Qing Yang: Yes, I'll take that question. So as you mentioned that we have seen that in February the list was put on and withdrawn. So at this time, the final 1260H list for 2026 has not been officially published. And there's no definitive timetable at this time as to when this is going to publish, no one actually knows, and we won't make any prediction or speculations for the timing of the U.S. government's actions. At the same time, they are very confident that WuXi AppTec shall not be included in the 1260H list. We are a publicly traded company listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai with a transparent corporate governance. The company is not owned or controlled by any government or affiliated with any government or military organization. So at this moment, the company will continue to monitor the situation and take all necessary actions to correct any misinformation and clarify any misunderstandings. And in terms of BIOSECURE Act, you mentioned that -- we all know that the bill was passed as part of the NDAA at the end of last year. Since then, there's no recent development on the implementation. So we'll continue to monitor. Laurence Tam: Thank you very much. So we're coming up to the time limit. So let me pass it back to management to do concluding remarks. Minzhang Chen: All right. Thank you all for joining today's earnings call. So 2025 is the 25th anniversary of WuXi AppTec. So for the past 25 years, WuXi AppTec has been dedicated to lowering the barriers to R&D and advancing health care innovation worldwide. Entering 2026 with a sharpened focus on our core CRDMO strategy, we are accelerating the growth of our global capabilities and capacities, further improving production and operational efficiency and delivering greater value for customers and shareholders. Staying true to our founding aspiration, we will remain committed to doing the right thing and do it right, enabling our partners to deliver life-saving therapies to patients in need and advancing our vision that every drug can be made and every disease can be treated. Thank you all. Laurence Tam: Thank you very much to WuXi AppTec's management and the IR team. This will conclude the presentation. Thank you all for joining. Florence Shi: Thank you. Ruijia Tang: Thank you. Qing Yang: Thank you. Laurence Tam: Bye.
Operator: Good evening, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by for 17EdTech's Fourth Quarter 2025 and Full Year Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I'll now turn the meeting over to your host for today's call, Ms. Lara Zhao, 17EdTech's Investor Relations Manager. Please proceed, Lara. Lara Zhao: Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Our earnings release was distributed earlier today and is available on our IR website. Joining us today are Ms. Sishi Zhou, Chief Financial Officer; and myself, Investor Relations Manager. Sishi will walk you through our latest business performance and strategies and I will discuss our financial performance in more detail. After the prepared remarks, Sishi will be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the company's control. These risks may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially. Further information regarding these or other factors -- other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the company's filings with the U.S. SEC. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, to review some of our business development and strategic direction. Sishi? Sishi Zhou: Thank you, Lara. Hello, everyone. Thank you all for joining us on our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. Before we begin, I would like to note that the financial information and the non-GAAP numbers in this release are presented on a continuing operational basis and in RMB, unless otherwise stated. Let me begin with our latest business update. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we continued to deliver steady progress in our core business with top line growth on a year-over-year and quarter-on-quarter basis. Our school-based subscription model business continued to expand, contributing a growing share in total revenue, emerging as a key contributor during the quarter. Meanwhile, we successfully launched our new consumer-facing product, [ ETIC, ] which is closely aligned with the National AI plus education initiative. Leveraging the brand recognition and user trust cultivated over the past decade. Our new AI membership products have achieved strong presale orders and received highly positive market feedback since its launch, demonstrating its robust growth prospects in the quarters ahead. Notably, the robust preseale demand for our new products generated a significant increase in free cash flow. At of quarter end, we maintained a healthy cash balance of RMB 407 million, reflecting the promising trajectory of our new AI-powered offering and the positive expectations for future cash flow. Now let me go into more details. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we recorded net revenues of RMB 38.9 million an increase of 94.6% on a quarter-on-quarter basis and a 6.4% growth on a year-over-year basis, driven by the growing contribution of recurring revenue under subscription model as well as our consistent commitment to cost control. Gross was restored to a normalized level of 46.1% in Q4, a 12.5 percentage point increase on a year-over-year basis, benefiting from sustained efficiency improvements, our net loss narrowed by 16.8% year-over-year. We also generated positive net operating cash inflow in the quarter driven by the strong momentum of our new [ CN ] business and continuous improvement in operational efficiency. During the quarter, our school-based subscription model business maintained positive progress, contributing a growing share of total revenue. The increase in net revenues from this segment reflects its recurring nature as it continues to scale effectively. The steady progress of our school-based subscription business has not only strengthened our financial health, including gross margin and other key metrics, but also helped us reach a broader base of potential users and enhanced brand influence, laying a solid foundation for the launch of our [ CN ] business. In response to the national initiative of embedding AI throughout the entire educational process and guided by our mission to make learning a wonderful experience, during the quarter, we successfully rolled out AI personalized learning membership product, [ ETIC ] targeting [ CN ] users. Levering to the user trust built over years, strong brand endorsement from our district level and school-based projects as well as mature smart hardware capabilities and solid AI foundation with new AI membership product has garnered a strong market enthusiasm and a robust preorder volume. In the design of this product, we are committed to enabling users to achieve a more personalized, effective and enjoyable learning experience in less time. It deeply integrates our hardware and software capabilities together with the exclusive content resources we have built over the past decade. Our Smart Pen captures full process writing data while respecting traditional play and paper habits. It efficiently digitalized handwritten notes and exercise responses, visualizing users thinking process rather than simply uploading final answers. By visualizing these thinking patterns, we are able to deliver personalized learning diagnostics, generate AI-powered customized practice nodes and intelligently recommend similar learning exercises, enabling highly efficient and focused learning practice. Users' own notes taken with this [indiscernible] with support for custom tag, categorization and quick search. As a result, users can quickly identify their learning areas for improvement without spending extra time manually organizing paper notes comparing practice notes or searching for relevant problems. In addition, our AI panel provides study supervision based on personalized diagnostics and over tailored learning plans aligned with the local learning schedules and individual progress. This allows users to focus on their growth areas and improve efficiently. These personalized practice and planning capabilities are backed by our 10 years of deep insight into local learning profiles supported by massive data from large-scale regular full scenario usage across our platform. The product also features interactive tools, including AI Q&A and AI transmission, et cetera, along with a suite of value-added learning resources. Notably, we have introduced Toby Smart Rabbit, an intelligent learning companion that provides emotional support through natural voice interaction. It reminds users to study, offers encouragement and makes the learning experience warmer and more engaging, helping users stay consistent with the personalized learning journeys. Looking ahead, we will continue to explore innovation practices in AI plus education and steadily reiterate and upgrade our products. Our business segments, serving [ GN, BN and CN ] users will grow in synergy as we further strengthen our brand influence and enhance user value. The above concludes the business update. Now I will turn the call over to Lara to walk you through our latest financial performance. Thank you. Lara Zhao: Thanks, Sishi, and thank you, everyone, for joining the call. I will now walk you through our financial and operating results. Please note that all financial data I talk about will be presented in RMB terms. We are pleased to announce healthy financial results for the first -- for the fourth quarter of 2025 with top line growth of 94.6% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2025 was 46.1%, representing a 12.5 percentage point increase on a year-on-year basis compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, our continued focus on operational efficiency resulted in narrowing losses in the fourth quarter and the fiscal year of 2025. Despite an increase in sales and marketing expenses in support of the launch of our new AI-powered consumer business, we achieved a reduction in total operating expenses for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025 by 10.9% and 24.3%, respectively, resulting in narrowing losses by 16.8% and 20.0%, respectively, on a GAAP basis. Next, I will walk you through our fourth quarter financials in greater detail. Net revenues in the fourth quarter of 2025, we recorded net revenues of RMB 38.9 million compared with RMB 36.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, representing a 6.4% increase on a year-on-year basis which was primarily due to the increase in net revenues from the school-based subscription model business, which is demonstrating its recurring nature as it continues to scale. Cost of revenues for the fourth quarter of 2025 was RMB 21.0 million, USD 3.0 million, representing a year-over-year decrease of 13.6% and from RMB 24.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, which was mainly due to the fewer district level project deliveries for our teaching and learning SaaS offerings as a result of a new -- as a result of growing proportion of recurring revenue and the subscription model that requires fewer hardware and software deliveries. Gross profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 was RMB 17.9 million, USD 2.6 million compared with RMB 12.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2025 was 46.1% compared with 33.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024, representing a 12.5 percentage point increase on a year-on-year basis. The increase was largely attributable to higher contribution from the school-based subscription business with higher margins as well as enhanced operating leverage as our subscription model business growth. Total operating expenses for the fourth quarter of 2025 were RMB 72.5 million which is USD 10.4 million increased RMB 8.9 million of share-based compensation expenses representing a year-over-year decrease of 10.9% from RMB 81.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Sales and marketing expenses for the fourth quarter of 2025 was RMB 40.2 million, including RMB 1.7 million of share-based compensation expenses, representing a year-over-year decrease of [ 99.0 ] from RMB 20.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. This was primarily attributed to the increased market workforce and related expenses in support of the launch of our new AI powered consumer business. Research and development expenses for the fourth quarter of 2025 were RMB 16.3 million, USD 2.3 million, including RMB 2.9 million of share-based compensation expenses representing a year-over-year decrease of 3.8% from RMB 17.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. The decrease was primarily due to the decrease in the share-based compensation compared with the same period last year. Generating and administrative expenses for the fourth quarter '25 were RMB 16.0 million, USD 2.3 million, including RMB 4.3 million of share-based compensation expenses, representing a year-over-year decrease of 63.8% from RMB 44.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. This was primarily due to the decrease in share-based compensation and the effect of one-off expenses in impairment loss provision in the fourth quarter of 2024. Loss from operations for the fourth quarter of 2025 was RMB 54.86 million, USD 7.8 million compared with RMB 69.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Loss from operations as a percentage of net revenues for the fourth quarter of 2025 was negative 142 -- 140.2% compared with negative 188.8% in the fourth quarter of 2024. Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2025 was RMB 53 million compared with net loss of RMB 63.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Net loss as a percentage of net revenues was negative 160 -- 136.1% in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared with negative 174.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024. Adjusted net loss non-GAAP for the fourth quarter of 2025 was RMB 44.1 million, which is USD 6.3 million compared with adjusted net loss non-GAAP of RMB 40.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Adjusted net loss, non-GAAP, as a percentage of net revenues was negative [indiscernible] in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared with negative 109.5% of adjusted net loss as a percentage of net revenues in the fourth quarter of 2024. Please refer to the table captioned reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures at the end of this press release, for reconciliation of net loss under U.S. GAAP to the adjusted net loss non-GAAP. Cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and term deposits were RMB 407.0 million which is USD 58.2 million as of December 31, 2025, compared with RMB 359.3 million as of December 31, 2024. Going forward, we will continue to strengthen our core strength with the advancement of AI capabilities serving as a key driver of our sustainable growth. At the same time, we will further enhance cross-business synergies and reinforce our business resilience to support long-term development. These integrated efforts enable us to combine our respective strengths and deliver consumer-centric offerings that truly resonate, creating a sustainable growth pathway that generates lasting value for both learners and shareholders. With that, we conclude our prepared remarks. Thank you. Operator, we are now ready to begin the Q&A session. Operator: [Operator Instructions] I'm showing no questions. I'll now turn the conference back to Ms. Lara Zhao for closing comments. Lara Zhao: Thank you, operator. In closing, on behalf of 17EdTech's management team, we'd like to thank you for your participation on today's call. If you require any further information, please feel free to reach out to us directly. Thank you for joining us today. This concludes... Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2025 Results and 2026 Outlook Conference Call. I am Mathilde, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Stefan Weber, CEO. Please go ahead. Stefan Weber: Thank you, Mathilde, and good afternoon, everybody in Europe. Good evening, everybody in Asia, and good morning and early 6:30, have a good starting to the day from Dana Point, California. As usual in the past years, we are spread over the world. The only person right now in our Milan offices is the CFO as he should be. He's sitting on the money that we need to spend in the upcoming period. Our Chief Medical Officer, Ravi Anand, is right now preparing for the SIRS, Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference that starts tomorrow. And I am attending the conference of ROTH Capital at Dana Point. So welcome to this call. I hope you have had a chance to download the slide deck that we are going to guide you through, and I will start with Slide #4. So if we look back at the last 15 months and the period that we are reporting about, and I will then do the outlook for '26 and hand over to Ravi for the new science and R&D progress and then to Roberto for the financials and the AGM EGM that is upcoming. If we look back, this has really been a period that couldn't have been much better. We practically hit all the quick points. We made all the milestones. But what I want to tell you already now is that for the upcoming 12 to 15 months, we might see even better outcome. So be prepared for that. If we look back, and that is all about evenamide and schizophrenia for the moment. We have to start with the deal that we signed in December 2024, the validating deal with EA Pharma from the Eisai Group. We did that deal with one of the top 10 Japanese pharma groups with a CNX experienced company, and there were some reasons. We wanted to validate our unique mechanism, the only drug that modulates glutamate in schizophrenia. We wanted to validate being the first add-on therapy in schizophrenia. We wanted to validate our claim that this is the drug that is the only one that qualifies to work in the vast majority of schizophrenia patients who are poor responders or treatment resistant to the current medication. We wanted to get an indication of the intrinsic value of that compound, which by analysts was after that deal was signed, estimated to be more than EUR 1.5 billion. And finally, we wanted to get the cash to perform our Phase III study because at that time, the markets were very challenging on equity. We got all that and since we signed the deal, and that is the starting point of the 2025 success story, we collected EUR 48 million, which was exactly the money we needed to advance our evenamide into the decisive pivotal study program called ENIGMA-TRS. And as you know, that is split in 2 studies. One is ENIGMA-TRS 1, that is a 600 patients, 1-year double-blind placebo-controlled study, which was finally enrolling first patients in August after we had gotten the approval for the overall program in May. This study is right now actively enrolling on all target continents, and Ravi will give you more update on the status. Importantly, in December then, we could start ENIGMA-TRS 2, the second pivotal study. So 2 shots at target even if 1 sufficiently positive study should do to get this drug approved. We started ENIGMA-TRS 2 in the U.S. study centers with UCLA and since then have added Johns Hopkins and the other studies centers are ready to initiate, and we have submitted the documentation in all the other countries in which we want to enroll patients. So this study is up and rolling now. And again, Robbie will give you an update. And then importantly, just by the beginning of this year, 2026, we could inform markets that also our partner, Eisai Group has initiated their Phase III program. So right now, I can say this is the most advanced clinical program in schizophrenia. We are right now running 3 pivotal studies in total with more than 1,300 patients in the world. And as you will hear later on, we expect results from the 12 weeks readout within this very year. Now we did have absolutely thrilling. I'm moving to Slide 5. We did have absolutely thrilling 1-year results from a study in treatment-resistant schizophrenia when evenamide was added to best-selling antipsychotics. And we did have the first highly statistically significant efficacy results from Phase III study called 8A, but there was plenty of questions given the new mechanism and the new positioning. So it was very important that all the clinical results of the past have by now been peer reviewed and published in the papers. We have presented them at numerous conferences. All the space is now being educated about the benefits of this drug in those patients in which today's medications just don't do good. But it was very important last year in August that Pittsburgh University came up with a piece of research, which could explain for the first time why in the pivotal -- why in the Phase II and Phase III studies, we saw that ever increasing efficacy, doubling, tripling responder rates by 1 year, 50% patients no longer qualify as treatment resistant and for the first time ever, treatment-resistant patients being reported to be in remission for 6 months. We didn't know why and how our drug would do that. And I think Pittsburgh has provided substantial explanation how this drug does so by qualifying schizophrenia as a disease that is substantially caused a hippocampus, a section of the brain where today's drugs simply don't hit, and that is why they do not improve negative symptoms, neuro cognition and why they only have limited benefits in symptoms. So that work of Pittsburgh now peer-reviewed and substantial support for the positioning of our compound and the explanation of the benefits we have shown. Again, starting this year, early 2026, we got another validation that is on a new composition of matter patent on crystalline forms of evenamide, which has the potential to extend our exclusivity to 2044. That would be 17 years post the expected approval of our compound, which we expect by end of '27. This patent has been submitted a year before, but ahead of time, the European Patent Office declared their decision to grant this patent in Europe in early January. The same patent is right now in the process of being reviewed, and we expect it to be approved also in all the other key territories, importantly, including the United States, where, again, this would give us exclusivity until 2044 and thus 17 years post the expected approval of this drug. On the corporate ends, moving to Slide 6. All the excitement about our results and the initiation of the U.S. study triggered 3 U.S. analysts to start covering Newron and the fourth one joined from Europe. So we got plenty of new coverage. We saw doubling or tripling liquidity in the stock. We are right now trading between 0.7% and 1% of the stock every day, which is clearly showing us that we get better coverage around the world and more people looking at our stock. This is a process that must be continued and even further improved. Very importantly, we also resolved 2 key issues on funding. Number one is that with existing shareholders and new shareholders from Europe and Asia, we signed a funding agreement in February this year, which will give us access to up to EUR 38 million, of which EUR 15 million are already in the bank, EUR 11 million will come before this year is over with no milestones attached and then the EUR 12 million remaining will come conditional to positive results of our pivotal studies by end of the year. That money being in the bank, we now have the funds to complete our ENIGMA-TRS 1 and 2 studies to the 12-point readout. So we will have all the money to report on the primary endpoint after 12 weeks and the secondary endpoint, and we will be able to advance our drug into NDA submission, and we will have a number of months of reserves beyond that point in time. And the second component of improving our financial situation was that we reached agreement with the European Investment Bank that all future payments under our loan agreement would be delayed at least by 2 years and a quarter to not before June 2028. So we are now in a very good financial situation. We have 3 pivotal studies rolling, and we have all the cash required to get to read out. On the corporate end again, our Board of Directors is already 1 year that Chris Martin has become our new Chairman. And I have to say that it is a marvelous cooperation between management and Chris, very much appreciated. He succeeded Ulrich Kostlin who was our Chairman for the 12 years before. In order to now complete the new setup of our Board of Directors and have completely independent directors on the Board, both Patrick Langlois after 18 years of service on the Board and Luca Benatti, after 12 years of service on the Board. Luca was the last founder of the company, have declared they will not stand for reelection in this year's shareholders' meeting. And I think we can say that we have found 2 outstanding new candidates for the Board, George Garibaldi, who is a highly respected industry [indiscernible] with years of experience and Paolo Zocchi, senior ex-partner in the top 4 audit company who are proposed for election by our shareholders as independent nonexecutive directors in the upcoming shareholders' meeting. So what should we expect for this year, 2026 and early 2027? And I'm moving to Slide #7. I think it is worth to start from the end. If you look at where we want to be in the end and you remind yourself what are our peers. And the peers, the latest companies with one product nature in schizophrenia were Karuna and Intra-Cellular. And Karuna was acquired once they had submitted the NDA for their 1 product company -- for their 1 product to the FDA. They were acquired for $14 billion by Bristol-Myers and Intra-Cellular were acquired after they had launched their own compound in the United States, commercialized it for a few years up to $680 million sales with a market cap of $9 billion. They were then acquired by J&J for $15 billion. We are now the most advanced follow-up to those companies. So what are we missing? Well, to be fair, we are missing positive results from our Phase III program, and we will be getting to those results in the next 12 months. Then what they had, what we do not have, they were listed on NASDAQ. And that is something we cannot ignore because as we have lately seen again, about 2/3 of the global biotech money is traded in the United States. So clearly, if you want to have full access to capital markets and you want to get a fair price, you should also have your shares listed on that largest stock exchange. So what we need to do is we need to work the path towards the results of our pivotal program. We need to prepare our NDA dossier. The initiation of the work must start way ahead of the results. Then something which is important that evenamide does not only work in schizophrenia, but like all the other compounds like Intra-Cellular's drug that has gone big in bipolar. This drug will also work in additional indications, and I'm also thinking of the elderly patients with dementia and psychotic episodes. This should be a perfect drug for those patients. And that is where additional indications should be pursued and Newron should start working on those. Clearly, on the corporate side, we should strengthen our institutional shareholder base, and we are working with a number of supporting agencies to do that. And now this all takes us to the shareholders' meeting of April 2023 of this year because there is things that we can do on our own with the means we have and the tools we have and there's steps where we need the support by our shareholders, and we need to get the tools from our shareholders. And you have probably seen the agenda of the shareholders' meeting. There's the usual household stuff like approval of financials, then there's the important elections of the Board. And then you will see that we have also put on the agenda of the shareholders' meeting a capital increase authorization for 15% of the capital. I do believe this is a moderate request, and it's clearly a compromise between aggressive strategy and the wish of some shareholders not to see any dilution. Clearly, the intention is that those shares would be used to advance evenamide in indications beyond schizophrenia and to support us towards submitting the NDA dossier and getting our drug approved. Clearly, also those shares might be used for a listing of our shares on a U.S. stock exchange like NASDAQ. And these are all procedures that need months and months of preparations. So what we are asking our shareholders for right now is not to approve a capital increase that will be put in place tomorrow, but what we ask them for is to give us the tools and the instruments that we need to start preparations and execute transactions at the right time, which also clearly means at the right share price to the right parties. So if the question is, is an IPO and uplisting of Newron stock to NASDAQ an option today, the answer is probably not because we are missing key ingredients, including share price results and other components. What we ask our shareholders for is support, providing us the tools and allowing us to initiate the process. So your question might well be, so is it worth? What is the opportunity, and that takes us to Slide #9. What we have to offer today is truly the opportunity to transform schizophrenia treatment with evenamide. This is the first compound that offers glutamate modulation in schizophrenia, and we start understanding how much more important it is to go beyond the dopaminergic pathway drugs that have dominated schizophrenia in the last 70 years. This is a huge market opportunity. We talk about 1% of the global population, but the vast majority of patients is not well treated by today's medication. The vast majority of patients is poorly responding or treatment resistant. So what it needs is a completely new mechanism of action, that is what we offer. And what we need is the first ever add-on treatment to be approved in schizophrenia. What we need is the option for doctors not to change the current medication, but to add a drug with no additional side effects of relevance, but with additional incremental benefit. No risk of relapses, reduced risk of hospitalization, suicidality. That is the promise of such a new mechanistic drug, an add-on to the current medications. As evenamide is the first and so far only drug that qualifies as an add-on to any antipsychotic of relevance, including importantly, including clozapine, and Roberto will talk to that. What we offer is highly exciting 1-year Phase II results of evenamide as an add-on to antipsychotics as well as highly statistically significant first Phase III results in a 4-week study in poorly responding patients. What we have seen is excellent tolerability, the most prevalent side effect being nasal pharyngitis in the Phase III study. I have already spoken about the potential of evenamide beyond schizophrenia that must clearly be evaluated. And we have also covered the topic of the strong IP protection. Right now, we have a Composition of Matter in the U.S. of 2035 and Process Patents to 2042 -- this new Composition of Matter 2044, that would be 17 years of a truly innovative treatment in schizophrenia, protection and market exclusivity post approval. That all said, it's my pleasure to hand over to Ravi on Slide 10 for the update on science and clinical. Ravi Anand: Thank you, Stefan, and good morning and good afternoon to everybody else. So I think I'm going to start with Slide 10, and I think this is a schematic presentation of how we currently view schizophrenia. And this has been brought out by the University of Pittsburgh and some of the universities. Contrary to common belief, the schizophrenia symptomatology does not begin in the basal ganglia, but in the hippocampus. The hippocampus controls the rate of abnormal firing from the dopamine receptors in the basal ganglia. When it's not working, there is hyperfiring from the dopamine receptors, and that leads to some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. What has also become very clear is that the hippocampal nuclei control negative symptoms, control cognition. So you need to have a drug working there. All current antipsychotics work at the level of the basal ganglia where you have the dopaminergic receptors. And therefore, they will never be able to reach the hippocampal nuclei, and that is one of the reasons why we don't see any benefits in negative symptoms or cognition with currently available drugs. Evenamide at the level of hippocampus, it has no activity at the basal ganglia at all. And the data that I'll show you will convince you based upon the work done by Pittsburgh University that it works on all these facets. I'm moving now to the next slide, Slide #11. So this is the experiment done. I'm very briefly describing this experiment. You should really take the effort to read the paper, which is fully published and it's on the Newron website. In this experiment, what was done by Pittsburgh University Research is they take rats, they give them a DNA alkylating agent called MAM. MAM changes the brain structure, changes the cytoarchitecture. The progeny, which are born basically show many of the symptoms and signs of patients with schizophrenia. So it's a neurodevelopmental hypothesis model of schizophrenia. You see hyperactive firing from the hippocampal pyramidal neurons, and that is reduced in this -- that this model creates and then basically get reduced by evenamide. What we see is the ventral pigmental area, dopamine neuron population activity is hyper and again, that is normalized by evenamide. Some of the most important findings are that the effects of evenamide outlast its presence in the brain and there's no way to explain it because the drug has a very short half-life, and this is way beyond that. This suggests that we are having the induction of long-term plasticity, which would be a very welcome thing for patients with schizophrenia. And then as I said before, you will see data which suggests that basically evenamide improves cognition and improves negative symptoms in these animal models and likely, we'll be able to do that in patients. If I move to Slide 12. This is a wonderful experiment, a little difficult to understand, so you need to just concentrate on it. If you look at the first bucket, that's looking at the effects of neurons. We're looking at the active dopamine neurons per track and how they're firing. If you look at the first 2 bars, there's no difference because it's only normal animals, so there's no effect of evenamide. The next 2 bars, you see the black bar, which is high up. That's because that's showing you increased abnormal firing in the MAM-treated animals. But the same MAM-treated animals, when they get evenamide, you can see there's a significant reduction. This is within 1 hour and the drug half-life is about 25 minutes. If you look at the second hour, there's no drug remaining. The drug has no active metabolite. There's no sequestration. But you see that the activity is actually increasing. The difference between the black bar and the blue bar is increasing. So even when the drug is not there, it's producing a benefit. And if you look at the third hour where there's no chance even of getting the drug around, the effect of evenamide is going on increasing. It's reducing further and further the abnormal dopaminergic file. Nobody is able to explain this. We can't really fully explain this, except that this is a very welcome finding because what it suggests is that patients will continue to benefit from this drug for long periods of time. Moving on to Slide 13. Now negative symptoms are present in all patients with schizophrenia. Even when patients improve from positive symptoms, negative symptoms don't improve. And one of the main reasons why patient functioning does not improve is because of the presence of negative symptoms. Now in this model what you're seeing out here, we have a rat in the middle. The rat has a choice to go to a toy chamber where there's a toy or to a social chamber where there's a real rat. Rats are very inquisitive animals. They love to interact with each other. So therefore, what will happen? Next slide, if you see now what is in the next slide is happening is, we are looking at the MAM-treated animals. There, there is no difference between the toy chamber rat, the time spent sniffing or the real one. But if you look at the second -- the third and fourth bar, you can see the MAM-treated animals are not able to distinguish between the toy, whereas the evenamide-treated animals recognize, which is a real rat and they're spending a significantly more time on that. And this is not because there's any effect on locomotion, which is shown by the other graphs, but because the animal now which is socialized. Any socialization is a prominent feature in patients with schizophrenia. And this suggests that this drug will improve social interaction. If I now move to the next slide. This is now looking at novel object recognition. This is a test of cognition. We take the rat, we give it an object. It familiarize it cells by sniffing. We then take it away, 1 hour later, we introduced the old object and the new object. The rat which is inquisitive, will memorize that, oh, this is the old object. I'm not interested. I want to go to the new object. Does this really happen? In the non-treated animals who have lost a lot of the neural architecture, there is no difference between the vehicle and the evenamide-treated animals -- in the evenamide treated because there's no deficit. But if you look at the non-treated animals, cognitively, these animals are impaired. The amount of time they spent on the wrong model, which is the Toy, the old object has gone down. Evenamide is able to protect against that, and there's a significant improvement. So you're seeing an improvement in negative symptoms, you're seeing an improvement in cognition. We've already seen an improvement in firing rates. All this leads us to the clinical data, which is shown in the next slide. And then basically, I will walk you through that. So what have we seen until now? This is Slide 18. Evenamide has shown efficacy in virtually every study performed, whether it be a 4-week study, in early patients, a 4-week study in patients who are inadequate responders and a 1-year study in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. In all these studies, it was given as an add-on treatment. The benefits of our ranging, they are seen on positive symptoms, they are seen on negative symptoms. The drug is very well tolerated. The attrition rate is less than 5%. The most common adverse event is nasopharyngitis, which means missing and the same incidence as placebo. What we've seen in the first Phase III study that we did in patients with inadequate response more or less confirm the results that we saw in the open-label study in treatment-resistant schizophrenia. It's one of the very few first times that I've ever seen that I -- all efficacy endpoints came out significant in the Phase III study, which is the 8A study, and this is published also. All the endpoints reach statistical significance. And basically, what we are seeing is the side effect profile is so benign that you cannot tell the difference. Now we are basically looking at this, these results and the animal results because we are doing a 1-year study, where you expect to see efficacy continuing to improve over 1 year. Just to remind everybody, in schizophrenia, we generally have improvements in 3 weeks, 4 weeks, but rarely after that. That's why the FDA advises the sponsors nowadays to limit the study to 4 weeks because after that, there's no real improvement. I move on to Slide 19 to show you the study 8A, which I talked about, the potentially pivotal study, which has now been published everywhere. It's a 4-week study done in 11 countries, 291 patients were patients who are on second-generation antipsychotic, received either 30-milligram bid of evenamide or placebo. All second-generation antipsychotics were allowed in this study, and the patients had to be psychotic. The design is shown on the next slide. What we did in this study is at the very beginning of the study, we took blood samples to make sure that patients were really poor responders and noncompliant patients. We had the blood samples analyzed to make sure the concentration of the antipsychotic was at the right level to be able to ensure that they were getting a therapeutic dose. 30% of the patients had no measurable plasma levels, which tells us that they were noncompliant rather than inadequate responders. This study took us much longer to do because of this of the difficulty of finding patients who are compliant with medication. Ultimately, we got 291 patients. And as you can see, the study went up to 4 weeks, which was the endpoint of the study. The drugs that were allowed in the study, the second-generation antipsychotics are listed at the bottom, and they constitute about 90% of all second-generation antipsychotics in the market. Slide 21 shows you the side effect profile of the drug. If you just look at the bottom part of the table where you see preferred term, the most common adverse event is nasopharyngitis. The incidence is almost the same as placebo. Again, then headache, which seems to be more -- almost the same as in placebo. What is more important is what you do not see [indiscernible]. You do not see any extrapyramidal symptoms. You don't see tremor, you don't see rigidity, you don't see akathisia. You don't see weight gain, you don't see diabetes. You don't see sexual dysfunction, no abnormal changes in the ECG or in the liver function test or kidney function test. No blood pressure changes at all. No severe sedation, no severe excitation. So it's a remarkably silent drug, which is ideal as an add-on treatment. If we now go to the next slide, Slide 22. This gives you the primary results for the study. In line with the expectations from FDA and from ICH requirements that the primary measure should be the PANSS total score. So we designated the PANSS as the primary estimate for the study. The analysis are done in the ITT population. And as you can see from the fourth row, the null hypothesis, meaning there's no difference between drug and placebo is rejected with a p-value of 0.006. And the core secondary measure, which is the CGI of severity, meaning clinical global impression of severity is also significantly reduced with a p-value of 0.037. But that's not all. If you look at the next slide, this is showing you now the slope of the curve over a 4-week period of time. Obviously, this is not long enough. But you can imagine that if this study were to go on longer, the placebo group will keep on flattening, the drug group keeps on improving. And based upon this, we have designed the next studies. This is the next slide is showing you the simulation in which we are imagining what would happen at week 12 and what would happen at week 26 and 24. What you can see is based upon the data from the previous studies, it seems like at week 12, we would have about a 10 to 14 point difference -- a 12- to 14-point difference from baseline, that is likely to be highly significant. Similarly, if you go to 26 weeks, we expect that basically we'll have a difference between 14 and 19 points compared to baseline, and that's likely to be highly significant. Now I'm showing you some very interesting data. These have been published again. We looked at what happens to other antipsychotics when evenamide is added. Firstly, to our surprise, the clozapine patients, clozapine is the most effective antipsychotic. And even those patients when they get evenamide improved by about another 3 points compared to clozapine alone. But more surprising than that is olanzapine. Olanzapine is probably one of the most effective antipsychotic, has never come out second to any antipsychotic in the trial. And those patients, when they receive evenamide, they improve by about 5 points more than they get olanzapine alone. And this difference is statistically significant. Overall, it looks like whenever you get patients receiving evenamide on top of a second-generation antipsychotic, they improve. And this leads us to believe that this could be a drug which could help all patients who are not doing well on their current medication. But what are the other results like in this study? So you can look at this, Slide 26, where basically we're showing you the PANSS responder analysis, clinically significant. In other words, 20% improvement, which is considered clinically significant in treatment-resistant patients with poor responders. You can see the effect is increasing over time and at day 29, which is significant. This rate, if it continues, you can imagine at week 12, we will have a very large difference between patients who are responders on current treatment as well as those who are current treatment and evenamide. But it's not only on the PANSS, we now look at the CGI of change. This is an analysis, which looks into account -- takes into account only those patients who show much improvement, not minimal improvement, only much improvement. And once again, by day 29, you can see almost a doubling of the number of patients who are responders on evenamide. Again, a very nice outcome. And if we continue this projection forward to week 12 and 26, we will have a very significant outcome. Now I'm now going to just very briefly mention the pivotal ENIGMA trials which are currently ongoing. And I'm now on Slide 29. This is the TRS 1, the treatment of schizophrenia 1 study. This is a 52-week study. The first study ever done in treatment-resistant patients, which is placebo-controlled and 52 weeks. All patients have to be on treatment -- have to be diagnosed as treatment resistant. They are -- we confirm this by taking blood samples at the beginning, 3 times in 42 days to make sure that they are really taking their medication and even then they are not responding. Then the data are going to an independent eligibility committee, which really decides that these patients are actually treatment resistant. Then only the patients get randomized to 15 or 30 milligram of evenamide or placebo add-on. And the study is very tightly monitored, and we will look at the primary results at 12 weeks and the next results at 26 weeks and the last results at 52 weeks. And these results are the basis for which we will get the registration. The 12-week endpoint is really necessary for showing the drug in an antipsychotic and will be the basis with which we file for regulatory approval, the first regulatory approval, both in CHMP in Europe as well as in the U.S. The second TRS study is a shorter study. It's a 12-week study that is currently ongoing also, but that study has only got 400 patients into the 600 patients. And that study has just started. It's got approval in virtually all of the countries that we wanted to. And then basically, we expect that this study will also complete fairly quickly. We expect the TRS-1 study to complete enrollment by the end of August, which will provide us results by the end of the year and lead to hopefully to an NDA filing around the first to second quarter of next year. The TRS study will come in close behind that, so we will be able to include the results in that package. With that, I turn it over -- we have done a lot of congresses this year, sorry. And you can see that on the Slide 32, we have a listing of all the congresses that we are presenting at. It's been a very busy season for us. Everybody is recognizing the value of evenamide and making up to a new mechanism of action. And all this paper, we have published a lot of papers, which you can also get from there. With that, I turn it over to Roberto. And thank you for your attention. Roberto Galli: Thank you, Ravi, and good morning and good afternoon to everybody else. So I'm on Slide 34. As you know, Newron is listed at SIX since December 2006. And since June 2019, we are also traded at Dusseldorf Stock Exchange, et cetera. By the end of the year 2025, we had 20 million -- around 20 million shares outstanding. Currently, they are EUR 20.8 million because of the capital increase Stefan was mentioning to you before. And always at the end of December 2025, we have outstanding call option and derivative or warrants, if you prefer, of up to 1.6 million, of which 50% more or less were related to call options and the remaining 50% were the warrants that we granted to EIB. Let me welcome 3 new U.S. banks among our analysts, and I'm talking about Wainwright, ROTH Capital and Lucid, and they are on top of the already existing ones, so Baader, RX Securities, ValueLab, Edison and Octavian. I'm now moving to Slide 35. Let's just talk about a few numbers. License income decreased. But of course, in 2024, we booked the downpayment of the Eisai deal. So no surprise here. And the value you can see are mainly related to the Myung In deal down payment and certain milestones that we got from the TRS 1 study progression. The other income, even if it's not a big amount, I want to talk about those because I'm referring the R&D tax credit benefit that we were able to book after 4 years of no additional benefit. And I'm talking about a couple of million, so EUR 1.9 million. What I want to tell you on top of this R&D tax credit is that accumulated, so since 2025, we got EUR 25 million of benefit. And so far, we have used EUR 22 million. The financial results net decreased by about EUR 3 million. And the main reason is a technicality and IFRS technicality because according to IFRS, we are supposed to evaluate the warrant fair value and this value because of the increase in the share into increased by EUR 2.5 million. Please note that there is no cash impact related to this effect. On the very last, I want to talk about the income taxes. Last year, for the very first time, we paid income taxes, while this year, the amount you see are only the withholding tax paid on the milestone and now payment received from the deals I was mentioning to you before. In Slide 36, so I'm showing you the balance sheet on the left and the cash flow on the right. So let me start from the balance sheet. What you see in the current asset in 2024 that is EUR 51 million is mainly the receivable related to the 8A Pharma deal that became cash. And this is why you see the increase in cash in 2025. While in the liabilities, the EIB loan last year was booked mainly in the noncurrent liabilities. And this year, you see everything in the current liabilities. But as Stefan was mentioning to you before, 1 week ago, we obtained from EIB the chance to delay the debt till end of -- sorry, till June 2028. On the right, you can see mainly the bar on the working capital and the green -- it's green because it's generating cash and it's exactly the effect that I was mentioning to you before. So the cash in -- the cash we received in January and of the revenue that we booked in December 2024, partially compensated by decrease in brand and other payables. If we move to the last slide. So on April 23, 2026, at 10 a.m. CET, we will have our general meeting. In the agenda, in the ordinary part of the agenda, the first point, as usual, is the approval of the financial statement. The second point is the approval of the new member of the Board of Directors. Stefan has already thanked both Patrick and Luca for being with us for so many years. And let me reiterate this concept because we really well appreciate their work and then I'm also willing to introduce to you, George Garibaldi and Paolo Zocchi as new nonexecutive directors. On the extraordinary part, we will amend -- slightly amend, let me say, the bylaw in a few articles, and this is due because after 20 years and COVID, a few laws have changed and so we are willing to align the text of our bylaw to the new and amended shareholder laws. The second and the third point are a capital increase. On the second point, we are asking shareholders to grant 5% for option plans of capital increase. And in the third point of the agenda, we are asking for 15% of capital increase also potentially for an uplisting at NASDAQ and the point 4 is strictly related to point 4, 3 because the creation of ADR serves for the NASDAQ listing. Everything has been already uploaded or will be uploaded in our website. So if you want to look for additional information, please do not hesitate to visit the website. And with that, I think I'm done. Stefan Weber: So I guess it is time for the Q&A session. I hand over to Mathilde from Chorus Call to introduce us to the questions by the parties who have registered for such. Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Ram Selvaraju from H.C. Wainwright. Raghuram Selvaraju: Congratulations again on a landmark year in 2025. You really are to be congratulated on how many fronts Newron advanced on. Firstly, I wanted to ask about your feelings regarding additional indications for evenamide beyond schizophrenia. In particular, we have seen evidence that other antipsychotic drugs, while perfectly serviceable in schizophrenia, actually turn out to be even better in other indications that are ancillary to schizophrenia that may constitute even larger markets. So I was wondering if you could perhaps comment on this. If there are other indications in which you believe evenamide is particularly well suited to have a therapeutic effect, what might these be, whether that would be bipolar disorder, patients with mixed depression and schizophrenia symptoms or others? Ravi Anand: Thanks, Raju. You basically took my hands away from me. I would expect this drug to be highly effective in patients with bipolar disorder. Secondly, I think I would definitely like to go for treatment-resistant depression with psychotic features. And lastly, patients who have behavioral symptoms of dementia but cannot take second-generation antipsychotics. There, I think this drug, because it doesn't affect any neurotransmitter system will be very well tolerated and not have the increase in mortality that we see with all the other drugs. Raghuram Selvaraju: That's very helpful. And I think we're all familiar with the intracellular therapies example that demonstrated just how large a market opportunity there could be for an antipsychotic with applicability beyond schizophrenia. Secondly, I wanted to ask about the information you presented regarding the ability of evenamide to augment the efficacy profiles of multiple second-generation antipsychotics. And if you could perhaps drill down on that a little bit further for us and give us a sense of whether there is a particular subclass of those second-generation antipsychotics that you consider evenamide to be particularly well suited to be combined with? And if so, what might be the kind of your top 1 or 2 choices? Obviously, you furnished a lot of information, in particular on clozapine, but I was wondering if you had additional granularity to provide. Ravi Anand: Sure. I think clozapine because it's the most obvious candidate because when you talk about treating schizophrenia and clozapine, all the drugs, even though it's not used that much. Second, I think what has really been surprising for me and not just in 1 study, but in almost 2 to 3 studies has been the effect in combining it with olanzapine. And as you know, olanzapine and clozapine share certain features. So then the question comes up, really, is it basically because of the fact that both of these drugs are affecting D2 and D1. And -- but then what we see also is that is also affecting risperidone. It's also improving patients with aripiprazole. So I think this improvement facet is probably unrelated to the neurochemistry. It's a generalized effect on brain where it is acting in a way it's more like an antidepressant and produces some degree of configuration change in the brain receptors, which makes them amenable to treatment with the other drugs. I think we are monitoring this very carefully now in the Phase III study, and we're trying to collect plasma levels to exclude pharmacokinetic interaction as a reason for this. Raghuram Selvaraju: With respect to the effect you showed of evenamide kind of having a long-term persistent impact even when the drug is no longer necessarily biologically circulating in the system. I was wondering if you could comment on, first of all, the long-term strategic plans at Newron to potentially explore the possibility of developing a long-acting injectable of evenamide. And if that is the case, how this information indicating long-term persistent effect of evenamide might dovetail with those efforts? Ravi Anand: No, absolutely. I think as you probably know, some of the companies in Europe, which have been led the charge to develop formulation changes, especially in France and for TEVA, for instance, we are going to be in early discussion with them soon. I think to me, it's really a mystery almost that a drug which has only got a half-life of 25 minutes is affecting changes beyond 3 hours. But also in patients, we have a short half-life of 2.5 hours, but the effect seems to persist for more than 12 to 14 hours. So I think a long term, a depot formulation would have to be a very different type, but it would be a fantastic thing because a drug which is very well tolerated, doesn't produce EPS, doesn't produce sexual dysfunction could be ideal for giving long term, not only to the confirmed schizophrenia patients, but to those patients who are early on in their career, like the first episode patients or the at-risk patient population, that would be the way to go for those new formulations. And we would definitely explore that once we are done with the NDA. Raghuram Selvaraju: And I think it's well documented that the long-acting injectable segment of the schizophrenia market is by far the fastest growing and at this point, probably the most lucrative. One last question from me. When do you expect U.S. office action on the COM patent that was already granted in Europe that would extend protection to 2044? Ravi Anand: Stefan? Stefan Weber: Yes. Ram, thank you for joining. Thanks for the questions. So we are right now in discussions with one of the leading U.S. IP consulting firms, and we are in discussion with the leading expert on crystalline form and solid formulations in the United States. We are discussing the strategy. As you know, there is 2 ways of getting a fast-track treatment of the Composition of Matter application in the United States. We are right now evaluating both. And I guess we will take a decision within the next few months. Depending on that decision, we might well see this patent being treated and decided upon before this year is over. And that means we might get that same patent application approved in the United States as per our expectation in this year still, which would be remarkable. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Joris Zimmermann from Octavian. Joris Zimmermann: Joris Zimmermann from Octavian here. Two from my side. The first one on your cash reach guidance throughout 2027. You mentioned that this includes EUR 50 million already received from the new financing plus another EUR 10 million that you expect later in the year. Question is on the remaining, I think, EUR 12 million from that new financing that is not reflected in this guidance. So that would provide you a further extension of the cash reach. And also in terms of the amended European Investment Bank repayment schedule, I would assume that this is already included in the guidance. Roberto Galli: Okay. So let me start from EIB. Yes, EIB is absolutely included in the guidance, of course. As per the additional EUR 12 million, I am a very cautious CFO. So given that we are talking about something that is related to the data, I have kept this upside from these projections. So if data will be positive, most likely, we will see an additional injection of EUR 12 million. And this will, of course, increase the availability of cash in Newron most likely till the end of 2027. So this will give Newron additional, let's say, 6 to 9 months of time to strike the most appealing deal because of the positive data, yes. Joris Zimmermann: One more question on the potential new indications and also a bit on the funding in that regard. You outlined the potential indications where you expect most benefit of evenamide. So in terms of your plans, how would that likely impact funding in the near to midterm? Is that already something in the plans? Or is that still to be decided upon? Ravi Anand: I think it largely is still to be decided upon, but some initial activities are already included in the plans. Operator: We now have a question from the line of Arron Aatkar from Edison Group. Arron Aatkar: Just two for me here. First of all, I just wanted to confirm that the ENIGMA-TRS 2 top line readout will also be in Q4 '26. I think I've seen some approaches where it's specified and others where it's not mentioned. And for this as well, would this come simultaneously with ENIGMA-TRS 1 if so, or will they be separate announcements? Ravi Anand: Okay. Let me answer this. I think ENIGMA-TRS 1 is very, very, very, likely to be within this year. ENIGMA-TRS 2 is a borderline case, whether it's towards December or early January, things of this time. But both of them would be available to be included in the filing for regulatory approval. The announcements would definitely be separate. Arron Aatkar: Okay. Perfect. And my second question, I think you kind of covered it, but I was just looking at the licensing income of EUR 8.6 million. It sounds like that includes upfront payment from Myung In Pharma and also some milestone payments from both partners. Just wanted to clarify if you could provide like a breakdown on how much of the licensing income was upfront versus milestone payments from the 2 partners. Roberto Galli: Yes. So the EUR 8.6 million are more or less 50-50, let's say, 30% related to Myung In and the remaining part related to additional milestone coming from EA Pharma. Sorry, I cannot be much more precise because I cannot disclose the final figures. But these are more or less the percentages. Arron Aatkar: Okay. That's very helpful. My other questions have sort of been covered off already. So no more from me. I just wanted to say congratulations again on the recent progress. Look forward to following the story. Operator: The next question comes from the line of Joseph Hedden from Rx Securities. Joseph Hedden: Just wondered if you could say a little more on recruitment into the ENIGMA studies. Any information on how many patients today or progress in terms of are you on track with where you expect to be? Ravi Anand: Yes. That's always a challenge. As you know, the regulatory process has become very prolonged nowadays especially the one in Europe, which takes forever and then the contracting progress though. So at present moment, I would say that 75% of the sites that we wanted to have initiated have already initiated. And we are basically just about coming up to where we should be. We have over 300 -- approximately 300 patients who have been enrolled in the program in the TRS 1. The TRS 2, as I said, has just got approval. So it's a little bit behind. But I think keeping the progress of TRS 1 in mind, I think we're very, very confident that we should be able to complete the enrollment on time for TRS 1 and then subsequently, the effort for TRS 2. The TRS 2 is a shorter study. It's only a 12-week study, and it's a smaller number of patients, only 400 patients compared to the 600 plus for TRS 1. So we should be okay with the enrollment time lines. Joseph Hedden: Okay. And then on the BD side, just wondering what you think the likelihood of any other regional deals ex U.S. for the ENIGMA results later this year, what's the likelihood do you think? Stefan Weber: Thank you, Joseph, for the question. This will clearly depend if any interested parties will be willing to pay fairly and dearly for the new patent life that we have just added. And we understand that some parties might want to see the patent being granted first. But at the same time, clearly, with the European patent office decision to grant our patent, our expectations have increased. And as we have no cash urgency or lack at this point in time, we would be confident to go full steam ahead towards the results from both pivotal studies and then decide on how to deal with all those territories at the maximum value for our shareholders. So that's the good news after getting all the funding done. We do not depend on income from licensing. But if there are fair offers, we will absolutely consider them. And yes, there could be other deals, but conditional to fair value, including the new patent life. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Stefan Weber for any closing remarks. Stefan Weber: Thank you, Mathilde. Thank you all for joining this call. I hope we have been able to explain to you why we believe this was an extraordinary 15 months in the past. But let me be clear, you please should stay tuned for the next 15 months because this could be much more exciting even than what we have seen in the last 15 months. This is really the opportunity to turn this company into a completely different size of company with a drug that might be approved and with a drug that we might decide ourselves to commercialize to get to the peak value for our shareholders and to secure the sustainable future of this company. So please stay tuned. We are happy to keep you updated. Looking forward to the next opportunity. Have a great day. Goodbye. Ravi Anand: Thank you. Roberto Galli: Goodbye. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Geli, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Public Power Corporation conference call to present and discuss the full year 2025 financial results. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Georgios Stassis, Chairman and CEO; Mr. Konstantinos Alexandridis, CFO; and Mr. Ioannis Stefos, Chief Investor Relations Officer. Mr. Stefos, you may now proceed. Ioannis Stefos: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining today's conference call for PPC's full year 2025 results. We will begin with an overview of the group's results from our Chairman and CEO, Georgios Stassis, followed by a review of the financial performance for the period by our Group CFO, Konstantinos Alexandridis. After the conclusion of the presentation, we will open the floor for your questions during the Q&A session. The IR team will be available after the call for any follow-up discussions. With that, I will now turn the call over to Georgios. Georgios, please go ahead. Georgios Stassis: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's earnings call. PPC had a strong performance for another year, in line with the strategic targets set in the business plan with adjusted EBITDA increasing to EUR 2 billion and net income at EUR 0.45 billion, demonstrating the extent of the transformation and the growth that has been achieved during the last years. This significant growth in profitability has allowed us to keep increasing dividend distribution in line with our plan, which provides for further improvement of shareholders' remuneration with a gradual increase of dividend to EUR 1.2 per share in 2028. Investments stood at EUR 2.8 billion, with the majority allocated to renewables, flexible generation and distribution projects, supporting a further step-up in profitability going forward. Despite high CapEx, our balance sheet position remains solid with a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio at 3.2x at the end of 2025, providing the necessary room to implement our investment plan in the next years. Moving to Slide 7. The last years have been directing capital towards renewable energy, flexible generation and distribution. As a result of these investments, we have been able to increase both the regulated asset base, as we will see later, but also the renewables and flexible generation capacity, which now represents 80% of our total capacity. In this way, year after year, we are increasing our renewables footprint, combining it with flexible generation assets, while at the same time, we have made significant progress in phasing out lignite, a process which is at the final stage, with the last unit of 700-megawatt plan to cease its operation by the end of this year. Deep diving now to Generation business on Slide 8. As you can see, we have increased the total installed capacity to 12.4 gigawatts, led by the continuous rollout of new renewable projects, which has outweighed the reduction of lignite capacity during the last year. Our total generation output has remained practically stable, however, with increased participation of renewables on the back of reduced production from lignite and oil. More specifically, renewables output increased to 6.9 terawatt hours, driven by wind and solar generation, reflecting the addition of new capacity, which outbalanced the weak performance of large hydro power plants for last year. As a result, renewables increased its share to 33% of our total output. On the flip side, lignite generation declined at 2.7 terawatt hours and oil at 3.6 terawatt hours, corresponding to 13% and 17% of total output, respectively. 2026 is a milestone for PPC generation activity since it marks the end of lignite-fired generation after many decades, making PPC coal-free. Last, gas generation had no change versus 2024, being, however, a very important component of our energy mix today, corresponding to 37% of our total output. As a result, CO2 Scope 1 emissions declined by 0.5 million tonnes compared to last year. And going forward, we expect further improvements since we will cease our lignite operations by the end of the year. Now moving to Page 9. Let me briefly describe the progress in renewable projects that we have achieved in the fourth quarter of 2025. Executing our strategic plan with discipline, we completed the construction of an additional 800 megawatts of capacity across Greece and abroad. The majority of these additions were solar projects, which exceeded the 700 megawatt in total, complemented by the first 59 megawatts of battery energy storage installed in Greece and Romania as well as 36 megawatts from a wind farm in Northern Greece. In summary, 546 megawatts of renewable projects across various technologies were completed in Greece, along with 272 megawatts internationally in the fourth quarter, leading to total additions for 2025 at 1.7 gigawatts, as we will see in more detail in the following slides. Going to Slide 10, let's see in more detail the additions that we concluded in the fourth quarter of 2025. First, in Greece, major projects totaling 550 megawatts were completed since the November Capital Markets Day. Specifically, we completed the last 30 megawatt of a 550-megawatt solar project located in the former lignite area of Ptolemais in Northern Greece. In the same region, in cooperation with RWE, we completed the final 623 megawatts of a 938-megawatt solar project. In the Ptolemais region, again, in the former lignite area, we completed the first 125 megawatt of a 490-megawatt solar project. The second 125-megawatt cluster is currently under construction, and the third cluster is scheduled to begin construction later this year. For wind, we successfully completed 36.4 megawatts in Central Greece in the region of Fokida. And last, an important milestone was also the completion of our first battery project in Greece in the former lignite areas of [ Ptolemais ] as well. Outside of Greece, in the fourth quarter, we added 272 megawatts of capacity from renewable projects, mainly solar across Southeast Europe, as depicted in detail in Slide 11. Starting with Romania, we completed solar projects of 215 megawatts in total in various locations, along with 9 megawatts of batteries, which will enable us to enhance dispatch optimization and capture value from balancing services and price arbitrage. At the same time, we completed 17.5 megawatts of photovoltaics in Italy and 30 megawatts in Bulgaria, increasing our footprint in these countries. Overall, as you can see, we keep a good pace of additions, delivering significant renewable capacity while continuing to expand our construction pipeline. All of the above are summarized in the next slide, Slide 12, which shows that we remain on track to achieve our 2028 renewables target of 12.7 gigawatt, as presented in our last Capital Market Day. We have added 1.7 gigawatt in 2025, standing now at a total of 7.2 gigawatts. And we have another 3.7 gigawatts that are either in construction, ready to build or in the tender process, having secured, in essence, 86% of the capacity that we target for 2028. There has been further progress in our pipeline also in terms of maturity, having moved during the fourth quarter -- last fourth quarter, approximately 600 megawatts into the under construction and ready-to-build stages from the permitting and engineering stage. And this process of adding new capacity, maturing additional projects is something that we have been doing many quarters now, and we will continue to do so as we advance multiple projects across Greece and internationally. Let us now move to Slide 13, which provides key highlights of our retail activity and the overall environment in Greece and Romania. Electricity demand was slightly decreased in both countries by minus 1.3% in Greece, reflecting milder average temperatures compared to 2024 and by 0.6% in Romania. Our electricity sales decreased by 1.9% compared to 2024, primarily driven by lower demand in Greece and a slight market share reduction in both countries. Deep diving in the retail activity in Slide 14, despite this intensely competitive environment throughout 2025, we successfully defended our market share while expanding beyond the commodity segment, demonstrating our ability to diversify and deliver impactful results. Customers remain our top priority. This is reflected in our strong top line performance across all customer satisfaction metrics and the continued improvement in the quality of our customer base. Notably, bad debt exposure decreased by 14%, as shown in the bottom right graph, driven by improved penetration and more effective management of higher-risk customer segments. On top of various targeted propositions that we launched during the year, SME, family and other and as artificial intelligence continues to shape market developments; we launched in Greece a virtual assistant support our customers. This is the first AI-powered digital assistant in the market, designed to elevate the customer experience by providing clear explanations of bill charges in simple language. For our activities in Romania, 2025 was a transitional year following the lifting of the price caps. As competition has been growing, we focus on protecting and strengthening customer relationships through targeted retention actions. Looking ahead, we expect 2026 to remain highly competitive. We will continue to focus on delivering value, strengthening customer engagement and maintaining resilience in an evolving market landscape. Just a few words for several synergy streams in the retail activity that we set up in 2025, we are in Slide 15. Kotsovolos has been key for this, providing the opportunity to launch a broad range of initiatives. Our collaboration has evolved from establishing a strong in-store presence and developing dedicated PPC shop-in-shop corners featuring our products to extending field services coverage that delivers essential energy solutions to customers and households, services that are fundamental to everyday living. Looking ahead to 2026, we plan to further strengthen our footprint within PPC shops while expanding our product and service portfolio to reach additional customer segments, addressing a broader spectrum of needs. Next, in Slide 16, a few words of certain KPIs of our Distribution business. We continue to invest significantly in 2025 with CapEx increasing by 2% year-on-year, in line with our strategy to enhance and digitalize our electricity distribution networks. The total regulated asset base now stands at EUR 5.7 billion from EUR 4.9 billion last year, mainly driven by the increase in Greece following material investments. The strong investment activity is also reflected in the improvement of the reliability indices of our networks in both Greece and Romania, while smart meters penetration continues its upward trend with further room to grow, especially in Greece. Turning to Slide 17. We can see how the implementation of our strategic initiatives, combined with active engagement have resulted to actual progress in several ESG ratings and scores within 2025. Specifically, our efforts have been recognized by S&P Global, EcoVadis, MSCI, ATHEX ESG and ISS, all of which upgraded PPC's ratings and scores. These improvements reflect tangible progress in several key areas such as environmental management, renewables portfolio expansion, corporate governance, ESG integration and transparent reporting. These advancements underscore our commitment to sustainability, mitigating business risk and fostering long-term value for all stakeholders. Let me now pass it on to Konstantinos for the financial performance analysis. Konstantinos Alexandridis: Thank you, George, and good afternoon to all. Moving next to Slide 19 for an overview of the trends for the main energy-related commodities. To begin with TTF, gas prices in early 2025 were initially strong, supported by reduced Ukrainian transit and cold weather conditions before easing as demand weakened and geopolitical concerns softened. Subsequently, prices declined under the milder weather conditions, strong LNG inflows and lower storage targets from EU with a brief rebound driven by firmer demand and tighter Norwegian supply. Later in the year, gas prices remained broadly stable before falling to their lowest levels towards year-end. Overall, gas prices recorded a moderate year-on-year increase of 5%. Turning to carbon. EUA prices opened the year sharply, but reversed after mid-February, pressured by declining gas prices and uncertainty around U.S. tariffs. Prices later recovered on the back of easing trade tensions and a U.S.-China agreement, although gains driven by geopolitical developments proved short-lived. The market remained relatively balanced for a period before a rally emerged towards September driven by compliance buying with prices peaking towards the end of the year. Overall, carbon prices also recorded a moderate year-on-year increase of 12%. Finally, looking at power prices, they spiked early in 2025, driven by higher TTF and EUAs, easing later in Q1 on the weaker demand and the higher solar performance. Prices rose in Q2, tracking TTF and EUAs, but stayed stable in June, though elevated despite geopolitical tensions, thanks to record renewables output. In the second half of 2025, weather-driven demand and lower renewable output led to a steady rise in prices. Moving now on Slide 20, where we can see the key financial figures for the period, showcasing the strong financial performance recorded in 2025 with increased revenues mainly due to higher power prices and the contribution of Kotsovolos. Adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 2 billion, up by 13% year-on-year, an uplift driven by higher contribution of integrated activities in our two key countries, Greece and Romania. Adjusted net income post minorities stood at EUR 0.45 billion from EUR 0.36 billion in 2024, up by 23% year-on-year. The proposed dividend for 2025 is EUR 0.60 per share from $0.40 per share in 2024, demonstrating our strong commitment towards the increase of distributable profits for our shareholders and in line with our commitment in the latest Capital Markets Day. A more detailed overview of EBITDA and net income evolution will follow later in the presentation. Investments at EUR 2.8 billion, focusing mainly on renewables, flexible generation and distribution. Free cash flow continues to be driven by elevated investment levels in line with our business plan. Net debt at EUR 6.5 billion at the end of December 2025, with net debt-to-EBITDA ratio at 3.2x as anticipated, given the progress in our investment plan. Proceeding to Slide 21 for the revenues evolution of the group, which recorded an 8% increase. The largest part of this increase is driven by energy sales, which are up by approximately EUR 0.5 billion as a result of higher power prices we experienced both in Greece and Romania for the full year. The rest is mainly driven by sales of merchandise coming from the operations of Kotsovolos, which have a full year effect in 2025. These two factors have been able to more than offset the impact of our revenues from volume decline related to market share reduction and a slightly reduced electricity demand in both countries, as George mentioned before. All this resulted to a total revenue of EUR 9.7 billion in 2025, up by EUR 0.7 billion versus 2024. Moving to Slide 22 for the EBITDA performance by business activity. As you can see in the left side of the slide, EBITDA has recorded a 13% increase year-on-year with the integrated business being the key driver for this growth. I will provide more color on this in the coming slides. International contribution at 22%, mostly driven by Romanian operations, which stood at EUR 440 million. Next, on Slide 23, a few words on the evolution of the integrated business. The improvement that has been recorded versus last year has been taking place on the back of improved performance in the retail business and green and energy mix throughout our footprint as we increase renewables capacity. In addition, this improvement has been also supported by the reduction of fixed costs associated with lignite activity as we progress with the phasing out of the relevant units. All these factors have been the basis of our commitments in our Capital Markets Day some months ago to improve our profitability in the integrated business by EUR 0.2 billion year-on-year. Now proceeding to Slide 24 for a view of the distribution activity. With regards to Greece, the demand decrease of 1.3% versus 2024 negatively affected the approved network usage revenues that will be compensated in 2027. In Romania, the Distribution business marked a slight decrease versus full year 2024, but this was driven by seasonal effects. Adjusting for construction works that have already been included in the 2026 allowed revenues, the 2025 performance would be higher than last year. Proceeding to Slide 25 for a deep dive on the EBITDA-to-net income bridge. The improved performance in terms of EBITDA that we've discussed in the previous slides has also been reflected in the bottom line with adjusted net income after minorities standing at EUR 448 million, that is a 23% increase versus last year. In terms of EPS, the year-on-year increase is slightly higher, reaching the 24% given the ongoing share buyback program. Adjustments included in the net income includes special one-off items with the largest being the provision for incentives for volume direct exit schemes that we implemented, the PPAs revaluation as well as the incremental depreciation from the asset revaluation of December 2024. Moving on to Slide 26 for the analysis of the investments. We continue to keep a high level of investments reaching EUR 2.8 billion in 2025 despite the reduction of 9% year-on-year. Importantly, 87% of our investments are directed to our distribution networks, renewables and flexible generation in line with our strategic priorities. Distribution has been the largest component, reflecting our focus on network utilization and resilience in both Greece and Romania. At the same time, we are significantly expanding our renewables footprint along with increased investments in flexible generation to support the stability and monetizing the surplus of generation. Geographically, the majority of investments are concentrated in Greece, accounting for 72%, while Romania represents a growing share of 23%. Overall, our investment program is clearly aligned with the energy transition, strengthening our asset base and supporting long-term earnings visibility. Let's now move on to Slide 27 for the free cash flow analysis of the group. The strong operational performance, combined with the positive working capital resulted to a significantly positive FFO of EUR 1.9 billion. The change in working capital had a positive impact of EUR 161 million over the period, supported mainly by CO2 and our hedging activities. With regards to CO2, we had a positive impact in 2025, which is mainly attributed to timing of payments and the overall working capital management. With regards to our hedging activities, initial margin requirements related to new positions declined, mainly as an effect of lower and less volatile gas prices towards the year-end, while at the same time, prior periods positions continued to wind down. Looking at the trade receivables and excluding state-related entities, we had a positive change in working capital by EUR 70 million, partially offsetting the increase of trade receivables from the state-related entities. We have been working with the state to reduce the overdue amount, and we expect in the first half of this year to have positive results. Finally, within category Other, we had a negative impact of EUR 92 million as a result of last year's overperformance in December '24, where some payments were shifted to 2025. Overall, free cash flow is in line with our estimates, given the significant capital deployment that we are doing throughout Southeast Europe and across technologies. Turning to Slide 28. Let me walk you through our debt profile and liquidity position. Despite the acceleration of our investment program, liquidity remains robust, supported by a well-balanced mix of fixed and floating rate debt. We also maintained strong liquidity headroom with $4.6 billion of undrawn committed credit lines as of year-end 2025. At the same time, ongoing refinancing initiatives and favorable interest rate trends have contributed to a reduction in our average cost of debt, which stood at 3.8% by the end of 2025. Our debt maturity profile remains well spread with no material concentration risks. Over the next 3 years, maturities amount to $2.6 billion, including $500 million related to our sustainability-linked bond maturing in July 2028. In October 2025, we successfully issued a EUR 775 million green bond due in 2030 priced at 4.25% coupon with strong investor demand and 3.4x oversubscription. The proceeds were used to redeem in full the aggregate principal amount of sustainability linked senior notes due in 2026 and support eligible green investments in line with our financing framework. The remaining maturities primarily relate to long-term loans and committed facilities, which we expect to refinance in the normal course of business. Finally, our credit profile remains at BB- with both rating agencies with S&P recently revising the outlook to positive, while Fitch affirmed the stable outlook. Next, on to Slide 29 for the net debt evolution and our leverage position. Net debt and consequently, net leverage increased in 2025 as anticipated, reflecting the acceleration of our investment program in line with our business plan. Net leverage currently stands at 3.2x and is expected to evolve in line with our plan. We remain fully committed to our financial policy, including the 3.5x ceiling we have set. Let me now pass it on to Georgios for his concluding remarks. Georgios Stassis: Thank you. Now moving on Slide 31. Before I conclude my presentation, let me reaffirm our guidance on key figures for this year. Our expected adjusted EBITDA is at EUR 2.4 billion, and we anticipate more than EUR 700 million in terms of adjusted net income after minorities, leading to an EPS of EUR 2.1, demonstrating a 58% increase versus 2025. We are on very good track to achieve these targets for several reasons, as we saw at the right-hand side of the slide. First, we have been experiencing mild weather conditions in the first quarter of 2026 so far, which have led to improved margin in our retail activity. Second, wind conditions have been quite strong from the beginning of 2026, benefiting our assets both in Greece and Romania, which combined with better hydrological conditions in Greece, contribute to a good start of the year. And third, we are at a quite advanced maturity stage for the 1.8 gigawatts of new renewables that we are targeting to conclude in 2026, being already at an approximately 50% readiness. Moreover, we feel very comfortable in delivering our targets for 2026 as well. Once again, we highlight our strong commitment for our dividend policy that is expected to reach EUR 0.80 per share from $0.60 per share in 2025, an increase of 33%. In our concluding slide, Slide 32, let me now wrap up with a few final points. Overall, we are delivering on our strategy with strong execution across all key pillars. Our 2025 performance reflects the benefits of our integrated business model. We continue to deploy capital in a disciplined manner with EUR 2.8 billion invested in renewables, flexible generation and distribution, supporting our future growth. We have made significant progress in our renewables installed capacity, adding 1.7 gigawatts in 2025. And at the same time, we are building strong visibility on our targets going forward, with 86% of the capacity that we target for 2028 being already secured. Our transition away from lignite is progressing as planned with full phaseout expected by end of this year, further improving our environmental footprint. This shift is strengthening the resilience and flexibility of our portfolio, enhancing our position in a challenging and evolving energy landscape. We are very confident in delivering our 2026 targets, and we prepare ourselves to be able to meet our targets beyond this year, aiming at sustainable value creation for our shareholders, our customers and the market in which we operate. Thank you all. And now looking forward to get your feedback and your questions. Operator: The first question is from the line of Di Vito Alessandro with Mediobanca. Alessandro Di Vito: I have three. First question is on the general energy outlook. I wanted to understand which could be the implications for PPC in case the current escalation in Middle East extends for a longer period of time? And on this matter, if you could remind us the sensitivity you have to power prices. The second question is around the political debate to lower power prices in Europe. I wanted some color on your contribution to this debate. And if you see the risk some political intervention, both at national and at European level? Third question is on your procurement strategy. I wanted to understand if the current disruption in LNG supplies could affect the procurement for your CCGT plants or for your gas supply clients? And maybe just the last one, a clarification during the explanation of the guidance, I heard 2026 net income above EUR 700 million. So I wanted to understand whether this is confirmed or not. Georgios Stassis: Okay. Thank you very much for the questions. Now let me start from the general outlook. Of course, we cannot estimate how this will end and when it will end. And nobody is able to do that right now. However, there are -- because we have some experience now and our experiences from 2022, where we had a major energy crisis and impacting very much also our continent. I want to outline some points. First of all, we do not have any physical delivery issues because we are not procuring from that area, from the Strait of Hormuz. While in 2022, you remember when the pipe was interrupted, we had to handle physical delivery problems as well, which was really a big mess. But we are not in this situation. Therefore, and as far as I understand, this is the situation of Asia, in particular, or some other companies, maybe in Europe, but not ourselves. And then, of course, you may understand that then we need to handle the issue of prices. Today, we think that -- I mean, if we take the today news, every day is a new situation, of course, it is at 60 -- around 60, 62, 63 in the gas TTF. Gas is of our interest. So if you remember, 2022, we handled prices of 350. So I hope we will not see these prices, of course. But still, it is -- we have the experience and the management to handle the situation, first point. Second point, we are -- I mean, we are -- we have an overall portfolio that has -- part of it is fixed. Our fixed customers is already fully hedged. So there's no impact in that situation. And of course, one could question if things go really high, how this will pass into the market. I believe that starting from as you know, from 2023, there was a European directive, which defined when Europe will be considered on crisis and has the limit reaching gas prices at 180. So we are far away from that level, thankfully. And I don't think we will be needed right now to handle any situation like that. In any way, however, this, because of our vertical integration is not -- has been proven also in the past that we never had a problem into managing this situation. If even in the scenario of infra marginal caps, it simply means that we will not have, let's say, huge windfall profits. And those will be used by the governments of Europe to be -- to supporting the citizens of Europe. So what I'm trying to say is that point one, right now, we are not in this situation at all. I'm not sure if we will be. And if and if we will go in a very extreme situation, the tools are available to be used also at the European level, have been used in the past, and we proved that we were not affected by that, and we don't believe we'll be affected as well. Now the other thing is that the timing of this crisis is coming in a period of time, which is spring. And this is very important because we just closed winter. And this is a period of time where renewables are boosting very much. We are mostly of low prices. So I think that there is time in front of us before we move to the heart of the summer where we will have another peak or when we will reach the point that the European storage facilities will start to be having the need to be, let's say, filling up. And that would be possibly an issue which will impact 2027. We don't believe we will have a major impact in 2026 also in such a situation right now. So we wait and see how the situation will develop. But I think we are extremely protected as PPC right now, having worked in our overall vertical integration and our own capability to manage our overall customer base. Now going -- to the second part of your question about the discussion that has emerged in Europe about the energy prices, this is a valid point, I believe. It is a concern for everybody. And I believe it is also a valid point for the industry, which is an important parameter. I have the impression that -- I mean, we will know today, tomorrow, how things will develop in the council, but I have the impression that mostly the discussion will focus around an ETS reform for the future. As you may be aware, ETS is supposed to be formed in July, and there is today already taken decisions from the past to remove quantities from the ETS market from the quote that would tighten the market further and would result in a price increase in ETS. I see personally that there is room in the discussion of the European leaders to make this transition smoother and not so steep in the coming years. And I think, and this is the most important thing, that this is exactly how we were forecasting the development to happen even before this discussion becoming relevant. If you look on our slides on the Capital Market Day in November, you will see that the kind of path we have for ETS prices are reasonable because we were assuming from that time that we don't believe that the current situation will be activated in the sense that we don't believe we will see crazy prices of the ETS market. So we have already budgeted with a very smooth pattern from 2026 to 2028, even beyond 2030. And I think the conclusion of the discussions in Europe will more or less go in that direction. And then having said that, there is another element as well, which is very important, which is our region, because we put all this into a perspective, but we need to think of our region as well because every geography is different. In the Southeast European region, the corridor between Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, up to Ukraine, Moldova, all these kind of countries, Croatia; this is a corridor which is very tight from the capacity point of view. And on top of that, it has very old fleet. So because you have a sensitivity, even in our calculations with a lower EPS from our projections, we don't see the dam changing significantly because the assets that will be activated are quite mature and old fleet and into an area which is having a very old fleet. For all these reasons, I believe that we have been very prudent in managing our assumptions. And I think gradually, we are going in that direction. So we feel that not only for 2026, we are absolutely certain that we will deliver properly, but also for the coming years, we will be in line with our projections. Last, procurement. I didn't quite understood the last part of your question, but I can tell you that we don't feel any procurement issue as a result of the crisis right now in the rate. But if you can elaborate more of what you meant, I will be able to answer. Alessandro Di Vito: Yes. No, I think you already answered. I was asking about your procurement strategy and whether you would be affected by the disruption in the Middle East. But you already said that the fixed portion of supply is secured and you have no procurement from Middle East. The last question was on the net income for 2026, whether it is going to be around EUR 700 million or above EUR 400 million during the presentation, I had above, but I just wanted to make sure about the detail. Georgios Stassis: Okay. Listen, we just closed the year at EUR 450 million net result. I can tell you certainly that we will be in the area of 700. I could even tell you that we're having a good year today. So I would be most probably able to verify a number higher than this. But of course, we have -- we are in an environment of huge volatility. So the only thing I can confirm is the 700 level right now. Operator: The next question is from the line of Nestoras Katsios with Optima Bank. Nestor Katsios: Congratulations for your great set of results. So two questions from my side. The first one has to do with the data centers. Is there any update with your discussions on the data center front? And the second one is about [ Ptolemais ] 5. I understand that you will shut down this year. Are there any final investment decision for the future of [ Ptolemais ], I mean, some gas plant? Georgios Stassis: Okay. Let me start from the last because I think it's the easiest. I mean, for [ Ptolemais ] 5. I think we have already announced that we will convert it to gas, and we are already working in that direction. I think we will see it already in operation in gas from 2028 because we are already working in that direction. We have already secured the equipment we need. And I think we have sufficient time to do this transformation by 2028 early. So this is for [ Ptolemais ]. Now for the data centers, for those of you who are following our company, you may remember that we have announced our intention to develop a data center last April. It's almost a year, not even a year yet. And I told you from that day that I would expect -- I was expecting end of '26 to have some sort of real development. And this is our vision right now. However, we are in discussions with hyperscalers and those discussions are going a little bit better from what I thought. So I mean, we have progress. We have significant progress, but we are not there yet. This is the thing I can say right now. Operator: The next question is from the line of Karidis John with Deutsche Bank. John Karidis: I have four quick ones on just the telco business, please. The first question is, what was the CapEx in FY '25 in millions rather than billions? Secondly, how many customers did you have at the end of 2025? And how many do you have now? Thirdly, during the CMD, I asked you about the timing of the launch for voice services, and you said very soon. Could you please update me on that, hopefully, give me something like a date? And then lastly, a year ago, I asked you whether you were interested in mobile, and you said you were not. Has your view changed there at all? Georgios Stassis: Thank you very much for the questions. I can tell you that we have spent around EUR 200 million until now on this project. We have delivered more or less a network of 1.7 million, but only 1 million is commercially available. First, you create the backbone and then you make the remaining pieces. So very recently, we launched at the end of last summer, the service with a footprint of 500,000, let's say, households passed. And very recently, we opened from 500,000 to 1 million. I can tell you that we are currently connecting around 200 customers per day. This is the current pace we have. So you can calculate. I think we are quite happy with that because in that level, I think this in the coming months because it's too young, not even 6 months that we are working on that. In the current pace, we will probably reach a level of 250,000 in the coming months. And when we will open the remaining 500,000 and so on and so forth, I mean, going gradually as per our plan to 3.5 million; this means that with this trend, we will be reaching a level of around 700, 800 customers, maybe more per day. So we are very happy. We are learning as well from that. As you might have noticed, we are not pushing a lot advertising because we want to have a very good service on our customers. But very shortly, we will start pushing more commercially. So I'm expecting these numbers to pick up. But so far, so good. I mean, we are doing very well. We are very happy, and we will reach the target -- the number of target customers we have in our mind by the end of '28, beginning of '29. About voice, I think we are ready to launch it probably in June, June, July, we will launch voice. About mobile, we are not investing in mobile because our project is a very specific project. That's why we are so relaxed. I mean we are doing this -- we found this opportunity to roll out this fiber project only in Greece. It's not a big project for us versus our total CapEx. And we are in line exactly with the numbers we want to have day by day. So we will go gradually. We are not investing in the mobile. I can verify this 100%. Thank you. John Karidis: I'm sorry, could you please tell me how many customers you had in total at the end of 2025? Georgios Stassis: We have more than 12,000 customers. Operator: The next question is from the line of Walker-Hunt Ella with Citigroup. Ella Walker-Hunt: My first question relates to hedging. So in terms of power price exposure, could you tell us what's your hedge position at the end of the year? So how much in terms of terawatt hours have you sold forward and what duration? And then my second question is about the full-year results. So if you -- if we look at it on a quarterly basis, so the fourth quarter earnings were actually down almost 20% if you compare to the last year. So I was just wondering, what was driving that earnings contraction in the fourth quarter? Georgios Stassis: Okay. The first part -- what was the first part? The hedging, the hedging, we are at a level of more than 40% to 45% right now for the year for everything, all our position, not accounting the fixed customers, of course, that we have 100%, as I told you, on our fleet. Now for the fourth quarter, I mean, we navigated -- I mean, we have a sort of -- every year a sort of seasonality, and we are trying to govern the company also taking into account the market in general. So we chose to support more our customers at the end of the year. And -- but still, we brought our results. So -- but this has happened in many of our years, I mean, in the past years. There is a thin line where you need to keep the pace of growth in a reasonable level. And from quarter-to-quarter, we have and we have had differences like that in the past. This is normal. In the contrary, you will see that if you will compare this quarter, this current quarter when we will announce it because it's going well. With the quarter of last year, you will find exactly the opposite. But it is part of our -- the nature of our business. Operator: The next question is from the line of Pombeiro Mafalda with Goldman Sachs. Congratulations on the results. Mafalda Pombeiro: I only have two left, if possible. The first one would be any indication or guidance on the net debt levels for 2026, if you can share at least the main moving pieces? And the second one is just a clarification. Out of your retail sold volumes, could you please -- I understand that the part that is fixed contract fixed customers. So what percentage is that of the overall sold volumes? Georgios Stassis: Our fixed part is around 20%. And now Konstantinos will take the first one. One second, give us. Konstantinos Alexandridis: Yes. So the way we have set up the business plan that we discussed back in November is asking for additional investments. So we do expect that the more we are progressing, of course, leverage ratio will remain at the area of 3.3x to 3.4x. So that would be at an area in terms of net debt close to EUR 7.5 billion to EUR 7.7 billion. Operator: The next question is from the line of Anna Antonova with JPMorgan. Anna Antonova: Just a few from our side. So first, on the CapEx outlook for this year for 2026. I see that last year, you spent just a little bit lower than you guided below the EUR 3 billion. Is the CapEx for this year still expected around your target, which I think from the end of last year was EUR 3.8 billion? That's the first question. Georgios Stassis: Yes. We -- of course, from last year, the big deliveries of renewables started to arrive in our company. On the other hand, last year, we did our CapEx also with an acquisition. as we have noticed. But the last quarter, we brought 800 megawatts. So it's ramping up. And right now, we are going to deliver 1.8 gigawatt, and it's going fantastic. So we are able to confirm exactly our CapEx for this year. Anna Antonova: The second question is on the outlook for hydropower this year. I remember you commented during the call that in Q1, the weather conditions were quite favorable. So if you could maybe comment where you currently see the upside for hydro generation for this year compared to last year's maybe level, which was, I think, 3.4 terawatt hours. Georgios Stassis: Yes. Finally, we are having a good year on hydro after several years. We had the 3 bad years on hydro levels, and this is coming back this year. So I mean, I cannot predict exactly, but it's going to be for sure, more than last year. Operator: We have a follow-up question from Anna Antonova, JPMorgan. Anna Antonova: Just a quick follow-up question. So with all the events happening this year and higher power prices and kind of regulatory debate in Europe, can you comment if you see any downside to your targets for this year from the current conditions, both on the financials and on especially the lignite phaseout? You mentioned earlier the event of 2022, and I remember that at that time, the lignite decommissioning was a bit delayed due to everything that has been happening. So do you expect kind of any potential risks to the targets for this year? Georgios Stassis: Yes. And what was the lesson in 2022? We kept lignite because why? Not for economic reasons, because of lack of physical deliveries at that time in 2022. And what was the lesson? It was still more expensive than anything else. So we are not intending to keep it back by no means, especially now that we don't have any physical delivery issues. Other than that, I mean, knock wood, this is going very well this year. If it wasn't the Iran conflict, we would be able to be more optimistic, but we stay at this level right now. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Stassis for any closing comments. Thank you. Georgios Stassis: Maybe we have a question. Operator: Yes. We have one more question from Mr. Alderman Richard with BTIG. Richard Alderman: Can you hear me? Georgios Stassis: Yes, please go ahead. Richard Alderman: Just one follow-up question on the hedging there. Just so we don't misunderstand what you're saying about the gas element of the hedging within your retail book, are you essentially hedged for what you see would be your average demand through the rest of the year from your retail book at this point? And then obviously, if there are variations within that and that costs you more, you would pass that through to customers who are not on fixed contracts. I'm just trying to understand... Georgios Stassis: This is indeed -- this is exactly correct what you said. Richard Alderman: Okay. Because there's been some discussion in the market as to whether you had exposure to that, but that's reassuring to hear. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions now. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Georgios Stassis for any closing comments. Thank you. Georgios Stassis: I think 2025 has been an important year. because this company proved that it reached a level of significant net result versus the past years. 2026 will be another year like that. Our growth is very important versus last year. And we feel confident we are exactly on target, maybe a little bit more. We will see how the year will develop. But so far, so good. So we are excited with the development of the company. We are already working very much for 2027, 2028. I believe 2026 is secured. And I think the coming years will be very interesting. Thank you.
Operator: Greetings, and welcome to the Achieve Life Sciences Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Nicole Jones, Vice President, Strategic Communications. Nicole, please go ahead. Nicole Jones: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. From Achieve Life Sciences, we are joined by Rick Stewart, President and Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Mark Rubinstein, Chief Medical Officer; Jaime Xinos, Chief Commercial Officer; and Mark Oki, Chief Financial Officer. The management team will be available for Q&A following the prepared remarks. A replay will be available later today using the information in the earnings press release or by visiting the Achieve Life Sciences website. Today's conference call will contain certain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the goals, strategies, beliefs, expectations and future potential operating results of Achieve. Although management believes these statements are reasonable based on estimates, assumptions, and projections as of today, these statements are not guarantees of future performance. Time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate at the time of any telephonic or webcast replay. Actual results may differ materially as a result of risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including, but not limited to, the factors set forth in the Company's filings with the SEC. Achieve undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of these forward-looking statements. Please refer to Achieve documents available on our website and filed with the SEC concerning factors that could affect the company. I'll now turn the call over to Rick. Richard A. Stewart: Thank you, Nicole, and good morning, everyone. The NDA submission in June 2025 started the transformation of Achieve from a pure-play clinical development company into a commercially focused enterprise. Our primary objective now is to make cytisinicline available to the 25 million patients who smoke and nearly 18 million who vape. The need for a new nicotine dependence treatment like cytisinicline has never been greater. Achieve is committed to providing the new therapeutic tool to patients seeking to break free from the cycle of nicotine dependence. I'm incredibly impressed by the commitment and resilience of the entire Achieve team and their dedication to addressing the nicotine dependence public health crisis in the U.S. Key highlights in 2025 include: firstly, the submission of the New Drug Application or NDA for the smoking cessation indication and its acceptance by the FDA, moving us one important step closer to becoming the first new FDA-approved treatment in 20 years. Secondly, Achieve's vaping cessation indication was one of the first recipients of the Commissioner's National Priority Voucher. Recognition of cytisinicline as a national priority is an incredible achievement of the work conducted by Achieve and the importance of cytisinicline in tackling the previously intractable problem of nicotine dependence. The Commissioner's voucher gives us an accelerated pathway to be the first and only FDA-approved vaping cessation treatment. Thirdly, our clinical team delivered on all planned regulatory milestones and generated encouraging clinical data across our program during the year. This includes concluding the ORCA-OL long-term exposure trial, which underlined cytisinicline safety profile, demonstrating strong tolerability and excellent patient satisfaction data. We should not underestimate the importance of the findings from the ORCA-OL safety study, which demonstrated the tolerability of cytisinicline over long-term, 52-week exposure to treatment. Dr. Mark Rubinstein will elaborate in a minute. And lastly, post-hoc data published in Thorax, a leading peer-reviewed medical journal, demonstrated that cytisinicline significantly improved smoking quit rates compared to placebo in adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. There are 6 million COPD smokers in the U.S. today with few options to help them quit. Their level of nicotine dependence must be high, as continued smoking exacerbates COPD symptoms and impairs the efficacy of COPD drugs. The positive data on COPD patients highlights the expansive scope of opportunities for cytisinicline in terms of the range of comorbidities that could potentially benefit from treatment, and broad range of health care providers who would be interested in its benefits. Our commercial team has moved forward decisively towards building a scalable, data-driven commercial model that will position us to launch successfully. Our model is built to address the rapidly evolving health care environment, where approximately 75% of primary care physicians will no longer meet with medical reps. Achieve's omnichannel digital platform provides precision targeting of physicians and patients, which will allow us to identify high-volume prescribers and the patients motivated to quit, deploying resources efficiently and maximizing impact per dollar spent. AI is a critical enabler in this evolution. We'll be using advanced analytics and machine learning to enhance decision-making, automate customer engagement, and generate predictive insights about which messages will resonate most with target audiences, positioning us to continue building an efficient commercial organization that punches well above its weight. We also just announced that we have selected Adare Pharma Solutions, a U.S.-based manufacturing organization that will produce cytisinicline drug product as we prepare for potential commercial launch and future demand. We believe this partnership will secure our supply chain, reduce risks associated with international pharmaceutical importation, and may lower overall costs, including the risk and uncertainty for tariffs on international imports of drug product. I'm pleased to report that work has commenced and our technology transfer to Adare is already underway. The Adare partnership provides redundancy in our supply chain, allowing contingency capacity in the U.S. The manufacturer named in the cytisinicline NDA recently had an FDA Good Manufacturing Practices inspection with 2 observations related to solid oral dose manufacture, which are being addressed through an ongoing communication of its remedial action plan with the FDA. By establishing U.S.-manufacturing with Adare, we increase confidence in our supply-chain security as we advance towards a planned commercial launch of cytisinicline expected in the first half of 2027. We remain focused on bringing cytisinicline to patients as quickly as possible, and our decision to work with Adare positions us to launch with the manufacturing reliability and the operational readiness our patients and stakeholders expect. Now, let me take a moment to remind you why our team is so passionate about bringing cytisinicline to market. Recent data issued by CDC estimated that in 2024, approximately 25 million adults in the United States smoked cigarettes. It's estimated that more than 15 million attempt to quit every year. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., claiming approximately 500,000 lives annually and costing over $600 billion each year in health care cost and loss productivity. The comorbidities are devastating. To name a few, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and cancer. We also know that 60% of the nearly 18 million adult e-cigarette users in the U.S. want to quit, and adult nicotine e-cigarette use is on the rise. However, there is no FDA-approved treatment for e-cigarette cessation. Patients are frustrated, physicians are frustrated. The narrative around nicotine dependence needs to change. We've seen this transformation happen with obesity. When GLP-1s emerged, they helped society recognize obesity for what it truly is, a medical condition, not a personal failure. Nicotine dependence deserves the same recognition. It's a neurobiological condition rooted in how nicotine alters brain chemistry and creates physical dependence. It's a medical condition and it demands medical treatment. That's why we launched our Will Power awareness campaign in January. This is the beginning of us reframing the conversation to help people understand that quitting takes more than Will Power alone and an effective treatment exists. The bottom line is that Achieve is not quitting on people who smoke. The parallels between obesity and nicotine dependence are not lost on many investors. unmet medical needs, same physician call points, same cost to society. In summary, our science is strong. We're advancing through the regulatory review process with the FDA, working constructively towards approval. Our commercial infrastructure is taking shape with real progress in 2025, and we're actively building for launch. With that, let me turn it over to Dr. Mark Rubinstein, who will detail our regulatory progress and the data that continue to reinforce cytisinicline across patient populations. Mark Rubinstein: Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. We have made tremendous progress in 2025 for cytisinicline from a clinical and regulatory standpoint. Since our last earnings call, we've continued to validate cytisinicline's clinical profile through peer-reviewed publications and scientific conference presentations. We were pleased to present findings from a pooled analysis of over 1,600 participants from our Phase III trials at the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco or SRNT conference a few weeks ago. This analysis examines cytisinicline's efficacy across participants with different prior treatment histories and quit-attempt patterns. Regardless of whether the participants had previously tried varenicline, Bupropion or nicotine replacement therapy, or whether they had made 4 or fewer quit-attempts versus many more, we saw consistent efficacy. These data show that if approved, cytisinicline will offer a new quit option for patients, including those for whom medications have failed. This consistent efficacy across patient subgroups shows that past setbacks should not discourage people from trying again. For millions of people who have tried and failed, cytisinicline offers real hope. We also presented late-breaking survey data from our year-long ORCA-OL study that demonstrated voluntary, self-reported patient experiences with extended cytisinicline use up to 52 weeks. This survey of data from people who chose to continue treatment beyond the 6- or 12-week standard courses offers insight into long-term tolerability and impact. Patient experience is hugely important for those trying to quit smoking, and is encouraging to see trial participants describing meaningful benefits, including successful quitting and improvements in physical health. We have also been accepted to present research at the 2026 American Thoracic Society Conference in May and look forward to updating you in the coming months. On the e-cigarette front, we received the FDA Commissioner's National Priority Voucher for cytisinicline in e-cigarette or vaping cessation, a significant recognition of the public health urgency. The CNPV is designed to provide enhanced FDA communications and an expedited NDA review time line to 1 to 2 months compared to a typical 10 to 12 months. We are now laying the groundwork for our ORCA-V2 Phase III trial for vaping cessation, including selecting trial sites and identifying principal investigators. In summary, 2025 has strengthened our clinical and regulatory position significantly. We're advancing through the FDA's review process with an active dialogue with the agency. We remain confident that cytisinicline has the potential to deliver the first FDA-approved treatment for nicotine dependence in 2 decades. With that, let me turn it over to Jaime. Jaime Xinos: Thank you, Mark. When I look back at where we started at the beginning of 2025 and where we stand today, I'm struck by the incredible progress our commercial team has made in just over a year. We've built the foundation for a launch-ready infrastructure from the ground up while remaining lean and right-sized for our current stage requirements. We've established partnerships, deployed advanced analytics, created an AI-powered asset factory, and are positioning ourselves to execute at scale. I'm deeply grateful to the entire team who have been instrumental in bringing this vision to life. As a reminder, our commercial execution rests on 3 critical priorities: availability, or ensuring supply-chain readiness so that cytisinicline can reach the patients who need it; access to secure coverage and affordability; and awareness, which is educating the right patients and health care professionals at the right time about this transformative new option. Every initiative is data-driven, and every decision is tied to measurable impact with the goal of making cytisinicline accessible to the millions of Americans struggling with nicotine dependence. Now, I'll provide updates on each of our 3 priorities. First, let's look at availability. Implementation with our third-party logistics provider is well underway. We are on track with our state licensing and have secured more than half of the required licenses to date. Additionally, we have now completed the administrative and logistical setup with our specialty pharmacy hub partner. We believe these foundational steps will be critical to ensure patients can obtain cytisinicline and that prescriptions written are prescriptions filled. On the access front, our focus remains on securing rapid, broad, and affordable coverage for cytisinicline. In Q1, we continued discussions with prioritized payers to share our clinical data. Feedback from these ongoing discussions will be critical in finalizing our pricing, access, and contracting strategy as we move closer to launch. On awareness, our focus is establishing Achieve's reputation as a trusted, science-driven partner and shifting how patients and providers think about nicotine dependence. As Rick mentioned, we launched our Will Power campaign, which directly challenges the outdated narrative that quitting smoking is simply a matter of personal determination. The campaign featured visuals that reimagine vintage cigarette advertising, but instead of selling cigarettes, they're selling Will Power as a miracle product. It is deliberately provocative because the message is clear. Will Power alone is not enough. We will continue to strategically deploy this campaign throughout 2026 to drive ongoing conversation and awareness around nicotine dependence as a medical condition requiring a medical solution. Beyond this, we are leveraging technology and AI tools to generate rapid, evidence-based and regulatory-compliant content that will fuel our launch. To use a bit less marketing jargon, this means we are able to build things faster using fewer resources. Through our partnership with Omnicom, we developed a marketing engine designed to shave weeks off the development, review, and approval of brand messaging, promotional, and educational materials. This is just one example of how modern tech and data are improving our ways of working at Achieve. We've also established our unified data ecosystem and our custom-built marketing technology foundation to support hyper-targeted, personalized customer engagement and measurement. Finally, we've completed detailed customer segmentation to better understand how to reach and meet the needs of our future patients and prescribers. As we look ahead, we are building plans for optimizing sales deployment and non-personal promotion to key audiences at launch and beyond. We will look to deploy the Will Power campaign in select audiences, complete our data and performance-measurement capabilities, and finalize media channels and plans. We are confident in our ability to execute and scale effectively and deliver long-term value for patients, providers, and shareholders. I'll now turn it over to Mark Oki for financial updates. Mark Oki: Thank you, Jaime. Let me walk through our financial position and results. As of December 31, 2025, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $36.4 million. Total operating expenses for the 3 and 12 months ended December 31, 2025, were $14.7 million and $54.9 million, respectively, reflecting our ongoing investment in regulatory, clinical, pre-commercial, and commercial infrastructure activities. Our total net loss for the 3 and 12 months ended December 31, 2025, was $14.7 million and $54.7 million, respectively. As always, we continue to evaluate financing options and cash management strategies, and we will provide updates if and when appropriate. I'll turn it back to Rick for closing remarks. Richard A. Stewart: Thank you, Mark. In closing, I'm pleased with our regulatory, clinical, and go-to-market efforts, which underscores the momentum behind Achieve Life Sciences and our unwavering commitment to addressing the critical unmet needs of nicotine dependence. As we look ahead, I want to highlight 3 critical value drivers for our Company. First, receiving NDA approval and successfully launching cytisinicline for smoking cessation. This is our near-term priority, and the team is executing with discipline and purpose. Discipline is important to ensure there is a controlled and successful launch. Second, the growing recognition of the significant opportunity represented by our vaping indication. With the Commissioner's National Priority Voucher and the urgent public health need around e-cigarette cessation, we have the opportunity to be first to market with a treatment for an indication where no approved options currently exist. Finally, both of these are underpinned by our digital commercial platform, the AI-powered data-driven infrastructure we built that positions us to launch efficiently and scale rapidly with precision targeting and measurable impact. To the millions of Americans who are ready to break free from nicotine dependence, Achieve Life Sciences is not quitting on you. We are dedicated to this urgent need. The standard of care in smoking cessation has not evolved in 2 decades, and we are about to change that. I'm grateful to our patients, clinical investigators, regulatory partners, investors, and our incredible Achieve team for their unwavering dedication to this mission. Together, we're building something meaningful. We're not quitting on you. We will not quit until we deliver a treatment that changes the standard of care for nicotine dependence and helps people live free of nicotine. Lastly, we're limited in what we can say about our interactions with the FDA while the NDA is under review. And as I said earlier, the communications are normal for this stage of the review process. I look forward to updating you on our progress. Thank you for your time, attention, and continued confidence in Achieve Life Sciences. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Thomas Flaten from Lake Street. Thomas Flaten: Perhaps for Jaime, the launch timing for the first half of '27, can you talk a little bit about the critical path between a late June NDA approval and the first-half launch? Is this primarily scale-up on the commercial side? Is it potentially product supply? Can you just talk a little bit about that gap that's created there? Jaime Xinos: Sure. Thanks for the question, Thomas. So obviously, we need drug in order to be able to go to market. And so that is our first consideration is when can we get drug into the supply chain to get it out into the hands of patients. So everything that we need to do on the trade and distribution side will be ready to go as soon as we have drug. So we have our 3PL setup, as I mentioned during the call, serialization, our specialty-pharmacy vendor, all of those requirements for copay and access, all of those will be aligned and ready to go at launch. The rest of the time that we'll be spending over the next 6 months with a little bit of -- or the additional 6 months gives us an opportunity to get some additional data into the marketplace and to the scientific community, and also work on -- work towards additional partnerships with advocacy and potentially policymakers. So it does afford us a bit more time to get a few other operational things activated as well. Richard A. Stewart: If I can add to that, if you look at it from a strategic standpoint, given the scale of the market that we're actually addressing, we took a decision that we need to make sure that we have got all of the processes in place to maximize or optimize the product launch. So, I think Jaime and the team are doing a terrific job on that front and Craig on the manufacturing side is doing an excellent job. So I think taking time to get it right is critically important for the success of the launch. Thomas Flaten: And then with respect to manufacturing, you did mention the observations during the GMP inspection. And did you imply -- maybe perhaps I'm reading too much into it, that the manufacturer in the NDA will not be supplying commercial product rather Adare will? And then, what implications does that have for folding Adare into the process now during the NDA review? Richard A. Stewart: Yes. I think the critical part of this is that the PDUFA date remains the 20th of June of this year. That is what the FDA has set, and that's what we're working toward. But of course, any time that there's any observations, we've already made the decision to transfer manufacturing to the U.S. given the geopolitical situation. So, we basically just accelerated that. So, at the moment, the PDUFA date remains exactly the same. And I think, given the scale of this opportunity, it's prudent to ensure that we have contingency supply. It's prudent to ensure that we've got onshored manufacturers here in the U.S. Operator: Our next question today is coming from Jason Butler from Citizens Bank. Jason Butler: On all the progress in 2025. Two from me. Can you just talk a little bit more about where you believe awareness currently is with health care providers and what additional work you'll be doing in 2026 to continue to build awareness of cytisinicline and the data? And then second, is there anything you can say about FDA dialogue on the vaping indication since you got the CNPV? Richard A. Stewart: Jaime, do you want to address the commercialization? Jaime Xinos: Sure. Thanks for the question. Regarding HCP awareness, I would say it's not been a priority to date to do broad-spread awareness about the product. And a lot of that has to do with what you are allowed to say in a pre-approval environment. So obviously, disease state education is one channel that we can provide information in a regulatory-compliant way, but one of the decisions that we've made is that we understand that everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, and there's really not a huge need to go out and spread that message. And so what we've been doing is conserving our resources so that when we get closer to launch, we can do a stronger push from an educational perspective that is specific to data about the product and when the product is going to be in the hands of physicians so they can use it with their patients. So we're scaling it adequately based on the need to do disease-awareness education, or lack thereof, in a smoking-cessation indication. I think as we get closer to launch, we will be ramping up more opportunities, and you're already seeing us do that around some of the conferences where we will be presenting data and where we have. So, ATS is a huge opportunity that Mark mentioned, where we're going to have some new data that we want to get out into the hands of -- into the medical community and into the hands of physicians. So, it's something that we are scaling up as we get closer to launch, but we've been very conservative in our efforts so far in how we spend money prior to them having the solution in their hands to give to their patients. And then, Rick or Mark, I'll turn it back over to you to discuss FDA dialogue on vaping. Mark Rubinstein: Sure. So right now, to date, our discussions with FDA around vaping have largely been around approval for the protocol itself. And we hope to continue engagement as the study progresses. Richard A. Stewart: I think if I can add to that, we're already in site-selection. So, it is progressing at a pace. So I think the key is that we're anticipating a commencement in the first half of this year. So, yes, it's moving along at the pace. And I noted also the public forum that the FDA is putting together the 20 -- I think it's the 14th of June coming up. So, I think there's some debate around the validity of the CNPV. But for us, we think that the opportunity is huge as being the first-in-market for a vaping-cessation product. And that's clearly an underserved market, as there are no treatments there. But -- so I think that's going to be a real area of focus and interest. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question is coming from Brandon Folkes from H.C. Wainwright. Brandon Folkes: Congrats on all the progress. So, just coming back to the manufacturing, does your U.S. commercial launch time line of 1H 2027, does that assume a June 2026 approval or potential later approval? What level of flexibility should we think about in terms of when in 1H '27 you may launch? Anything to read into in that broad time line? And then, maybe on a similar vein, are you looking to add Adare to the NDA before the June approval? Or is this potentially something to qualify them post-approval? Richard A. Stewart: I'll take the answer in reverse order. Yes, it's going to be post the June approval. I think the key now is to focus in on the approval and also to ensure that we put a stake in the ground, frankly, in terms of the first half of '27 for the product launch quite simply because of all of the activities that need to go into it to ensure that we've got product to go into channel to make sure that all of the commercial operations have completed their activities. So, I think there's nothing to read into it other than we got a couple of observations that our third-party manufacturer is currently addressing with the FDA. There's a little bit of opacity around that, of course, because it's a discussion between the FDA and the manufacturer. But as far as we're concerned, on the flip side, we're always in favor of transparency. So we'll keep you in the picture with respect to that as things move along. Brandon Folkes: That's very helpful. Maybe lastly from me, just given the lead time between a potential June approval and a 1H 2027 launch, how should we think about insurance coverage at launch? Should we think about this similarly to normal launches? Or could we have better than normal insurance coverage at launch, obviously, given the indication, but also given that lead time to have those discussions? Jaime Xinos: Thanks. I'll take that question, Rick. So regarding payers, yes, we have been out actively having conversations in the regulatory compliant pre-approval information exchange opportunities that we do have. So we've had about 40 touch points with payers in the first quarter. We've attended PCMA. We've actually had inbounds from payers who want to have conversations with us. So, we are obviously on the radar. They are very interested. They recognize the differentiated profile of cytisinicline and the clear unmet need. Obviously, we know there's still 25 million people who smoke in this country who need treatments that will help them stop. So, the ongoing conversations are very encouraging. We also know that the Affordable Care Act requires coverage of smoking-cessation treatments. So, that certainly helps in our favor at launch and beyond. And regarding timing, the actual clock really starts building for the demand when the drug is in channel. So, we will have more time to have more conversations, but we won't start building demand. Any initial restrictions to access, such as new-to-market blocks, those still will require a ramp period from time of drug being distributed and in hands of patients to the timing of the bleed out that it takes in order to get on formulary for some of those plans. So, we're still tracking a slow ramp for the initial 6 months of launch. Operator: Our next question is coming from Justin Walsh from JonesTrading. Justin Walsh: I'm wondering if you can provide additional color on the robustness of the raw plant material supply-chain. Are third-party suppliers able to meet expected demand if Sopharma is unable to do so? Richard A. Stewart: Excellent question, Justin. Yes, as I mentioned before, we have been stockpiling the starting material for some considerable time. And by the time we get to launch, we believe we'll have more than 3 years supply of starting material for the amounts required for in-market sales. So -- and we will continue to add to that stockpile. We don't really see the inventory going much below 3 years for the foreseeable future. We've been buying in for quite a few years now. And the starting material has a 3-year shelf life, but we basically will reprocess it as we -- as it's required to be used. Justin Walsh: And one more for me. I'm wondering if you can comment on the cytisinicline dosing schedule and if there's any concern that a potential pill burden could limit real-world compliance or commercial uptake. Richard A. Stewart: I'll hand that one over to Dr. Mark Rubinstein stage. Mark Rubinstein: Sure. That's a great question. We actually have found, just after completing our ORCA-OL, where people actually use the pill 3 times a day for up to a year, that not only did people not find it excessively burdensome, but our completion rate and the number of people who adhered to the protocol was incredibly high. A lot of participants reported that they felt that their highest cravings were around mealtime. And so actually, even though you don't have to take cytisinicline with meals because it's TID, it's perfectly -- it can be perfectly timed around meals. And they found that it was reassuring to take something to address their cravings right around the time periods that they would have their highest cravings. And again, our adherence rates in all of our trials and our OL trial, which was 52 weeks was incredibly high, over 75%. Operator: Next question is coming from John Vandermosten from Zacks. John Vandermosten: In December, there was an ICER report that came out that calculated some prices for cytisinicline. And I was wondering if you've seen that. And then wondering how that compares with your internal calculations and what prices you're thinking about when that comes about next year. Richard A. Stewart: Jaime? Jaime Xinos: We have definitely seen the report -- thanks for the question. Yes, we have seen the ICER report. We were involved in the process, providing information when requested that was appropriate for their consideration. I think, importantly, what it did highlight is that they have affirmed there is a substantial unmet need despite currently available treatments, and that payers should make cytisinicline immediately available. And as far as pricing goes, we're not going to comment on our pricing because we've obviously not set that yet, and we're not ready to have those conversations with payers on an exact price. So, we'll leave it at that, but we are pleased with the recommendation that ICER made. John Vandermosten: And then a few questions on manufacturing. I guess I wanted to frame it first. Where does it stand with a synthetic manufacturer of API? And then I believe there are 3 different entities, perhaps, that you're working with. There's Adare. I believe there's a European manufacturer and then there's Sopharma. How does that all fit together? Richard A. Stewart: Right. So, some pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Look, I think the key here is that the synthetic is an end process, put it that way. It's not an easy process, and I think I've stressed this before, we're making substantial progress on that front. But I think in terms of the 3 manufacturers, we start off with Sopharma. Sopharma was not included in the NDA because we had concerns over their FDA inspection-readiness. I was down in Sofia about 3 weeks ago, and Sopharma have made substantial progress with respect to their inspection-readiness. And we'd expect -- we're going to intend to add them to the NDA once it's approved. I think in terms of the third-party manufacturer, the key there is that, as I mentioned, we've got these observations that we're monitoring very, very carefully, and they're collaborating with the FDA to rectify any kind of observations and the remedial action associated with it. And then ultimately, the transfer of manufacturer to the U.S. has largely been driven by a desire to have contingency and redundancy in our overall supply chain. And given the uncertainty around tariffs in particular, and also MFN and that kind of stuff, we decided some time ago to actually move manufacturing into the U.S. So, timing-wise, we're anticipating that Adare should be available to be added to the NDA in the third quarter, that kind of time frame. So does that answer the question? Operator: Yes. We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further or closing comments. Richard A. Stewart: Well, I'd just like to thank you all for your continued interest in Achieve Life Sciences. We've made terrific progress this year. And I just want to put it into context, 15 years ago, Tony Clarke, who is the Co-Founder of Achieve and I have this idea that cytisinicline could do immense societal benefit with a desperate need for a new treatment for nicotine dependence for smoking cessation. At that point, vaping didn't even exist. Over the years, we've worked tremendously hard. The initial 8 years was Tony Clarke and I actually funding the company ourselves. And since we -- over the last 7 years, we've made fantastic progress to address this huge unmet medical need. And we really do believe that we're at this brink -- on the brink of actually great success and having the ability to treat patients who have got very few options to quit. So, I'd just like to say thank you for your continued interest in the company, and we look forward to updating you. Operator: Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
Operator: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the NRx Pharmaceuticals Q4 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael Abrams, CFO. Please go ahead. Michael Abrams: Thank you, Joelle, and welcome, everyone. Before we proceed with the call, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during this call are forward-looking statements under the United States federal securities laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical experience or present expectations. Additional information concerning factors that could cause results to differ from statements made on this call is contained in our periodic reports filed with the SEC. The forward-looking statements made during this call speak only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements. Information presented on this call is contained in the press release issued today and in the company's Form 10-K, which may be accessed from the Investors page on the NRx Pharmaceuticals website. Joining me on the call today is Dr. Jonathan Javitt, our Founder, Chairman and CEO. Dr. Javitt will provide an overview of our company's progress as reported yesterday on Form 10-K, following which, I will review our financial results. Following their prepared remarks -- these prepared remarks, we will address investor questions. I will now turn the call over to Jonathan. Jonathan? Jonathan Javitt: Thank you, Mike. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. 2025 was a pivotal and transformative year for NRx and for its HOPE Therapeutics subsidiary. We've advanced each of our programs with a drug approval anticipated for KETAFREE over the summer potential for drug approval this year for NRX-100 and a dramatically expanded opportunity for NRX-101. Our HOPE therapeutics clinics are demonstrating EBITDA positive revenue growth. Most importantly, given our low cash burn, we only need to be successful on one of those fronts to reach pro forma profitability by the end of the year. Of course, the 10-K only demonstrates the impact of first quarter of clinical operations, i.e., the fourth quarter was our first quarter of operations so you can interpolate that over a full year. We've ended 2025 a far stronger company than when the year began. Our 10-K documents a year-over-year reduction in expenses from operations even as we move far closer to potential FDA approval. We eliminated all convertible debt from our balance sheet and ended the year with a $7.8 million of cash on hand. More importantly, with the growing revenues from operations and ongoing ATM activities, we anticipate adequate cash resources to support operations at least through 2026 by which time we aim to be a fully commercial pharmaceutical company and to own a substantially larger clinical network. Let's start with an overview for each of our development programs beginning with our Abbreviated New Drug Application or ANDA for preservative free ketamine, which we call KETAFREE while we're waiting for a final trade name from FDA. In August 2025, FDA approved our suitability petition for our proposed strength of preservative-free ketamine. We filed the ANDA in September 2025. And in November, received notification that FDA noted no significant deficiencies and agreed to review the file. Last week, we were notified by FDA of a preliminary determination of bioequivalence to the reference branded drug, which is Ketalar. This is a key determination in any generic application. Our room temperature stability data has continued to support at least 3 years of room temperature stability. And we've manufactured 3 registration batches of KETAFREE in anticipation of summer 2025 approval -- 2026 approval. The company has additionally submitted a citizen petition seeking to have benzethonium chloride, a toxic preservative included in all currently approved ketamine products and it's really in there for antiquated reason, we've petitioned to have it removed from all presentations of ketamine. The FDA has just notified us that their review of expectation is ongoing. This preservative is the subject of a detailed toxicology report that we posted on the public record, which casts a considerable doubt on the assumed safety of this chemical including potential cytotoxicity and neurotoxicity. Notably, benzethonium chloride is not categorized by FDA as GRAS or generally recognized as safe. And the law requires that all ingredients of drugs must be safe. This report has been submitted to FDA in support of our citizen petition. As a preservative-free version of ketamine is an important invention, we filed a patent application with USPTO to protect our intellectual properties surrounding this product. The existing market for Ketamine has been projected at approximately $750 million a year, and we believe KETAFREE made in the United States and offered without any toxic preservatives offers patients and clinicians a superior option. As you know, we're also pursuing an innovative new drug application under FDA Fast Track Designation for Ketamine, which we've designated NRX-100. When we met with you in Q4, our intent was to submit this NDA based only on data from existing clinical trials which we've summarized for you in the 10-K and various other presentations. However, in Q4, FDA announced a significant policy change for the first time inviting companies to submit real-world evidence and supportive effectiveness without a requirement that the evidence submitted be personally identifiable. In our estimate, this provided an important opportunity to strengthen our case for approval and to substantially broaden the indication we were seeking, whereas we originally anticipated seeking only accelerated approval as we shared with you at the time, the FDA policy change to open the path to seek full approval. Accordingly, we partnered with Osmind Inc. to leverage their database on more than 65,000 patients treated with intravenous ketamine, and approximately 6,000 patients treated with intranasal ketamine. Summary data are presented in the 10-K and demonstrate the benefits that thousands of Americans have already received in reducing depression and suicidality with intravenous ketamine. As we shared with you, we were granted an in-person meeting at FDA headquarters with the leadership of the FDA Division of Psychiatry Products, the Office of Neurosciences and the leadership of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation research. The minutes of that meeting demonstrate FDA's willingness to review not only the clinical trials data, but also the real-world evidence. More importantly, FDA guided us to seek full approval rather than accelerated approval and to seek a substantially larger indication for depression in patients who may have suicidality rather than only those who already have suicidality, an indication that we believe applies to more than 10 million Americans. Our aim is to package the data FDA have requested by the end of Q2 with the potential for decision date otherwise known as a PDUFA date by the end of the year or in the opening months of 2027. We're confident that seeking FDA's alignment on this expanded pathway was the right thing to do for our patients and our shareholders. As we shared last year, the product is already manufactured. The manufacturing modules are complete and already in the hands of the FDA and 3 registration batches are manufactured and in the warehouse in anticipation of approval. Again, we have stability data to support at least 3 years of room temperature shelf stability. In August 2025, FDA granted us an expanded Fast Track designation for NRX-100. This expanded designation goes beyond the prior grant simply for suicidal bipolar depression to now include all patients with suicidal ideation in depression including bipolar depression. Suicidal depression is a massive problem in the United States. In fact, the Center for Disease Control estimates that nearly 13 million Americans seriously consider suicide each year and this leads to an American dying from suicide every 11 minutes. In June, the FDA created the Commission's National Priority Voucher program that affords substantially faster review times of once 2 months versus the standard 10- to 12-month review, enhances communication throughout the review process and creates potential for accelerated approval, and full approval of NRX-100. The first 2 tranches of vouchers have been granted. We remain optimistic for NRX-100's chance to receive a voucher, given that CMS targeted drugs other than bulk ketamine, have been underrepresented to this point. Further, we're confident that NRX-100 meets the program's criteria and is a prime candidate to receive a voucher. Moving on from ketamine. We've experienced what we believe to be transformative change in our NRX-101 program. As you know, we originally developed NRX-101, a fixed-dose combination of D-cycloserine and lurasidone to address the needs of patients with suicidal bipolar depression. While we hope to get back into the clinic with a pivotal trial to prove the value of NRX-101 at high doses to treat patients with that condition. A near-term opportunity appeared that offers a far broader potential application for D-cycloserine the active ingredient of NRX-101. As we illustrated in the 10-K, there's a rapidly emerging body of evidence suggesting that D-cycloserine or DCS at low doses has the potential to drive neuroplasticity which is the process by which brain cells form connections to other brain cells and especially to augment the clinical effect of transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS. Accordingly, we appointed Professor Joshua Brown, MD PhD of Harvard McLean as our Chief Medical Innovation Officer. Dr. Brown is a principal investigator on NIH funded and DARPA-funded projects that highlight the future of neuroplastic care including the use of D-cycloserine and transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS, for treating depression, PTSD and suicidality. Today, we're announcing that we're on the path to developing a patentable sustained release presentation of D-cycloserine to provide an extended release profile suitable for enhancement of TMS efficacy. Prior clinical trials have shown a doubling of clinical response in patients with depression and an eightfold increase in remission from depression versus standard TMS therapy. However, DCS, D-cycloserine, which is a tuberculosis drug has always been a somewhat unstable and problematic molecule that degrades rapidly, if not carefully formulated and it is stable in our current formulation. Moreover, its absorption profile in the human body more closely resembles a sharp spike rather than a steady state. We're excited that after a long period of research and development, we found a path to an innovative modern version of DCS that is better suited to maintaining a steady state in the blood during TMS treatment. NRx has more than 25,000 manufactured doses of NRX-101 at the appropriate strength and has launched a nationwide expanded access program to enable physicians who are performing TMS and want to add the benefit of D-cycloserine to access this medication at no charge to the patient under expanded access and federal right to try laws while we await a confirmatory Phase III trial of NRX-101 to augment the effects of TMS. That trial is planned to start this summer, and we expect non-dilutive federal sources to support that trial. The market estimate for this newly validated indication for NRX-101 is in excess of $1 billion. We're collaborating with Dr. Brown and his DARPA-funded initiatives related to D-cycloserine and TMS that have attractive support because of the clear implications for supporting the needs of military personnel, veterans and first responders in addition to the tens of millions of civilians who need this treatment. In recent months, we've had the opportunity to brief on these activities at senior-most levels within the Department of War, the Department of Veterans Affairs and both House and Senate leadership who are concerned about the welfare of our troops and veterans. That's why some of you noticed my attendance in the gallery at this year's State of the Union address. Our clinics have contracts to treat military personnel through TRICARE and to treat veterans through direct contracts with the VA. We first established a cooperative research and development agreement with the VA in 2018. In September 2025, HOPE Therapeutics initiated revenue generation upon closing its first acquisition of Dura Medical located in Naples and Fort Myers, Florida. HOPE subsequently added Cohen & Associates in Sarasota, another revenue-generating site, an EBITDA-positive clinic that's now part of our HOPE network. Dr. Rebecca Cohen, Founder of Cohen Associates has been appointed as HOPE Medical Director. In December, HOPE was the first organization in Florida to launch 1-day TMS treatment for severe depression combining D-cycloserine and TMS. The 1D protocol has been reported in the peer-reviewed literature to achieve 87% response and 72% remission from severe depression in 6 weeks following a single day of TMS treatment combined with D-cycloserine. By way of comparison, if you look at the SPECT-D trial, antidepressants have been reported only to demonstrate about half that response. We're currently opening additional clinics in West Palm Beach, Sarasota, Boston, Denver, with the expectation that we'll have a far more robust network by the end of the year with revenue to match. Although there are many more milestones described in our 10-K, I'll end with our newly declared partnership with Neurocare AG of Munich and Atlanta, Georgia. Neurocare manufactures the top-selling TMS device in the U.S. today, the Apollo machine, which has installed at more than 400 clinical locations in the U.S. with many more internationally. Our aim is to leverage our mutual strengths to achieve the benefits of integrated care in neuroplastic integrated psychiatry that were achieved in renal dialysis through integration. Those results were achieved several decades ago by DaVita and Fresenius Medical. Those 2 organizations demonstrated that combining integrated pharmaceutical and medical device development with a quality-driven approach to patient care could transform clinical outcomes for patients with end-stage kidney disease, and they created organizations that are currently valued at $15 billion and $30 billion, respectively. We aim to take that same model into the future of interventional psychiatry for the treatment of PTSD, depression, autism, traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer's. Working together with our academic partners, our government partners and now with the leading medical device partner we'll do everything in our power to bring hope to life. I'll now turn it over to Michael Abrams, our CFO, to review our 2025 financial results. Mike? Michael Abrams: Thank you, Jonathan. For the year ended December 31, 2025, NRx Pharmaceuticals reduced its loss from operations by approximately $2.3 million to $16.2 million from $18.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, which was primarily driven by a decrease in research and development expense. For the year ended December 31, 2025, research and development expense decreased by approximately $2.4 million to $3.8 million as compared to $6.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, primarily driven by a decrease in clinical trial and development expense. Finally, general and administrative expense for the year ended December 31, 2025, decreased by approximately $0.4 million to $13.1 million as compared to $13.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, primarily driven by certain ongoing cost reduction initiatives. As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately $7.8 million in cash and cash equivalents. Management believes that the current available cash resources in concert with anticipated growth in total clinic revenue, ongoing cost reduction initiatives and current availability and trends in connection with the company's active at-the-market offering, will be sufficient to support ongoing operations through the end of 2026. Our singular focus remains advancing our primary drug development initiatives and planned clinic acquisitions to build long-term value for our shareholders. With that, I will turn the call back over to Jonathan. Jonathan? Jonathan Javitt: Thank you, operator. We're now ready to take questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Tom Shrader with BTIG. Thomas Shrader: Congratulations on all the progress. Just an update on how you see building KETAFREE inventory? Is that something you will wait to do? You will do externally? Or do you have a lot already? And then you're quoting the generic value of ketamine. Do you think if you have -- I mean, I guess, how confident are you that if you had the only available ketamine that maybe the current generic price isn't so relevant. And how much increase in price do you think the market would bear. And then I have a DCS follow-up. Jonathan Javitt: Thank you, Dr. Shrader. You always ask wonderful questions. As far as inventory goes, as I said earlier, we've already manufactured 3 registration batches. Those batches are in the warehouse. KETAFREE is up on what's called a blow-fill seal assembly line. So for those of you who don't deal with pharma manufacturing every day, most injectable drugs are sold in glass bottles. To do that, you have to actually buy glass bottles somewhere. You have to clean them, sterilize them, fill them, put a stopper and put a crimp on. Both those seal works very differently. You take a hopper full of polyethylene pellets, you melt them down into molten polyethylene. You blow them with air into the shape of a vial, the machine fills that vial automatically seals that vial with a little more polyethylene, puts a wrapper on it, puts it in a box, puts it on the pallet all without any human being touching it. You can make 1 million units of drug in the same time and at about half the cost as you can make 10,000 vials of traditional glass-filled injectable product. So we've just asked our manufacturer to do a first production run, we anticipate having a couple of hundred thousand units in the warehouse at the time of generic approval. With regard to the effect of having the only preservative-free ketamine on the market, should the citizen petition be granted, probably Wall Street analysts will do a much better job of projecting what that might do to pricing models than we can. But I agree with you that if it's a product the market wants, the market will probably pay for it. Thomas Shrader: Great. And then a quick question on the extended release D-cycloserine. Is there -- is it known that, that would have the same effect? Is there a clinical data that you don't need the spike? Or do you think you have a little clinical work to do? Jonathan Javitt: I think that, that's work that can be done in vitro. Really, what we're looking for is a neuroplastic effect from D-cycloserine and there's a lot of reason to believe that continued exposure of the neurons to the drug is what matters. But we have the ability in brain slices to look at the dendritic sprouting and to look at the effects. In general, you do want a steady state of drug to create a biological response. But I agree with you, it's certainly something worth continuing to look at. And as you know, from Dr. Brown's resume, he's probably done more of this than anybody in academia. Operator: Your next question comes from Patrick Trucchio with H.C. Wainwright. Patrick Trucchio: Congrats on the progress. Just a couple of questions on each program. Just first on NRX-100. I was just wondering if you can talk a little bit more about the Type C meeting with the FDA and how that now enables an NDA filing for NRX-100 without additional clinical trials? And specifically, how is the FDA viewing the role of the 65,000 to 70,000 patient real-world data set in this submission? And then separately from that, as we think about the broader treatment-resistant depression label, how should we think about the expansion of the addressable patient population impact on payer coverage and prescriber adoption if approved? Jonathan Javitt: So to start with the Type C meeting, the most important way it enables FDA review of existing clinical trials data and real-world data without the need for additional clinical trials is that that's what the FDA told us. They did not demand additional clinical trials as a precondition to reviewing an NDA filing. And when you look at the data available, there are now multiple clinical trials that have demonstrated that intravenous ketamine is far superior to placebo, far superior to active placebo and noninferior on efficacy to electroshock therapy. But of course, there's a huge safety difference between NRX-100 between ketamine and electroshock in that the electroshock group had 30% memory loss, whereas memory loss was not seen in the ketamine group. So while technically, you would say it's not inferior because the design was noninferiority based on the MADRS scale. From a patient's perspective, it's a far superior treatment. Do me in favor and restate your second question? Patrick Trucchio: Yes. Just on the broader treatment-resistant depression label, how should we think about the expansion of the addressable population and the impact on payer coverage and prescriber adoption if the drug is approved? Jonathan Javitt: Well, if you look at the narrower indication, we were originally forecasting which would have been people with active suicidality. That would have been about 3 million, 3.5 million patients a year reporting to CDC numbers. But if you look at the much broader population of people with depression who may from time to time have suicidal ideation, the CDC numbers would suggest that you're talking about an addressable population of 12 million or so people. In terms of payer coverage. Payers have told us in the past that as long as our course of treatment is less than about $10,000 a year, it's unlikely to have substantial formulary restrictions. Mental health is one of the most rapidly growing challenges that payers face in insurance coverage and a treatment that has the potential to rapidly stabilize people, keep them out of the hospital, keep them at work, keep them productive is highly attractive to payers. And you've seen that with SPRAVATO, you've seen SPRAVATO rapidly grow to what's estimated at a $2 billion market today. And that's the market that we would seek to share if NRX-100 is approved as we've expected. Patrick Trucchio: Right. And with the ANDA showing favorable preliminary bioequivalent determination, I'm wondering what remains before final approval in the third quarter of this year? Jonathan Javitt: Well, the Office of Generic Drugs has to do its process. They're going to continue to examine our stability data. They'll have to do a pre-approval plant inspection. They'll have to go through the whole litany of final checks associated with any drug approval. But we think clearing the bioequivalence hurdle is a major turning point. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Edward Woo with Ascendiant Capital. Edward Woo: Congratulations on all the progress as well. Assuming that you get the approval for the ANDA in Q3 2026, can you talk a little bit about your commercial strategy and how you expect to commercialize it? Jonathan Javitt: Well, there are 2 large segments of buyers for ketamine under the existing label. One is hospital surgery centers, et cetera, that already buy ketamine and then there are the clinics who are using it for psychiatry for pain control, et cetera. On the former side, we've been approached by a number of organizations that already sell to those hospitals. Their names are well known and anybody who's currently selling into that marketplace is interested in a modern preservative-free presentation. So we'd be unlikely to build our own sales force to go into hospitals because the average person selling injectable drugs into a hospital is representing a number of drugs, not just one. On the other hand, the clinics that use ketamine are much smaller number. They're well known, they tend to belong to the same associations, and we do expect to set up a medical liaison service relatively small number of representatives can cover a large swath of the clinics. So we believe that it's a very compact commercial footprint, one that's easily financeable within our available resources. Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Jonathan for closing remarks. Jonathan Javitt: Thank you. So thank you for joining our call today. As you can see, we've made progress towards 3 potential drug approvals in the near term. And we have this new pipeline target that could be a much larger use for NRX-101 than we ever anticipated. With the continuing development of the HOPE Therapeutics network for care delivery, we believe that we've really taken transformative steps to turn NRx Pharmaceuticals into a commercial stage company that has the potential to save lives on a daily basis and to bring a return to our investors. We finally reached that long-awaited inflection point where we're generating revenue, we expect to increase revenue and we really appreciate the extraordinary dedication and hard work of our team to support that long-term initiative and the patience of our investors and the support of our investors while we've made that turn. Our goal of bringing hope to life is closer than ever. Thank you so much for participating. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.
Operator: Welcome to ACCESS Newswire Inc.'s fourth quarter and year ended 2025 earnings conference call. Charlie Torenzio: My name is Charlie Torenzio, and I lead product in our PR Optimizer team here at ACCESS Newswire Inc. I joined in 2019 from the Newswire.com business. I have led the PR Optimizer team along with marketing, brand, and product strategy, and I am fortunate that many of the talented people I worked alongside then are still building with us today. Their passion and commitment have been a driving force behind everything we have accomplished. From day one, the ACCESS Newswire Inc. team welcomed us as partners, and bringing our teams together has made us a stronger, more innovative company. This past year has been transformational, from our rebrand to the product advancements we have brought to market, and I can tell you we are just getting started. Our focus is clear: give the world’s largest brands the tools they need to lead in public relations storytelling and investor relations communications. And we are building that future right now. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that statements made in this conference call concerning future revenues, results from operations, financial position, markets, economic conditions, product releases, partnerships, and any other statements that may be construed as predictions of future performance or events are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. We will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures which are provided for informational purposes and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, GAAP results. With that said, I will turn the call over to our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Balbirnie, and our Chief Financial Officer, Steve Knerr. Brian Balbirnie: Thank you, Charlie. Not only has it been a pleasure getting to know you since the Newswire acquisition, but having you as part of the team in a product leadership capacity has ignited so many things that we wanted to do here for years. For those of you that do not know, along with our development team, Charlie is leading the transformation of our subscription product innovation, putting us in an amazing place not only to compete for wallet share, but also to have a seat at the table in first-to-market innovation. Morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to review ACCESS Newswire Inc.'s fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. Steve and I are grateful for your continued engagement and support as we close out what has been a truly transformational year for this company. Our fourth quarter results cap off a year defined by strategic focus, operational improvement, and meaningful progress in building a subscription-first business, delivering consistent year-over-year revenue, meaningful expansion in profitability, and continued operational discipline, all while investing in the platform innovations that position us for an exciting 2026. Revenue for the quarter came in at $5,800,000, up approximately $100,000 sequentially and essentially flat year over year. Adjusted EBITDA increased slightly to $881,000 from $871,000, representing 15% of revenue. Gross margin continued to be strong at 77%, up from 75% in the same quarter of last year. Before I hand it to Steve, I wanted to highlight a few metrics that demonstrate the continued health of our business. Total active customers grew to 12,802, up 4% year over year, from 12,004 in Q3. Average recurring revenue per subscription customer also increased year over year from $10,008.44 to $12,005.34, up 16% year over year, reflecting continued upsell success and platform adoption. Looking at the prior quarter, we saw an 8% increase in ARR sequentially. Steve will now discuss the fourth quarter and year end in 2025 for you. Then I would like to come back on and discuss what we have been up to in Q4 and what we have been doing here in Q1, about our product enhancements and what is in store for our customers into 2026. Steve, I will hand it over to you, sir. Steve Knerr: Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. As Brian mentioned, this has been a transformational year for us. And Q4 was another quarter of generating solid operating margins and cash flow. I will now discuss some of the details which led to these results. Total revenue for Q4 2025 was $5,800,000, a decrease of $27,000 compared to the same period of 2024, making revenue for the full year of 2025 $22,600,000, a decrease of $438,000, or 2%, from $23,100,000 in 2024. Core press release revenue is up approximately 2% from the same quarter of the prior year, and 1% for the full year of 2025 compared to 2024. The increase for the quarter is due to higher volume; however, volume was slightly lower on a full-year basis compared to the prior year. The increase in press release volume was more than offset by a decrease in Pro Plan revenue, webcasting, and IR website revenue. Overall revenue from subscriptions increased to 53% during the quarter, compared to 45% during the same quarter of the prior year. Gross margin percentages improved during the fourth quarter and full year of 2025, increasing to 77% for both periods compared to 75% and 76% for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024, respectively. The increase in gross margin percentage is primarily due to lower headcount due to increased efficiency within our operational teams and systems, partially offset by increased distribution costs as we continue to expand our distribution footprint. Gross margin for Q4 2025 increased $107,000, or 2%, to $4,500,000, and gross margin for the full year decreased $126,000, or 1%, to $17,300,000, primarily due to the decline in revenue for the year. Moving down the income statement to operating loss, we posted an operating loss of $761,000 for Q4 2025, and $1,900,000 for the full year of 2025, compared to operating losses of $14,300,000 and $16,300,000 during the same periods of 2024. The primary reason for the decrease in operating loss is related to an impairment loss of $14,150,000 recorded during 2024 related to reducing the estimated useful life of the Newswire trade name as a result of our rebranding during 2025. Removing impairment losses, total operating expenses increased $446,000, or 10%, during Q4 2025 as compared to the same quarter of the prior year. This increase is primarily the result of the one-time cost associated with the settlement of a contract of approximately $336,000 and an increase in advertising and trade show expenses as we launched PressRelease.com and focused on our new branding. For the full year of 2025, total operating expenses decreased $674,000, or 3%, as compared to 2024, primarily due to a decrease in headcount in our sales and marketing teams earlier in the year as well as lower product and development consulting expenses. Operating expenses for the full year of 2024 also included a benefit to stock compensation expense of $340,000 related to the resignation of an executive officer. During 2025, we recorded an impairment charge of $250,000 related to our right-of-use asset and leasehold improvements due to a sublease we executed in December. Execution of the sublease will save us approximately $80,000 per quarter. As previously noted, in 2024, we recorded an impairment charge of $14,150,000 associated with the Newswire trade name. On a GAAP basis, we reported a loss from continuing operations of $509,000, or $0.13 per diluted share, during Q4 2025, compared to a net loss of $11,000,000, or $2.85 per diluted share, during Q4 2024. For the full year of 2025, net loss from continuing operations was $1,600,000, or $0.40 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $13,300,000, or $3.47 per diluted share, in 2024. Again, the decrease in loss from continuing operations was primarily a result of the impairment charge recorded during 2024. There is no activity for discontinued operations during 2025 other than adjusting income tax expense related to the sale of the compliance business. During 2024, we recorded income from the compliance business of $750,000, net of taxes, which was approximately $0.19 per diluted share. For the full year of 2025, net income from discontinued operations was almost $6,000,000, or $1.51 per diluted share, compared to $2,500,000, or $0.65 per diluted share, for 2024. Looking to some non-GAAP metrics, Q4 2025 EBITDA was $251,000, or 4% of revenue, compared to $770,000, or 13% of revenue, for Q4 2024. Full year 2025 EBITDA was $1,300,000, or 6% of revenue, compared to $840,000, or 4% of revenue, for 2024. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $881,000, or 15% of revenue, for Q4 2025 compared to $871,000, also 15% of revenue, for the fourth quarter of 2024. For the full year of 2025, adjusted EBITDA increased to $3,200,000, or 14% of revenue, compared to $1,800,000, or 8% of revenue, in 2024. Non-GAAP net income for Q4 2025 was $675,000, or $0.17 per diluted share, compared to $819,000, or $0.21 per diluted share, in Q4 2024. For the full year of 2025, non-GAAP net income increased to $2,200,000, or $0.57 per diluted share, compared to $720,000, or $0.19 per diluted share, during the full year of 2024. Turning our attention to the cash flow statement and balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $3,000,000 of cash on hand. Adjusted free cash flow for Q4 2025 was $467,000 compared to $413,000 for Q4 2024. For the full year of 2025, adjusted free cash flow was $1,300,000 compared to $2,800,000 during 2024. The year-to-date amount for 2025 includes over $2,200,000 paid in taxes, primarily related to the sale of the compliance business, compared to only $342,000 paid during the prior year. Our deferred revenue balance, which is revenue we generally expect to recognize over the subsequent year, increased $522,000, or 11%, to $5,300,000 as of 12/31/2025, compared to $4,700,000 as of 12/31/2024. I will now turn it back over to Brian, who will provide some updates on the business, customers, and subscriptions, and some new product development we have planned for 2026. Brian? Brian Balbirnie: Thanks, Steve. Q4 capped off a year that I believe will define ACCESS Newswire Inc.'s future. We did virtually everything that we said we would do. We transformed the business, redefined the core offerings, and moved the business to majority recurring subscriptions, emerging leaner, more profitable, and a more innovative company. Now it is time to grow. For the full year 2025, as most of you know, we accomplished the following: completed the strategic rebrand to ACCESS Newswire Inc.; divested our legacy compliance business, sharpening our focus; reduced debt by over 83%; reduced OpEx, something we will continue to do into 2026; retooled our entire back-office systems and processes end to end; grew subscription revenue to approximately 53% of total revenue in 2025; increased ARR per subscriber by 16% year over year as we talked about previously; deployed our AI editorial validation internally, saving 5% of editorial time per release; launched our ACCESS EDU and Bateman Study competition; launched a sister brand, PressRelease.com, with single-circuit distribution that began marketing efforts here in Q1. This, coupled with the following updates here in Q1, have us hitting on virtually all cylinders: launching our AI validation that we previously released to our editors in a customer-facing environment now called ACCESS Verified; social monitoring, a key new component of our subscription set that has set forth the path to see ARR increases at the beginning of Q2. This was initially released to thousands of EDU subscribers in 2025. ARR increases of approximately 25% will be seen beginning Q2; Marketplace, the beginning of several partnerships we believe will drive further awareness to our brand with companies like Hootsuite and many others to follow here in the coming quarters; and another one that I am a big fan of is “Kill the Report.” Our first version of this industry-leading news distribution report gives our customers the ability to see real insights into their story by way of peer content comparisons, brand sentiment, engagement potential, LLM citation scores, and recommendations. We have several levels of advancements planned here for release throughout 2026. The takeaways are twofold: customers will get better insight—no BS—reporting, and we will all see engagement and ARR lift, having an incremental add-on to this current customer subscription. There is so much planned we will talk about in the coming months on our Q1 call, all of which are part of our 2026 strategic goals and continued product innovation and brand development as an industry leader. We continue to believe this will move us towards our double-digit growth and further ARR projections. Speaking of subscribers and ARR updates, we ended Q4 2025 with 974 subscribing customers, from 972 at the end of Q3 and 965 from Q4 of last year. We adjusted and corrected our targets to 1,200 subscribers at the end of the year after accounting for the compliance business divestiture. We are not pleased with our churn and where we are today. We saw a slow second half 2025. We sold 90 new customers in Q4 with an average ARR of $12,009.91. So we are seeing ARR strong. We are doing some things to change subscription platforms, pricing, and what we believe will be go-to-market here in the back half of the year. Equally important, our ARR per subscriber to end the year came in at $12,005.34, which represents meaningful value expansion per customer and speaks to the depth of our platform adoption and cross-selling ability. I think this is why it is vital for us to continue to innovate things like social monitoring, Kill the Report, and the Marketplace I just discussed a few minutes ago. At the end of the prior quarter, we were at $11,006.51. This ultimately resulted in 8% sequential ARR growth and 16% year over year, as Steve and I said earlier. We expect subscription counts and the ARR per subscriber to both accelerate in 2026, driven by new product suites launched at the end of the year and into this year, as we continue to focus on our trade-up and trade-in strategies. Additionally, as we monitor the economic landscape here in Q1, we are testing lower subscription commitments to see if scaled user adoption exists and what products resonate best with the market. Having virtually a fixed-cost application and product offering allows us the flexibility to mix and match solutions that find the best fits for new businesses, scale-up brands, and enterprise. We think the first half of the year will tell us enough to understand where we need to optimize as necessary. We look at economic factors in the industry, and we use those economic factors to make decisions on budgets for our customers, and this is why we think there could be an opportunity for a differentiation in our subscription products. New product launches in Q4 and into Q1 2026. To expand on what I said earlier, one of the most exciting chapters in ACCESS Newswire Inc.’s story is now underway. The investments we have made throughout our 2025 year in platform infrastructure, AI, and integrations are now converting into customer-facing products. I want to walk you through what we have launched that I briefly talked about earlier and what is coming here in Q1 and into the rest of the year. Our ACCESS PR subscription platform now has real-time social monitoring. In late Q4, we completed this major upgrade into our ACCESS PR subscription, integrating real-time monitoring and sentiment analysis across more than 30 social media platforms. Customers can now track mentions, measurements, earned media value, and understand brand sentiment impact not only for them, but the competitive core of what they are going to market against, all within the same dashboard they use to distribute their press releases today. This upgrade was launched here in Q1 and has defined ARR lift beginning in Q2 next month as we talked about earlier. Outside of prepared remarks, just to tell you something competitively as you look at this, if we think about the other three newswires, not any one of them, in a single platform, offers not only media pitching, monitoring database, but social all in one system. They tend to allow you to log in to different platforms, and we think that is the significant advantage for us as we go to market fully now after the total addressable opportunities for us. These key capabilities include real-time brand monitoring across 30-plus social media and digital channels; sentiment scoring; automated alerts for brand and campaign activity; earned media value analytics tied directly to press release distribution; and our Kill the Report. Marketplace add-ons include integrating one of the world’s largest social media management platforms, Hootsuite, enabling customers to schedule, publish, analyze content across multiple networks, and distribute with Hootsuite in a matter of seconds, all automated through their ACCESS PR subscriptions. This product directly addresses one of the most requested features from our enterprise and scale-up customers, and we expect this to be a meaningful driver to our ARR expansion and new customer acquisition this year. To further expand on what I call Kill the Report, it is an AI-powered, real-time prompting and alert-based brand activity and content performance engine. It measures your distribution reach. This product is directly in response to long-standing industry frustration, which is misleading distribution metrics that all of the press release service providers provide today and have for 80 years. We believe this is a differentiation that the market has never seen, and ACCESS Newswire Inc. is meaningfully passionate about having this competitive product replacement for a typical distribution report—something that will measure your brand in the future and beyond. It gives you a point-in-time report builder that executes real summaries by one click. It is full data transparency. All metrics surface directly from our customers, eliminating implied, opaque reporting. What this really means is there is no implied “this is your traffic,” there is no implied “this is your total audience.” It is real analysis done at the captured moment of the five days, at the one-week marker of 30 days, and custom reporting if you wish. We made good on our commitment to Kill the Report. This agentic, AI-driven reporting system replaces the outdated static distribution report that I just talked about with a living, real-time intelligence layer for our customers. We are not only planning to make this product optional as an upgrade, but also anticipate several meaningful quarterly updates and advancements to drive further value to our customers. This is going to be done in our platform in real time with our agent builder solution that is a big competitive advantage for us that we will talk about in the coming quarters. Our AI editorial assistant became customer-facing. As many of you know, we have done it internally for a while. This gives our customers the ability to create and draft their story or press release and allow our ACCESS Verified systems to analyze content, analyze compliance, and market data trends to ensure that the press release adheres to all of our distribution partners’ requirements as well as our editorial standards. It provides comments and suggestions to the customer on what they can do to improve, all in real time, or they have the option to bypass. Still, regardless, we will never ever defer human editorial eyes at least twice on every press release. ACCESS Verified gives our customers the ability to scale and rank and understand the sentiment before submission. We think it is going to be a significant driver. To be fair to our customer in the advancement, it also gives us a significant competitive advantage where we then have fixed-cost distribution scale, where we can handle growth without any incremental cost, further boosting our gross margins like we have from 75% to today at the end of the year at 77%. The customer-facing AI editorial assistant offers automated content review for accuracy, tone, and compliance before submission. This provides proprietary, AI-driven recommendations that improve clarity, SEO, and LLM impact, and wire-readiness. Misinformation and disinformation has been big for us for years, and there are also flags that continue our commitment to content integrity, not only for the markets, but for our customers and our brand itself, as well as providing real-time readability scoring with peer benchmarking. We have already four or five versions of this slated for this year of upgrades that customers will continue to get, and we love the feedback from them because it helps drive that product even more for them. Early customers have said this has been exceptional for them. It has saved them significant time, it has cut additional review cycles, improved confidence scoring, and provided better engagement for them. As we continue to see that, look for some white papers coming that will talk about how this is leading the industry rather than following. Something else that we have mentioned in the past very briefly, and you may have seen a lot of it on LinkedIn and social media channels, was PRSSA. The Public Relations Student Society of America every year has something called the Bateman Competition, and this year’s Bateman product company selected was us, ACCESS Newswire Inc. Out of that, we built something quick to market in less than 90 days in Q4 called ACCESS EDU. It was to address the Bateman competitors, which were the several schools we will talk about in a second, but it gave real-life students in the classroom the ability to use our product to not only teach from a professor standpoint, but also arm these seniors with the ability to understand public relations as it sits from a technology, storytelling process, media pitching process, and everything else. The result: we expanded the program to over 2,000 students over 100 universities, many of which were a part of the PRSSA Bateman study I just spoke about. It kicked off here at the beginning of this quarter. These students had full access to our PR platform, including the new social monitoring and AI editorial tools as part of their competition campaigns. The initial service is dual purpose: it gives back to the next generation of communication professionals while creating a pipeline of future ACCESS customers who graduate with hands-on experience on our platform. We view the EDU program as a long-term growth channel and brand-building investment that will compound over time. Early indications have been strong, as we have seen handfuls of schools and their PR agencies enter into our pipeline in the current quarter, as well as closed deals in this first quarter as well that we will talk about next quarter. We look forward to sharing the Bateman winner as we go through judging here in the next couple of weeks, and stay tuned for the press release on what that is going to look like. We are also going to plan to release several upgrades to our EDU program. This is not just about Bateman. This is about institutionalizing ourselves within the education system to be a part of the syllabus for the PR schools. Live classroom training and certifications for graduating students will be had from ACCESS Newswire Inc.’s infrastructure. This will drive future revenues in many ways. One, graduating students will carry their certificates into the workforce and bring ACCESS’s platform with them. Second, our platform is the leading peer tool, gaining university department trust. With that opportunity will come licensing from other departments within the university systems’ educational platforms to use our public relations storytelling platform. For context, there are almost 50 schools, 2,600 students. There were 350 faculty members and teachers, and PR professionals totaling another 128 that are associated with the schools and this agency relationship that have all been using our tools for the better part of the last four months. The potential value here for us in moving all schools into our ARR model, as well as thousands of students as they move into their careers, gives us the potential to be their PR solution of choice through the certification program we just talked about. Although significant brand was built from Q4 and early into Q1, we feel strongly that this EDU program is a long-term investment, as we just said, where we will begin to see revenue contributing mid-2026. Lastly, PressRelease.com, which we talked about on our last call briefly, has an entirely new concept. We expect to see the brand continue to gain traction beyond the small contributions it had in Q4. We saw about 100 new customers and about $40,000 in revenue for about a four- or five-week period. Half of those customers came back to repurchase, which is a good indicator for us. Going into this year, we expect the brand and its personality—the Press Release Parrot—will come to life as not only the first single-circuit press release platform available to purchase right online, but our technology will also allow us to do this and be agile enough to transition as the most predominant wire service available today. We have a competitive advantage to scale up this new business. When maturity and need arises, our ACCESS main brand will be there to convert these customers into subscriptions and full ARR. Today, PressRelease.com is our feeder for new customers that want to start with just one press release. If I move along to trends in 2026 and outlook, the combination of Q4 financial performance and our new product momentum gives us real confidence heading into 2026. We entered the year with revenue growth, expanding gross margins, and an ARR base that is growing in both volume and value per customer. Albeit some of these metrics are not as high as we would all like, we are building significant confidence within our organization and in our customer install base that we can continue to see this growing and growing. Our ARR per employee continued to trend upwards this year. It is a metric that we look at internally. The divestiture of the compliance business combined with our team’s rebuilding efforts in sales and the productivity gains from our AI automation position us well to achieve more in the future. To summarize our position entering into 2026, we delivered on almost every major operational commitment we made at the start of the year, absent our number of subscribers. Our ARR per subscriber exceeded $12,500, up 16% year over year as we said—a clear sign that our platform value is resonating. We have launched and are launching five meaningful product capabilities that expand our TAM and increase subscription values. The balance of these we will talk about on our next call. We also entered 2026 with a clear balance sheet and a focused team that is ready to execute on growth, rather than divestiture and retooling the business. Looking ahead in 2026 as well, our focus is clear and centered on top-line growth driven by subscription expansion, new product monetization, and enterprise customer acquisition. Subscription customers: we are targeting to reach up to 1,500 customers by the end of 2026. ARR per subscriber: we expect to continue to expand on our enterprise base, and we will message this new test that we are doing on a small start-up/scale-up brand subscription. Adjusted EBITDA: we expect to move adjusted EBITDA margins into the mid- to high-teens by the second half of this year as we have messaged and analyst recommendations show. Product momentum: full monetization of the enterprise bundle, all AI editorial systems, and the Kill the Report platform through Q1 and into the full year. What this essentially means is $10,000 to $12,000 subscriptions become $14,000 to $15,000 fairly quickly when customers upgrade to these new features. We have a backlog of significant product advancements that are going to continue to be had that will evolve our subscription business to be entirely different than it is today, than it will be by 2026. ACCESS Newswire Inc. is becoming a stronger, more predictable, and more profitable business. We said we would transform, and we did. Now it is time to grow. It is on us, and we are ready. Something else I want to touch on is the state of the SaaS software industry. In the last couple of months, collectively, we have seen billions of dollars in market cap value wiped away from large enterprises like Adobe, Microsoft, and Salesforce, in combination. I only bring this up because of a couple of reasons. One, the AI advancements happening so quickly today, some of which recently have been geared towards user-based SaaS businesses. These are the companies that sell an application of software in a SaaS model to a customer on a seat or per-user basis, and like many of our competitors that do that in the public relations industry, we do not do that. We sell a subscription on a one-to-one basis to an enterprise or to a customer, a business, and there is not additional cost per user. Although the markets and investors have weighed heavily on companies that have that model because AI is eroding that, we are insulated from that. We feel strongly that our subscription model that we began with two years ago is something that is viable, that the market is accepting, and the financial community also understands as well. That puts us in a really good position to have one recurring fee per customer regardless of users or usage or anything else, and it is a model where we can deliver sustained gross margins and accelerate adjusted EBITDA with scale. We cannot thank you enough for your time today. With that, I will turn the call back over to the operator for the question-and-answer session. Operator? Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will be conducting our question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. Please lift your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question is coming from Mike Grondahl with Northland Securities. Your line is live. Mike Grondahl: Hey, Brian. The press release notes that you anticipate generating incremental revenue through premium subscription tiers and per-release pricing. Could you give a couple examples of those? Brian Balbirnie: Yeah, absolutely, Mike. Thank you for the question. We will break it up into a couple of different parts. The first part: today, customers are purchasing both a fixed-fee subscription model, which includes their news distribution, media monitoring, database, analytics, and pitching. Those subscribing customers that have upgraded to a, call it, a Plus/Pro version of their subscription will now include their social media monitoring as well. So the lift in ARR is $200 additional per month for those customers. That is the incremental. So when we talked earlier in the call about adding additional products throughout the year, we are confident and believe that the same model will hold throughout the year as we continue to add on vital components to them that they will continue to upgrade to take advantage. On a single press release, the second part of the customer that cannot commit to a complete subscription for the year has the option to license or buy or use any one of our products in a singular form. They are now given the option to add social monitoring and add a distribution report on a per-product basis. This gives them the option to try, test, and use the solution without the commitment, and then gives us the opportunity to build the pipeline to convert them to subscription customers later. The “Kill the Report” that we have been using for the last couple quarters will be one of those marquee products here beginning in a couple of weeks. Customers will get their traditional distribution report because that is what the industry is used to, and we will guide them down the path of the more interactive report that we will be showing on our website here by the end of the week. Folks will be able to upgrade to that again on a pay-per-use basis or a subscription basis as well. Mike Grondahl: Got it. And then could you talk a little bit about volume trends and pricing trends that you are seeing on the newswire side? I think you said volumes were still down 1% year over year. And maybe that was revenue. But just talk about those two trends a little bit. Brian Balbirnie: Yeah. We are holding price. We have actually done very well. We continue to do renewals and new deals at higher per-press-release prices than the prior year. I think that is a maturity and a branding exercise. We went through a number of years, like everybody else did when they started in this industry. You have to build brand. You have to build trust, credibility, and follow-through execution, and we are long past that now. So we have a seat at the table to take meaningful price and share. Good news for us is, because of some of the AI advancements we have done, because of the fixed distribution costs for the most part that we have, volume indicates significant expansion in gross margin and EBITDA margin for us. So now the focus is back on volume growth—storytelling for our customers—that is aided by several different things in the market. One, and not to continually use the words AI or LLM, but every natural language processing system needs more content to ingest, and that content needs to come in different mediums: press releases, blogs, posts, and white papers. So the more content customers are doing, the more chances that they are going to see their citations and their web content and their press releases appear at LLM searches. We are advocating to our customers that the more content is better, so we are going to begin to see volume increases as a result of this. We are testing with a partner our product at the end of the year that will give our customers the ability to make their website and their newsrooms LLM-ready so that they become indexed like they were on Google and how they have been on Google for years. That dynamic and world is changing. So there is a lot that is going to happen there. We see volumes increasing rather than being flat or single-digit in the market. To be fair to all of us, as much as it is for us, that is for everybody—that is the industry as a whole—and that is one of the reasons why we released PressRelease.com, to give those early customers beginning to tell their stories and understand what public relations is the ability to buy a single circuit for a least cost to get involved and then grow there. We saw a good percentage of those customers—40-plus percent of our new PressRelease.com customers in Q4—come back and repurchase. Those are good indicators for us, and again, we continue to increase those prices over the period, which is a strong indicator that the market is there. Mike Grondahl: Got it. And then lastly, just how should we think about OpEx in 2026 relative to 2025? Brian Balbirnie: Yeah. Look, I think that there is further optimization that we can do. As Steve mentioned in some of his prepared remarks, we were fortunate enough to exit a lease that we had two years left on. There are some incremental savings there. It is about $320,000 a year in savings. We will get there. We have some additional G&A and other OpEx savings that we are going to monetize throughout the year by efficiencies in technology, efficiencies in workflow automation, and systems that we are streamlining. Steve and I and the management team continue to look at it, and we will be at it again today trying to find the next layer of savings. So we expect them to hold to what they were or be below what they were in 2025. Mike Grondahl: Thank you, guys. Brian Balbirnie: Thank you, Mike. Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Jacob Stephan with Lake Street Capital Markets. Jacob Stephan: Hey, guys. Nice quarter. I guess just to start out, maybe I am wondering if you could break down the KPIs and give a little bit more detail here. I know you guys had 47 new customers; you noted 45 came from EDU customers. In the slideshow, you had 974 subs, and I understand the math—you know, 974 plus 45—but I am wondering if you could break that down on the EDU customer side a little bit. Are those actual universities, or are these students? Help me think through that. Brian Balbirnie: Yeah. Those are actual universities. Our objective with the EDU program is that we felt strongly that, if you think about the typical school that you went to, there is a degree-focused public relations and communications department within every school. The PRSSA teams are very involved in that school at the university. But we looked at it beyond that. So those numbers are just those schools within the universities that have deployed our programs and a teaching exercise to their senior students to be able to use media monitoring, pitching database, and how to write a press release and a story. When we look beyond that, the opportunity for us is, if you go down the hall or across the university campus to the engineering department or the nursing program or any other degree program, they also have their own public relations teams there doing their work. By research, we have been able to identify that there are at least eight schools within each university that have a public relations department that do not know about us and are now being introduced to us from the public relations professors at that part of the school. So the opportunity is significant for us. We are going to invest sales and marketing there. As we round out the Bateman program here in the next couple of weeks and select a winner, we are going to expand that. The second part is these students—the 4,300 and change—they are registered in our platform as EDU students. They are free. We do not account for them in our customer numbers or our subscription numbers. They are using the product on behalf of the university, and they will be converted at the end of the year at graduation to an individual plan with the option for a monitoring component to take with them into their career-focused areas. Our hope is we are going to get a percentage of those to convert into customers. They will go into private practice, public relations firms, go into enterprises in the public relations or marketing departments, and bring our tools with them as their certifications will illustrate. We think it is a long investment into something that we will start to see incremental growth. But you are right, you did the math on the numbers from the press release to the prepared slides today. That number is those EDU customers. Jacob Stephan: Okay. And then maybe just on the ARR front, you guys said that the ARR does not include EDU. Obviously, nice improvement there. But are these customers higher ARR or lower? Brian Balbirnie: Yeah. The EDU customers through the Bateman program are a $0 ARR model. We agreed with PRSSA, as a method of the program, to provide those subscriptions to them during the period at no cost. When Bateman is over, they convert. We have already converted a couple of them in the last couple of weeks. We have several proposals out for others. We have closed two PR firms this quarter as a result of some of the efforts that the Bateman program has done. So we will see the monetary side of this happening in this quarter. Jacob Stephan: Got it. That is helpful. And then I just wanted to touch on the gross margin improvements year over year. I am wondering if you could break down the 200 bps-plus improvement year over year. I know AI has been a huge focus for you guys. How much of that is AI-driven? How much do you feel like is more scale and kind of the ARR expansion? Brian Balbirnie: Yeah. I think ARR expansion is a contributor. I think AI is a contributor. I would say that I do not know that scale yet is the contributor to the influence of that. I would say it is fifty-fifty. I think our ARR increasing is helping. I think efficiency gains and distribution fixed costs are contributing. We have been negotiating those contracts for years to get us to a position that, when scale does happen, the flowback to gross margin contribution is even more. As we talked about earlier in the call, in a question from Mike, as we see the industry wanting to tell stories more, utilize press releases as a foundation to have LLM indexing, and volume starts to increase, we are doing that from a fixed AI cost. We are doing that from fixed distribution cost. We are doing that from a fixed editorial cost. So the more volume that comes, the incremental gross margins will illustrate themselves and show. That is one of the reasons why we put AI to work both in a customer and in a back-office usage pattern. But I think it is important from a customer perspective to know that our editorial human eyes will always be there. This is curation and quality content, and we want to be sure that we uphold that responsibility to our customers and the market—how we keep our distribution. AI is a great efficiency gain for us, and we are beginning to see even more and more improvements there, but it will never replace the human curation portion of that. Jacob Stephan: Got it. And then maybe just one last one for me, kind of a broader picture question. What aspects of the overall product strategy are changing—the go-to-market strategy? What do you feel like is going to be the biggest contributor to hitting that 1,500-subscriber number at the end of the year? Brian Balbirnie: I think there are a couple. This industry is moving very rapidly. Not only is it moving rapidly from an economic perspective that we can talk about, it also is moving from an innovation perspective. A lot of companies are left behind because their technology stacks are in a position that they cannot innovate at the pace of which a good many of us can, and us being the predominant one. We spent the last year after divestiture of our compliance business retooling our stacks, building to be very agile, and building an automation management system on top of that so we can pivot and change our applications and customer outputs for deliverables within seconds rather than months or quarters like the competition does. We see that as a big innovation for us that we are going to be able to do more in our platform than most can in this industry. What I will lead you down the path to, Jacob, really is that, at the end of the day, the storytelling process is more than just a press release. It is a message. It is a snippet on social media. It is a podcast. It is a blog post. It is an LLM citation and a trusted article that somebody from ChatGPT or Perplexity picks up. There needs to be a curation platform for that. Today, when we look at our network of our competitors, everybody does a really good job of doing one or two of these elements, and that is not to discredit them or take anything away from our competition. But we also do that, and we do it in a way that gives our customers the ability to create a story, share it on social, pitch media, and do everything from one single interface. I would say 20% of the competitive marketplace landscape today does that. The next innovation for us in the second half of the year is going to give the ability for customers—like the presentation you saw today was done with our own technology. We built that presentation for today’s earnings call in about eight minutes, taken from content that Steve and I drafted in our prepared remarks. We are looking at products and tools like that which will take our business from the public relations departments and investor relations departments down the hall to the MarCom side where budgets are larger. That is why partnerships with Hootsuite and others are very critical for us. As we begin to pull in some of the real-time posting of what Hootsuite has been able to do and others to integrate fully into our platform, it is going to give us a position to go in selling an enterprise communications tool platform to not only PR and IR, but also the marketing departments as well. In the second half, you are going to see our plan take on a very different ARR of component selections and product advancements. We spent a good amount of time in the last six months prebuilding, testing, and using customer feedback to make those products and components much stronger. We could not be more excited about that. The public relations and investor relations space is large. The TAM is still there like it was years ago. It has not changed. For us to move out of it and down into marketing takes the total addressable market and multiplies it by four or five. That is where we are focused—to go down that hall and build strategy and thought leadership there. Jacob Stephan: Great. Very helpful. I will leave it there. Thanks, guys. Operator: Thank you, Jacob. Next question is coming from Brock Irwin with Clever Investing. Your line is live. Brock Irwin: Hello. I am afraid you could not hear me. Sorry, I was on mute. Hey, guys. I hope you are doing well. I can really sense the excitement from what you guys are working on and the building for the future, so I think this is an interesting transformational time for the company to be sure. Just a couple of questions from me. The first is it looks like you guys repurchased a small number of shares in Q4. Is it possible you can disclose if you continued repurchasing in Q1? Also, how do you think about the pace of repurchases relative to other investments you might be making? Brian Balbirnie: Yeah, it is a great question, Brock. Nice to hear from you. Yes, we did purchase a small amount of shares during Q4 under the previously announced repurchase plan of $1,000,000. There is a good portion of that plan that is still left that will be resuming here shortly. The commitment for the repurchase is still consistent. We have not wavered from that. There is still three-quarters of that amount still sitting there that is earmarked for us to execute against, and we have every intent to continue to do that. When that plan is filled and completed, as you know, the board will look at other options for part of our capital allocation strategy. If additional repurchase plans will be needed and/or advantageous for us to do so, we will make that decision at that point. The 10-K will illustrate to you today when it is filed this afternoon there were 18,000 shares—or 20,000 shares—that were repurchased during the fourth quarter, and you should expect the remaining of those to be repurchased here in the first half of the year. Brock Irwin: Awesome. Okay, cool. Another thing you touched on in your prepared remarks was the churn and customers falling off of those subscriptions. Can you just talk a little bit about what you are doing to address that? What are you learning from your customers, and what are maybe some improvements you can make to improve those metrics? Brian Balbirnie: Yeah. In November of last year, we reset our customer experience teams. We put a new manager on top of the team, rebuilt some of the processes internally to ensure what we call internally “time to value” is measured more accurately—meaning the customer is trained, supported, and made sure they are using the platform to begin to feel the value of it sooner than later. I will tell you this: like everybody else, we are going to give you the facts as they are and not have excuses. The true reality is that 70% of the churned customers in our subscription business is due to credit card failures and payments. It is not due to application use or application problems. When we looked at just our meaningful churn, it is a fraction of what it is in printed form. But look, to be honest with you, churn is churn, and we report it as such. There are mechanisms that you can do from a payment perspective. As you know, we are a B2B business, not an e-commerce business. We are finding out that the majority of subscriptions are purchased much more in an e-commerce way than any other way. So we are retooling some of our Magento front-end systems and credit card intel/knowledge to be able to be predictive and understand the risks of taking credit cards, what kinds of credit cards they are, and how those payments work. Our sales team, beginning in Q1, began removing monthly options to customers and going to quarterly or annual payments. That will help further reduce the credit card issues that we have had in the past. Make no mistake, that is what those are. We are doing a lot here at the end of Q4 and into Q1 to help change some of that. Steve and I meet with our director of operations that runs CX and our sales leaders every week to discuss customer usage, customer training, and customer feedback loops to be sure that we are being reactive and doing everything that we can do to reduce that churn. We are confident that we are going to do that, but we have had some issues there in the past three or four months. There is no doubt. Brock Irwin: Okay. Great. I appreciate the answers. Thanks. Operator: Thanks, Brock. As we have no further questions in the queue at this time, I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Balbirnie for any closing remarks. Brian Balbirnie: Ali, thank you as well. As always, thank you again to everyone else for joining us today. We are energized by the fourth quarter milestones and the progress made throughout 2025. The product momentum we are bringing into 2026. ACCESS Newswire Inc. is positioned well for the future, with a scalable platform, expanding recurring revenue, innovation and new products, and a focused team dedicated to execution and growth. We appreciate our shareholders, partners, and customers for the continued trust and support in 2025. With a year of transformation, 2026 will be a year of growth, and we look forward to updating you next quarter. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.
Operator: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the TELA Bio, Inc. Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, participants are in listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the prepared remarks. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Louisa Smith from Investor Relations. Louisa Smith: Thank you, Jonathan, and good afternoon, everyone. Earlier today, TELA Bio, Inc. released financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 12/31/2025. A copy of the press release is available on the company's website. Joining me on today's call are Antony Koblish, Chief Executive Officer, Jeffrey Blizard, President, Roberto E. Cuca, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, and Jim Hagen, Senior Vice President of Strategic Operations and Marketing. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during this conference call, the company may make projections and forward-looking statements regarding future events. We encourage you to review the company's past and future filings with the SEC, including, without limitation, the company's annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which identify the specific risk factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. These factors may include, without limitation, statements regarding product development, pipeline opportunities, sales and marketing strategies, and the impact of various additional risk factors as identified in our regulatory filings. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Antony. Antony Koblish: Thank you, Louisa, and good afternoon. Thank you for joining TELA Bio, Inc.'s fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. For today's call, I will open with a summary of what we accomplished in 2025 and thoughts on our forward-looking strategy. Jeff will then walk through the foundational changes implemented in the commercial organization and how we anticipate they will impact our future performance. Roberto will review our financials, and then we will open it up for Q&A. 2025, and the third and fourth quarters in particular, were periods of meaningful strategic change across the entire organization. Following Jeffrey Blizard’s appointment as President in June, we undertook and executed a significant rebuild of TELA Bio, Inc.'s commercial foundation while maintaining commitment to improve our operating discipline and continuing to advance our pipeline strategies. We made meaningful changes to drive 16% full-year growth and achieved record fourth quarter revenues. The ability to maintain that momentum while executing such fundamental change in the organization is a testament to the caliber of our team, and the value proposition of the OviTex product portfolio. We enter 2026 with the largest, most effective field team in the company's history, and the commercial strategy designed to drive durable, predictable growth. Demand for our products remains strong, and the opportunity in hernia repair and plastic reconstructive surgery has not diminished. The foundational changes we undertook in 2025 were aimed at ensuring we have the commercial infrastructure to consistently and effectively capture that demand. Revenue growth in 2025 was fueled by strong performance in our European business, further adoption of our IHR, LPR, and LiquiFix product lines, and the continued contribution of our tenured reps in the U.S. The strategic investment we have made in high-caliber candidates with the right profile has been an underlying tenet of the commercial rebuild. A meaningful portion of our approximately 90-person sales force is still early in their tenure, 40% of the reps having joined TELA Bio, Inc. in the last six months. This has not been a function of rep turnover, but rather an investment in commercial expansion, and in recruiting talent with the right profile for the sales model we are building. We already see the newest reps meaningfully outperform their predecessors in the early stages of their onboarding, and we are encouraged by their promise to execute our commercial strategy more effectively. In the fourth quarter, we accelerated efforts to bolster our U.S. commercial team by advancing recruitment to meet our sales headcount target and by putting the infrastructure in place to support those new hires. That included investing in training, rolling out new sales enablement tools, launching a new U.S. sales leadership structure, and redesigning the 2026 compensation plan to align with our growth strategy and expectations. Heading into 2026, we are focused on two strategic growth priorities. First and most importantly, we are committed to sustaining the momentum we achieved in 2025 and achieving further U.S. and European sales growth through improved talent, processes, and commercial leadership. Jeff and his team have made incredible progress so far, and this will continue to improve as the new commercial organization matures and tenured sales reps begin to hit their stride. Again, I will let Jeff provide further detail on the specifics, but I am confident in the new commercial foundation we have laid. And second, we have been and will remain hyper-focused on offering the best soft tissue reconstruction product portfolio on the market. Product innovation is at the core of TELA Bio, Inc.'s identity, and we anticipate announcing additional product launches throughout the year to drive greater share gains in the expansive U.S. market. Demand for our innovative solutions is there, and I believe we have built a commercial infrastructure supported by an expanding portfolio that can consistently capture that demand. To that end, we were pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Howard Lang to Chief Medical Officer effective March 1. Howard joined TELA Bio, Inc. nearly two years ago and has been integral in how we engage the surgical community. With over 30 years in plastic and reconstructive surgery, he understands this market from the inside out: the procedures, the unmet needs, and what surgeons are looking for. As TELA Bio, Inc.'s CMO, he will drive surgeon awareness, support clinical education, and help generate, disseminate, and translate the growing body of data behind OviTex into a broader market understanding and acceptance. On the European side, our teams are stable, tenured, and delivering above plan. The competitive market in Europe differs from the U.S. with pricing and bundling dynamics, and we are encouraged to see rapid adoption of OviTex in the U.K. and The Netherlands. We are winning share based on patient preference and the efficacy of our products in these markets, not because of pricing discounts or volume requirements set by hospital administrators. Moving forward, we have a purposeful investment plan to expand our presence within Continental Europe and see it as a meaningful contributor to growth in the coming years. Overall, Q4 results reflected a commercial organization in transition; we remain proud of all this team has accomplished and will continue to accomplish. We executed a major commercial upgrade in the back half of 2025 while simultaneously achieving several other milestones for the company. In that six-month period, we launched OviTex LTR, a new addition to our portfolio that offers durable support during healing and provides surgeons with a tissue-based alternative to synthetic mesh. We enrolled the first patients in our hiatal hernia trial ECHO, which will strengthen our clinical evidence base and deepen our access to alternative surgeon call points for a primarily robotically performed procedure. We reinforced and upsized our debt facility to strengthen our balance sheet for the road ahead. And finally, we upgraded our board of directors with new expertise. In summary, 2025 was a year of deliberate foundational change that required discipline and conviction. That is behind us, and we enter 2026 with our eyes toward the future. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff for a more in-depth review of our commercial strategy and restructuring. Jeffrey Blizard: Thanks, Tony. As Tony laid out, I do not want to lose sight of the fact that amid transformational reorganization, we grew revenue by 16% and delivered our third straight quarter of sequential growth. We exceeded $80 million in total sales for the full year 2025, all while maintaining operating discipline and improving our operating leverage. The changes that we undertook since coming on board last June could create a significant disruption in productivity and growth in any organization. That did not happen here. It speaks volumes to the commitment of the entire TELA Bio, Inc. team and the dedication to the patients and customers we serve. I would like to take some time to provide a detailed review of the specific changes in our commercial organization that Tony referred to. I will also highlight the progress we made year to date because of these changes and how they set us up for meaningful inflection moving forward. Number one, we upgraded and redesigned the U.S. commercial leadership team. By implementing a new sales general manager structure, we brought decision-making closer to the customer and empowered teams to respond to customer needs in real time. Two, concurrently, we addressed silos within the commercial organization that had been slowing cross-team collaboration. We strengthened our sales leadership bench by upgrading five key senior roles. These changes were implemented to increase accountability in the field, improve coordination across our hernia and PRS segments, and drive more consistent execution across our commercial footprint. Three, we have rolled out formal promotion pathways within the commercial organization, creating vertical career mobility that rewards our top performers and incentivizes meaningful contribution within the organization. Four, we redesigned the sales talent profile in the U.S. and accelerated our hiring. We hit our 76 territory manager target back in the third quarter. And as of today, we have 88 quota-carrying territory managers in the U.S. with one additional hire imminent and five open positions that we are actively sourcing. This means we will not require any further incremental hiring for the remainder of the year. The team that we need to hit our 2026 targets is largely in place. Tony touched on how we evaluate our field teams by distinct cohorts, and how we assess their performance by tenure and productivity ramps. Roughly 40% of the U.S. field team has joined us in the last two quarters. They are in the early phases of their ramp up, and we expect that they will contribute incrementally each quarter of this year as they build out account relationships and gain clinical familiarity. An additional cohort, those who have been with us between six and eighteen months, have gained meaningful traction and the vast majority have reached a productivity inflection point. They are actively building account relationships while improving clinical acumen. We expect their contribution to ramp meaningfully each quarter. And finally, we have maintained a very solid base of tenured reps who, on average, deliver over $1 million per year, and consistently meet or exceed targets on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. This cohort accounts for approximately 35% of our current rep count. Five, as part of the redefinition of our sales talent profile, we have shifted our approach to recruitment. We have been very successful not only in our ability to retain top performers, but in our ability to attract and hire strong candidates. We increased our investment and focus on sales training with a goal of reducing time between hiring and commercial effectiveness. The candidates we are bringing in demonstrate stronger performance and higher scores on all evaluation criteria versus any prior cohort. The profile we are recruiting combines high intellect, perseverance, the ability to build deep and lasting relationships, and develop strong clinical acumen over time. This is a change from our previous recruiting strategy, which placed greater emphasis on years of soft tissue sales experience. The caliber of our newest reps is beyond anything that TELA Bio, Inc. has ever seen, becoming a destination now for candidates who fit a clear profile for success in the commercial model that we are building. Naturally, as we place less emphasis on prior soft tissue experience, there is a ramp-up period while new hires come up to speed through our clinical education programs. What we are seeing, however, is that with our investment in sales training, this new profile of rep gains clinical proficiency quickly. And once they do, their drive and hustle translate into a higher level of contribution than prior cohorts. While we are still expecting most new hires to reach full productivity within six to nine months, we believe their impact at maturity will be greater. Six, we have developed and rolled out a new sales enablement that draws on better market insights to help our sales leaders and reps better prioritize and target their activity. Seven, we have designed and implemented a new 2026 compensation program that incentivizes deeper penetration at target accounts. This represents a change in our geographic coverage, where we are now matching rep density with high-volume institutions to cultivate multiple users per site. Instead of a wide and shallow approach, we are going deeper to generate sustainable recurring revenue opportunities. Our new comp plan is now explicitly aligned around that strategy. Additionally, this philosophy expands beyond the comp plan itself. It also minimizes the geographical areas that reps need to cover, maximizing efficiency and supporting better operating expense optimization. As part of this renewed approach, we are also ensuring meaningful executive presence in the field. Tony was calling on strategic accounts as recently as last week, and others and I are doing the same. It is a signal in the organization and to our customers about where our priorities lie: building deeper, more meaningful physician relationships. Eight, we have adjusted our sales and marketing focus to center on the mechanism of action of OviTex and the science that fundamentally differentiates our portfolio. Surgeons have embraced our data and the long-term patient outcomes it demonstrates. The source material, OviTex, and the way it integrates within the body differentiates us from any Gen 1 biologics, synthetics, or biosynthetics, and it is foundational to why surgeons adopt OviTex. We also increased our sales and marketing focus on LiquiFix. With great support from our partners at AMS, LiquiFix is not only a better fixation solution, we have seen it open doors with hernia surgeons who may not yet be familiar with OviTex. And finally, number nine, we instilled spending discipline within the organization, which has allowed us to fund more customer education and training events. This helps us meet customers where they are in their adoption life cycle while simultaneously improving operating margins. So how does this all come together with respect to driving revenues? For the full year 2026, with each of the three cohorts performing as expected, we are confident that we will grow revenue over 2025 by at least 8%. And for the first quarter, much of which is already completed, we expect that we will deliver revenue of approximately $18.5 million. The breadth of change that we executed in six months was significant, and we recognize what it takes to sustain this level of momentum going forward. Our goal is to have everything in place by the end of Q1, so that 2026 reflects the full benefit. We are well on pace, and as of today, all significant material changes have been implemented across the entire organization. We set our revenue guidance to account for some of the inherent variability that may arise given the scope, scale, and speed of changes I have just laid out. We believe that, particularly in the second half of this year, the annualization of our commercial restructuring and the ramp of our newest cohort, combined with the pipeline and clinical investments, position us to be able to deliver achievable, sustainable results moving forward. I will now turn the call over to Roberto for further details on the fourth quarter and full year financial results. Roberto E. Cuca: Thank you, Jeff. Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 increased 18% year over year to $20.9 million and grew 16% for the full year to $80.3 million, with revenue from OviTex growing 12% and OviTex PRS growing 20% for the year. The growth was primarily due to the addition of new customers, growth in international sales, and the U.S. launch of larger PRS units. Growth was partially offset by a mix shift in our hernia product line as we saw an increased share of smaller-sized IHR units. OviTex unit sales grew 20% for the quarter and 22% for the year, while PRS unit sales grew 12% for the quarter and for the year. LiquiFix revenue more than tripled over 2024, reflecting early commercial traction as we expand adoption alongside our core OviTex portfolio. European sales accounted for 15% of total revenue, or $12.1 million, in 2025, a 17% increase from $10.3 million in 2024, reflecting the traction we are seeing in key markets and our continued investment in expanding access globally. Gross margin was 66% for the fourth quarter and 68% for the full year, compared with 64% and 67% for the prior-year periods, respectively. The improvement was driven by lower excess and obsolete inventory expense as a percentage of revenue. Sales and marketing expenses were $14.5 million in the fourth quarter and $63.2 million for the full year, compared to $14.0 million and $64.6 million for the prior-year periods, respectively. This was mainly due to commissions rising with stronger revenue in both periods, offset by lower compensation, severance, consulting, and travel costs for the year. General and administrative expenses were $3.8 million for the fourth quarter and $15.7 million for the full year compared with $3.6 million and $14.7 million for the prior-year periods, respectively. R&D expenses for the fourth quarter were $2.1 million and for the full year were $9.2 million compared to $2.0 million and $8.8 million for the prior-year periods. Loss from operations was $6.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and $33.8 million for the full year, compared to $8.4 million and $34.1 million in the prior-year periods. Net loss was $9.0 million in the fourth quarter and $38.8 million for the full year compared to $9.2 million and $37.8 million in the prior-year periods. We ended 2025 with $50.8 million in cash and cash equivalents, having further strengthened our financial flexibility by refinancing our debt facility and raising incremental equity capital. As Jeff described earlier, for 2026, we anticipate revenue growth of at least 8% over 2025 and Q1 2026 revenue of approximately $18.5 million. We expect that operating loss and net loss will continue to decline for both the year and over the quarters of the year, although there is likely to be some step up from the just-past fourth quarter to the first quarter, particularly in light of the revenue progression that we typically see over this period. With that, I will hand the call back to Antony for closing remarks. Antony Koblish: Thank you, Roberto. As we have done in prior quarters, I would like to end with a patient story to ground us in the impact of our mission. A 57-year-old patient actively being treated for chemo required treatment for hernia repair in the intercostal region. The surgical team, concerned about where the hernia was located because it was near chest tubes, decided that OviTex Core, with the four layers being thin enough, unlike a traditional biologic, would provide less seroma and was the best choice because of Core's resorption profile and its optimal size. The patient underwent an underlay procedure. The surgeon said that the patient is doing great and is extremely pleased to have OviTex Core available for this very sick patient. The surgeon commented, in quotes, “We believe that OviTex is the only product that can be used in conjunction with the use of chemotherapy due to the way it rapidly incorporates, its porous nature, and its functional remodeling of healthy tissue.” This is another great example of how OviTex can be used in the most complex of cases with excellent outcomes. Before we open the line for questions, I want to take a moment to recognize the entire team. In the back half of 2025, this organization undertook a fundamental rebuild of our commercial structure while continuing to grow revenue, serve customers, and maintain operating discipline. To sustain momentum through the transition of this magnitude reflects the quality of the team and the strength of the products. The changes we made in 2025 were difficult but necessary, and we enter 2026 with the strongest commercial team the company has ever had. I look forward to what is ahead for TELA Bio, Inc. Jonathan, please open the line for questions. Operator: Certainly. We will now open for questions. Our first question for today comes from the line of Caitlin Roberts from Canaccord Genuity. Your question, please. Caitlin Roberts: Hi. Thanks so much for taking the questions. Sure. I guess starting off with the fiscal year top-line guidance for at least 8%, just a little bit more color on why it was below what you noted on the Q3 call. And if you could provide some cadence to that guidance for the year, that would be great. Antony Koblish: Yes. I will start it off, and then I will turn it over to Roberto. So our thought here is, given the change that we have implemented—wholesale change across almost every dimension—that we thought it would be prudent to set the guidance where we did. There are so many new reps and new moving parts that are in place right now. We want to give ourselves the best chance to do a great job this year. And given that our territory manager breakeven point remains about six months to nine months, and we have hired so many new reps, we are scaling into and cascading into the year. We just think there are a lot of variables, and we wanted to make sure that we are giving ourselves plenty of room to allow these reps to mature and drive. We really like the contribution from the 40% new reps so far. It looks like they have stepped up quite a bit as a percent contribution over Q4, but we want to make sure that we are giving ourselves that time and flexibility. There are some other factors that we have in place that give us confidence to do a good job this year. And that is the fact that, for the first time in the company's history, we are right on the mark with the number of reps we wanted to hire and at the right time. In the past, we have been stuck between 63 and 68 reps. I feel like that was where we were stuck no matter where our target is. But this new commercial leadership team has done a great job of getting those folks in place. We have a product that we think is powerful that is going to launch April 1 fully. It has been in limited release. It is our long-term resorbable OviTex product, which should give us a great matchup with the leading biosynthetic out there, Phasix. And I do think that is going to be mostly additive to the portfolio along with some cannibalization from our permanent portfolio. I think one of the foundational drivers that we can rely on going forward is European performance. This has been very consistent, and I do think that they are going to allow themselves to grow consistently over time, and we very much look forward to adding PRS to their portfolio for sales, hopefully by the end of this year or early next year. One of the big factors that we have here, Caitlin, in this guidance set is contract conversion. Our salesforce has been very focused on getting contracts in place, and we have not done as well at executing into those agreements. So we are going to shift that focus toward contract execution. And we do know that there is a high degree of contracting complexity, which does affect timing, which is another factor of safety as to why we built the guidance the way we did. Contract implementation varies from hospital to hospital. Even if you have a GPO contract in place, we are learning that every day. And the way contracts are written in the U.S. further complicates things with market share and cross-product portfolio bundling and rebate structures. So there is some complexity there. We want to make sure that we give ourselves the time to execute into the contract footprint that we already have in place. Hopefully that gives you a flavor of what we are trying to do here. On a bigger picture, we have a lot of factors of safety built in and a lot of potential upside, but we want to be prudent. Roberto E. Cuca: Let me just add two things, Caitlin. You asked about cadence for the year. We do expect the cadence for the year to be similar to that in prior, undisrupted years, where you see a step up from the first to the second quarter, a smaller step up from the second to the third, and then a bigger step up again from the third to the fourth quarters. The step up from the second to the third being smaller is driven primarily by the summer holidays. And we expect to see that pattern slightly amplified by the addition of all the sales reps that have come in over the course of the end of the fourth quarter and through the first quarter, who begin becoming productive in about six months. So we do still see that the most recent cohorts of sales reps hit breakeven just under six months, and then what Jeff and Jim call breakout between six and nine months, so they become more than just breakeven positive. Antony Koblish: And all of these factors, Caitlin, also add to the frustrations that everybody has had, including us in the past, about our forecasting accuracy. So we want to make sure—again, the word is prudent—that as we are going through all of this, we feel very confident that we will come out the other side with a much more forecastable business. But until we get there, we think it is best to be prudent. Caitlin Roberts: Understood. And maybe just one more from me. I think, Tony, you touched on the contracting. How many IDNs or GPOs have you transferred to really recategorize OviTex? You talked about that the last couple of quarters. What are your expectations to continue doing that this year? Jim Hagen: Hey, Caitlin. It is Jim. I will take that one. I think as Tony just said, our contracting focus—while we continue to drive a focus on the RTM category, especially into site-level agreements—the team did a really nice job in 2025 of getting many of those agreements signed. 2026 is an execution year. We have to translate that, move it through the hospital processes. Where we have a lot of surgeon advocacy, we have to work it through the admin process and translate that signature now into patients and revenue. Antony Koblish: I think, as new opportunities present themselves, such as Vizient—that has been delayed—we are certainly going to go for that, but we have more than enough footprint that we have to start executing on, as Jim said, before we just continue to drive agreements. We will continue to do both, but we have to focus on execution within the agreements we have. Caitlin Roberts: Understood. Thanks so much. Operator: Thank you. And as a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question, please press star-one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Frank Takkinen from Lake Street Capital Markets. Frank Takkinen: Great. Thank you for taking the questions. I wanted to follow up on the Q1 guidance a little more. Obviously, I heard all the comments about the changes you have made with the commercial organization and the disruption that has caused. But I was just curious if there was anything else specific to call out with Q1. I know typically the seasonality is kind of up a few percent or down a few percent in some instances, depending on the year, but just the double-digit down quarter over quarter. Curious if there is anything beyond the Salesforce comments you have made going on here. Antony Koblish: I will start, Frank. I think my whole monologue on prudence for the year is transferable to Q1 as well. We have one dynamic that has added to the general slow start that you see in hernia and plastic and reconstruction, which is typical in January and February. Part of what Jeff and Jim have done is the territories have been restructured to be smaller, to go deeper, which means there has been some splitting of territories. And what we are encouraging is salesforce efficiency, which will help from time spent selling to T&E expense. We are going to concentrate density of reps in smaller areas, preferably adjacent to high population areas that are already successful with us. That means we may abandon a little bit of the hinterlands and the smaller hospitals that are out in the perimeter. Not fully abandon, but de-emphasize a little bit. So that is going to cause a little bit of loss as we go through these shifts of splitting territories and creating more efficient density in the network. We wanted to make sure that we gave ourselves some room to work through that, which should mostly be taken care of through the end of the first quarter, and we should start to see some signals that we are coming out of that transition phase in Q2. Does that make sense, Frank? That is in addition, I think. Jeffrey Blizard: Yep. That is perfect. I appreciate that. And then I just want to add one more point onto Tony and the word disruption. It is something we have avoided here. We did not call this a reorganization. Really, the focus has been on restructuring—right people in right roles—and making sure that we can have a focus on these key customers in key cities and also those academic programs that are hubs in key cities. What we found, in not only the challenges in January that most companies were faced with, was over a thousand square miles of geography in the U.S. was impacted by that blizzard, and we saw a number of elective procedures be impacted by that. So we have heard that from other programs and other companies that have had similar situations. Frank Takkinen: Yep. That is helpful. And then as we think about exiting this period where we are maybe returning to a steady-state growth rate, how do you view the steady-state growth profile of TELA Bio, Inc. over a longer period of time? Antony Koblish: I think the markets that we serve are kind of mid-single digits. We have been above market-rate growth since inception. And I think we anticipate that we will be able to significantly outgrow the market. The other interesting thing, as you look at the data that we are presenting here, is that our units for both PRS and hernia are high. Our growth rate on hernia units I think is 20% or 22%—22%, right? So that is a very good sign for the long haul, given that that is the bulk of the procedures. Making inroads into those smaller-piece procedures is super important. It does have an impact with mix shift and top-line revenue, but that should straighten out as well. We certainly believe that once we get to steady state, we should be back into the double-digit growth or beyond. This is a way for us to give ourselves the time to clear the decks. We have never done a change that is so comprehensive that it affects territory planning and compensation plans to drive that. This is so comprehensive; we are just giving ourselves the room to get back to that double-digit-plus growth. I think we have a great shot at getting there in the second half of this year, hopefully. Frank Takkinen: Got it. That is helpful. Then if I could just squeeze one more in. As it relates to your point on unit growth, that has been really solid, obviously, and in both product categories. What is your latest thought on how we should think about when ASPs in hernia could start to flatten out and stabilize? Antony Koblish: That is a good question. I was looking at that before the call to prepare. One of the metrics I look at is what type of hernia procedures we are doing. I think for the longest time, we were about a 70% ventral company, and that is shifting. I think we always had about 10% to 15% of inguinal. But right now, I am just thumbing through it. I will go by memory, and Jim can correct me if I am wrong. But I think we are at about 50% of our business right now as ventral, and 25% of our business is inguinal. Fourteen percent is hiatal. So we were really a 10% to 14% company on both inguinal and hiatal in the past, before this shift of getting more involved in the fat part of the bell curve of hernia procedures. But now we are already down to 50% from 70% on ventral, and we are up from 10% to 12% inguinal up to 25%. So it is hard for me to say where that balance goes. There are almost a million inguinal done a year. So we are going to keep mining that until we hit some kind of a steady state. It is going to have to do with the mix between inguinal and ventrals. Jim Hagen: The comment I would say on this one, Frank, is not just the type of hernia, but the modality of the procedure. As we see procedures moving away from open into laparoscopic and robotic procedures, we are well positioned. That is also why you see our LPR portfolio outpacing much of our growth, along with IHR. I do think surgeons are voting with their preferences, using us more where procedures are going, which is laparoscopic and robotic for us. So that ASP shift, to Tony’s point, is going to continue. We are going to continue to see more of our volume moving to those lower pieces, with an ASP that is a bit lower than we historically had been with the large open. But as I think Roberto will continue to remind everyone, that does not impact gross margins. Antony Koblish: Just to put a little finer point on it, Frank, what we are seeing is the start of robotic surgery making more and more inroads into the open complex cases. And so we are there, ready to serve those cases beautifully with our LPR product. And certainly, our inguinal product is robot compatible as well. So we are well positioned for how the hernia market is evolving. How long that takes is hard to say. But I do think the future is going to be higher unit growth volume, more procedures, but smaller pieces, and I think you are going to start to see our 1s, 2s, and Core start to give way to inguinal and LPR, and hopefully, in the future, LiquiFix being the main unit drivers going forward. We will certainly get all the opens that we can with our older portfolio. And one more thing to add—I am sorry, a little stream of consciousness here—but the long-term resorbable hernia product has zero permanent polymer in it. And a lot of these old-time surgeons do have an allergy to putting anything permanent. Our product works beautifully in these cases, and many, many surgeons do use it. But there is a category of surgeon that wants nothing permanent. So our long-term resorbable product, I think, has a shot at opening up some of those more difficult complex trauma, complex abdominal wall cases down the line in the future, but that remains to be seen. I think the global trend is toward robotic for everything and smaller pieces, which favors our LPR product portfolio. Frank Takkinen: Got it. Very helpful. I appreciate the color. Thanks, guys. Jeffrey Blizard: Thanks, Frank. Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Michael Sarcone from Jefferies. Your question, please. Michael Sarcone: Good afternoon, and thanks for taking the question. Just a follow-up on one of the first questions—and not to belabor this—but when you provided that kind of ~15% directional outlook in mid-November, you mentioned there was some built-in cushion in there. Just trying to get a better sense for what changed, understanding you are trying to be even more prudent and you want to de-risk the guide. But did anything else change over the last three months around expected rep productivity ramp or anything like that? Just trying to get a bridge from the 15% to the 8%. Jeffrey Blizard: I like both of those points. I would say one of the biggest things is really the tenure Jeff and I had in role. We started in June. We had that call in the fall. We were in the midst of the change. I think what we have learned since then is it was a sizable change. There were multiple things we put on the field organization at the same time, while we concurrently were hiring rapidly into the organization. So I would say our assumptions changed from when we had the Q3 call to now just appreciating the change curve it takes to move an organization through all of that is a bit longer and more complex, I think, than when we originally planned it out. It is not saying it is not going well. It is actually going very well. But to Tony’s prudence point, we are going to give ourselves some more time to work through that change curve, get new reps up to speed and up to efficiency where we need them, and get our legacy team in the U.S. through that change curve of new leadership, new comp plan, and new territory alignments, so everyone is then hitting full stride in the second half of the year. Michael Sarcone: Got it. That is very helpful. Thank you. And then maybe just one on the new kind of account targeting strategy. You talked about deeper penetration in existing accounts. Can you talk to us about some of the methods you plan to use to broaden out that penetration of the existing account? Jeffrey Blizard: Sure. It is Jeff. So the problem statement that we analyzed over the last few months was too many reps were dependent on one surgeon in one location. And for us too, we talk about terms like stickiness to our business. In order to do that, especially in larger programs that have anywhere from three to seven, sometimes even nine, general surgeons or multiple plastic surgeons per site, we could not rely on just one user. With the way that the comp program was set up and the goals and objectives in 2025, the need for our territory managers to be spread far and thin was so that we could gain distribution, and they could work their comp program to the best of their ability. We realized that was a limiting factor. That meant product was in hospitals without patients being covered, and that meant users were identified without another person on staff that had bought into the product with a proposal that this was a better device or product than the ones they were using. Having this as a focus point allows us to do better in servicing, teaching, and training programs how to handle the product, being present and being bedside so that patients can receive optimal outcomes. And then the compensation plan was built around that specifically. Smaller geographies, as opposed to what we had—reps that were driving in the car three to five, sometimes even six hours in the great state of Texas—that found themselves racing across the state to deliver product or be present for that one physician and that one program. We know that this density rule will work, as well as having in many of those large cities, as I mentioned earlier, an academic hub where now we can put people in to help support our fellows and our residents that are being trained in this next generation of surgeons. Jim Hagen: Michael, the only thing I will add to that in terms of how we are doing this is leveraging the full portfolio. As we just talked about on Frank’s conversation, we grew historically through large open procedures with 1F and 2F. As we think about building depth within a hospital, we are talking about more users within that specific site. LiquiFix is an example. It gives us a new opportunity to engage a surgeon who may not fully believe in OviTex but wants an alternate fixation technique. That is a new in for us. Driving IHR and LPR lets us go after those surgeons who are more proficient on the robot or focusing on the robot. So our portfolio allows us to engage with more users within a specific hospital, and that is what we are asking our field team to do: leverage the full bag, drive more users per site—one of the key metrics we are going to measure them on this year. That creates a stickiness for us. That is what allows us to go after the higher-ceiling accounts and drive a deeper share within those accounts, which for us, to Tony’s point, enables a more predictable top-line revenue. That is part of that formula. Jeffrey Blizard: And I will just put a fine point on the end of Jim's comment. If you are wide and shallow and you have one surgeon four hours away who is using your product, it is pretty easy to dislodge that surgeon from his usage habits and patterns when you are not fully present and you have competitive reps looking to lever you out with contracting and rebates. We have to get five and six users in a smaller geography. That is really what we are setting ourselves up to do. You become much harder to knock down. Michael Sarcone: Great. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Matthew O’Brien from Piper Sandler. Your question, please. Matthew O’Brien: Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. I do not know, Roberto, or if somebody else can maybe talk a little bit about the impact of weather in Q1 because the number is so low versus what we were kind of expecting. And I get it is Q1 and everything, and you are still going through this transition. But it is just so low that it then requires you to start putting up some numbers, especially in the back half of the year, that we have seen out of the companies. It requires a lot of faith that you can be able to do that. So maybe just talk about those two components there: the weather impact in Q1 and what you are seeing that gives you confidence and should give confidence that the back-end-loaded guide is achievable? And then I do have a follow-up. Jim Hagen: Matthew, it is Jim. I will take the first half of that. I would say it is two variables external to us in Q1. We are trying not to focus on external variables, but they are real sometimes. One, feedback from our field team is just volumes in January were low. I think there was just a market lull coming out of the holidays, with insurance premiums resetting. That was a real impact. And as Jeff talked about, the impact of the storms on the East Coast with major population density did shuffle some elective procedures. Some were lost—cases were not happening. Some others got deferred out past Q1. We do not have firm guidance for you on what percentage impact that had to us. What we are trying to focus on is more of what our controllables were in Q1, which is really where we spent that time on hiring, getting new people into the organization, getting them trained up and going, along with what we just talked about, which is that mix shift from shifting accounts from lower-ceiling accounts and lower-density areas to higher-ceiling accounts and more populous areas. I would say that probably had the more material impact—those are the things we can control—for the performance from Q4 to Q1. That is where our focus is. Antony Koblish: And, Matt, we have snapped back quite well after fourth quarters. I think it was 2024 Q4; we had a little bit of a raid on our salesforce, and we snapped back very effectively in Q1 of 2025. We have enough factors of safety built in with the new product launches, having a fully staffed salesforce at 90 reps or a little over 90 reps in the next couple of weeks here. We have never been at that scale, and we have never been fully to our hiring plan this early in the game. That is by design. The talent of the reps, getting them through that six-month bed-in period where they get productive—there are a lot of factors that are going to help us and give us tailwind in the second half of the year. Roberto E. Cuca: And with regard to the back half versus first half and confidence with regard to that, we have always grown quarter to quarter across the year. We have built our quotas and expectations for our existing reps, our tenured reps, and for new reps based on that sort of growth. So even if we had not added the number of reps we did in the first quarter, we would expect to see growth across the year that would have led to that step up from the first half to the second half. That will be amplified by the addition of these new reps who are going to hit breakeven in about six months and then start breaking through and becoming meaningfully productive in that second half. You have to remember, 40% of our salesforce has been onboarded for less than six months. Antony Koblish: And these are high-quality reps that we have hired, and we are going through the process now of getting them embedded and up and running. Matthew O’Brien: Okay. I appreciate that. Then a follow-up is—and I am just trying to square all the different numbers here between the LiquiFix and the OUS growth—and the quarter was actually really good. When I start to carry that forward, I start to get some softer OviTex numbers for the full year versus what you have been doing. I am not sure that makes a lot of sense just given the sales expansion. And yet I know you want to be conservative. It just leads you to the conclusion that there is something else going on that is not quite squared away yet. So I do not know if there is a way you can walk us through what you are expecting—OviTex versus PRS versus other revenue and OUS. But just help me understand how the different product lines are going to play out here in 2026. Roberto E. Cuca: Thanks. I will start, and I will let Jeff and Jim jump in, and Tony. One thing to remember is that Europe is purely OviTex sales—purely hernia sales. So as we get solid growth from Europe, that is all going to be dropping to the hernia bottom line. We do expect to see PRS sales grow over the course of the year, in part from the launch of larger pieces and potentially new technologies. So it is not that we see either one of those softening up. And we expect to see LiquiFix continue to grow strongly, although it is going from a much smaller base, so it will have a smaller revenue-line impact. I will let Jeff and Jim add anything to that. Jeffrey Blizard: I think we are blessed with AMS’ focus on us as a partner. They have made a huge investment in their clinical team to help us with product evaluations and trials. They have matched us. As fast as we are trying to get our organization set, so have they. I would say that, with this focus we have—and we teased a little bit about it in the last quarter earnings—that we are headed toward an academic program that is brand new to us in 2026. So having the right leader, who we have at MRSA Conrad, focused on that, and having a partner with AMS that drives that product adoption in the general surgery residency and fellowship as well as plastics, that is all, again, new. Jim Hagen: And then considering what the back half of this year looks like for new product launches, as well as not necessarily any more organizational disruption—that came earlier from you guys—but more as nuance changes, always adapting and changing with the business so that when we identify needs, we solve for it. Jeffrey Blizard: Matt, I think what you are saying is you are looking at all the potential growth drivers, and it does not make sense that our OviTex business would grow less. So I am just going to sum it up and just stick with the word prudent. Give us a chance to metabolize these territory changes, the new reps, the new products, all of it. Prudence. Matthew O’Brien: Understood. Thank you. Jeffrey Blizard: I do not see the hernia or PRS business collapsing in any way. Operator: Thank you. This does conclude the question-and-answer session of today's program. I would like to hand the program back to Antony Koblish for any further remarks. Antony Koblish: Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you. The changes we made were thorough. I hope you got a sense of that. We have never cleared the decks to this level. In the past, the changes have been a little from this place, a little from that piece—incremental—because we were striving to go wide and make numbers. We are taking a step back from that to recast this in absolutely the right way across every dimension, whether it is comp, focus, population density, rep density, everything. I think we have it set up correctly for the long haul. There is going to be much less disruption from this point forward. We have it locked in the way we want it now, the way Jeff and Jim want it. Now we just have to operate the machinery in the right way. We really appreciate your interest. Stay patient, and we look forward to what is ahead. Operator: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.
Operator: Welcome to the Braze, Inc. fiscal fourth quarter 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Leila, and I will be your operator for today's call. After the speakers' presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call over to Christopher Ferris, Vice President of Braze, Inc. Investor Relations. Christopher Ferris: Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today to review Braze, Inc.'s results for the fiscal fourth quarter 2026. I am joined by our Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, William Magnuson, and our Chief Financial Officer, Isabelle Winkles. We announced our results in a press release issued after the market closed today. Please refer to the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.braze.com for more information and a supplemental presentation related to today's earnings announcement. During this call, we will make statements related to our business that are forward-looking under federal securities laws and the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our financial outlook for the first quarter and the fiscal year ended January 31, 2027, the anticipated benefits from and product advancements due to the combination of Braze, Inc. and ongoing developments in Braze AI technology, our expectations concerning new customer verticals, our anticipated customer behaviors, including vendor consolidation and replacement trends and their impact on Braze, Inc., our potential market opportunity and our ability to effectively execute on such opportunity, the execution and anticipated benefits of our share repurchase program, and our long-term financial targets and goals, including our expectations regarding our profitability framework. These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations and reflect our views only as of today. We assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. For a discussion of material risks and uncertainties that could affect our actual results, please refer to the risks identified in today's press release and our SEC filings, both available on the Investor Relations section of our website. I would also like to remind you that today's call will include certain non-GAAP financial measures used by management to evaluate our ongoing operations and to aid investors in further understanding the company's fiscal fourth quarter 2026 performance in addition to the impact these items have on the financial results. Please refer to the reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP included in our earnings release under the Investor Relations section of our website. The non-GAAP financial measures provided should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to the financial measures of financial performance in accordance with U.S. GAAP. I will now turn the call over to William. William Magnuson: Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. Today, we reported outstanding fourth quarter results that further validate our product leadership, go-to-market approach, and financial strategy. In Q4, we generated $205,000,000 of revenue, up 28% year over year and 8% from the prior quarter. Organic revenue growth accelerated year over year for the third straight quarter while we continued to drive operating efficiency in our business. Trailing twelve-month dollar-based net retention showed strength as well, inflecting positively during the quarter to reach 109%. Two milestones underscore this momentum in our business. During the quarter, we surpassed $1,000,000,000 in remaining performance obligations as customers increasingly commit to Braze, Inc. for their long-term customer engagement needs. And early in fiscal 2027, we passed $800,000,000 in annual recurring revenue, demonstrating continued strong demand for the high ROI delivered by our platform. We are incredibly proud of these achievements, and I thank our team across the world for their tireless efforts over the past year. For the full fiscal year 2026, we delivered 24% year-over-year revenue growth and $28,000,000 of non-GAAP operating income, with operating margins expanding nearly 400 basis points over the prior year. This performance demonstrates our ability to deliver on our profitability framework even while accelerating our investments in Braze AI and completing the successful transformation of last summer's acquisition of OfferFit into the rapidly growing Braze Decisioning Studio. We also realized $42,000,000 of non-GAAP net income in FY 2026, up from $18,000,000 last year, and generated $58,000,000 of free cash flow, providing us with the financial flexibility to invest thoughtfully in shaping the future of customer engagement. Our financial strength has also enabled Braze, Inc. to initiate its first share repurchase program, a milestone that reflects our high conviction in our long-term growth opportunity. Isabelle will provide more details on this program later in the call. Our business momentum accelerated in the fourth quarter as brands look to transform their businesses with AI and further leverage their ongoing investment in first-party data and direct-to-consumer relationships. Q4 bookings rose over 50% year over year, as we established a new high watermark for average sales price and saw particular strength in the enterprise. Net customer additions increased by 81 sequentially, up 14% year over year. $500,000-plus customers increased by 30 sequentially, up 35% year over year. Additionally, million-dollar-plus customers rose 28% year over year, up from 18% year-over-year growth in Q4 of last year. Large deal velocity was also impressive as we signed 29 deals of $500,000 this quarter, including 7 $1,000,000-plus deals and an expansion that increased our eight-figure customer count to four. Notable new business wins and existing customer expansions include Dis-Chem, GoodNotes, ID.me, King, Life360, Mytheresa, Power Us, realestate.co.nz, Shell Mobility and Convenience, and ThriftBooks, along with many others. While new logo wins were strong, upsells also showed strength, as existing customers expanded across channels, adopted new Braze AI capabilities, and deepened their integrations with the Braze Data Platform. This expansion of our land-and-expand strategy to include growth in data integrations and AI workloads is a testament to both Braze, Inc.'s composable design and our position as mission-critical infrastructure for our diverse and demanding global customer base. Competitive takeaways from the legacy marketing clouds in the fourth quarter continue to validate the market's preference for Braze, Inc.'s AI-driven omnichannel approach to deliver on modern customer engagement use cases at scale. This quarter, brands across diverse industries and geographies migrated from legacy platforms to Braze, Inc., including a global heritage footwear brand, a global genealogy company, a leading American cybersecurity company, an American department store chain, an American financial solutions company, a European travel insurance provider, a European national lottery, a luxury hotel group based in APAC, and a large Latin American bank. Looking ahead, we are well positioned to capitalize on the momentum we have been building over the past several quarters. Our go-to-market motion under the leadership of Chief Revenue Officer, Ed McDonald, who joined in late Q2, is operating at a high level, delivering a meaningful improvement in sales productivity. Pipeline generation was also strong in the fourth quarter, indicating robust market demand for our AI-driven solutions, particularly in the enterprise. The field of customer engagement is moving faster now than it has in years, and Braze, Inc. continues to be perfectly positioned to turn AI disruption into opportunity. By driving platform innovation in tandem with the evolving craft of engagement, Braze, Inc. has been actively redefining the front door to marketing technology for most of the last decade. This innovative leadership continues to drive share gain in the enterprise and it is why both our customer community and broader partner ecosystem continue to compound with ambition and optimism. Our competitive position rests on four foundational strengths that position us to capitalize on AI-driven disruption. First, the Braze Data Platform and customer engagement stack serve as critical infrastructure for our customers, delivering secure and reliable performance at massive scale. Unlike applications that manage workflows and tasks that are ultimately executed by humans, Braze, Inc. has always been a platform wielded by small teams of builders to directly execute massive, complex workloads. During calendar year 2025 alone, we powered 4.5 trillion messages and Canvas actions, processed over 25,000,000,000,000 data points, executed 3,100,000,000,000 AI decisioning inferences, and made 8,700,000,000,000 updates to our user profile system of record. This execution capability provides brands with confidence to deploy business-critical programs for entire global audiences, confidence that no point solution can match. Second, our vertically integrated data and decisioning architecture allows for capabilities that no one else can replicate. The Braze Data Platform feeds real-time context into control planes like Canvas and Decisioning Studio, then serves as a substrate for agentic AI execution. This tight integration between data infrastructure and AI decisioning combined with the most comprehensive set of marketing, conversational, and product channels on the market delivers differentiated outcomes rooted in real customer data, not just generic LLM outputs. Third, our composable AI architecture is compounding the value of our deep infrastructure and comprehensive platform. At our Forge customer conference in September, we announced the upcoming betas for both Braze AI Operator and the Agent Console to be available in Q1 and Q2. Last month, we beat those delivery timelines by months and launched both Operator and Agent Console into general availability. Leveraging the flexibility of composable data and the power of composable intelligence, these products have been able to quickly spread their wings and capability because they wield the differentiated power, performance, and scale that Braze, Inc. has delivered for years. The excitement from customers and partners around both launches has been palpable. Agent Console is seeing rapid uptake across a wide array of use cases, and Braze AI Operator is accelerating and evolving for thousands of Braze dashboard users every week, automating campaign, Canvas, and agent creation, deepening quality assurance checks, and uncovering data insights through simple conversational prompts. Operator is first trained with Braze, Inc.'s documentation, use case libraries, and source code and then enhanced by a comprehensive knowledge of each customer's data models, brand strategy, and integration details, enabling each Braze user's Operator to answer difficult questions and execute complex tasks as it navigates the dashboard in front of their eyes. Operator also integrates with Snowflake's Cortex to drive analytics insights that feed back into campaign strategies, and its skills continue to advance rapidly, including the recently trained capability to build directly inside the Agent Console. While eager beta testers of the Agent Console repeatedly asked us for more templates, we leaped over their request for faster horses and instead delivered a powerful prompt-to-agent capability that turned simple inspiration into sophisticated agents, each specifically configured according to a customer's Braze integration and existing marketing programs. These agents are already being deployed to enhance customer journeys in Canvas and to drive data enrichment workloads in the Braze Data Platform's Catalog feature. And all of this works in tandem with Braze AI Decisioning Studio, which harnesses modern reinforcement learning to achieve maximum performance in the most important parts of the user journey. Just as we delivered the most comprehensive solution for cross-channel marketing in the age of deterministic automation, we are building Braze AI to combine the flexibility of a composable architecture with the power of frontier AI across multiple fields of research to deliver a comprehensive solution for AI-driven customer engagement. Fourth, we believe Braze, Inc. occupies a unique position in the software landscape as a rare hybrid of a revenue-driving engine and mission-critical operational capability. Whether it is the urgency of responding to an evolving emergency, the pressure of publishing a message that will be read by hundreds of millions of people, or the criticality of executing deeply optimized marketing programs that drive a business's most important quarterly results, brands trust Braze, Inc. with their most important workloads because we provide the agility, observability, and reliability that business-critical infrastructure demands. In an environment where companies must maximize every dollar of uplift, this proven ability to deliver measurable ROI at scale makes Braze, Inc. an essential and highly optimized component of the modern enterprise stack, not a discretionary tool. We look ahead, Braze, Inc. will continue to invest with focus to remain at the frontier of consumer and technological change, turning disruption into opportunity as our customers transform their jobs, their businesses, and the experiences that they deliver to consumers. We are rapidly advancing our platform and enhancing our global customer community to scale agentic use cases across marketing programs, customer conversations, product experiences, and data workloads, enabling brands to turn context into connection and achieve in the AI era what they have been striving for all along: stronger business performance built on durable customer relationships. I will wrap my remarks by emphasizing what a great position we are in as we enter our next phase of growth in fiscal 2027 and beyond. Thank you for your interest and support. I will now turn the call over to Isabelle. Isabelle Winkles: Thank you, William. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We reported an outstanding fourth quarter with revenue increasing 28% year over year to $105,200,000, driven by a combination of existing customer contract expansions, renewals, and new business. Braze AI Decisioning Studio, formerly known as OfferFit, contributed $5,700,000 of revenue in the quarter. This implies an organic revenue growth rate of 24.3% year over year. We are excited to see continued strength from our core business as organic revenue growth accelerated for the third sequential quarter, and we realized robust bookings and strong demand signals for Decisioning Studio and our other AI products. As William mentioned, in February, Agent Console transitioned to general availability, and we are pleased to report immediate and persistent consumption of our Flexible Credits in its first month of release. In Q4, our total customer count increased 14% year over year to 2,609 customers as of January 31, up 313 from the same period last year and up 81 from the prior quarter. Our total number of large customers, which we define as those spending at least $500,000 annually, grew 35% year over year to 333, and as of January 31, contributed 64% to our total ARR. This compares to a 62% contribution as of the same quarter last year. As a reminder, a customer is counted when their service date is effective, not when a contract is signed. As such, some new logos won in the fourth quarter will appear in our customer count in 2027. Measured across all customers, dollar-based net retention was 109%, up from 108% in the third quarter of this year. Dollar-based net retention for our large customers was 110%, in line with the third quarter of this year. Expansion was again broadly distributed across industries and geographic regions. Revenue outside the U.S. contributed 45% to our total revenue in the fourth quarter, consistent with the prior quarter of this year and the prior year quarter. In the fourth quarter, our total remaining performance obligations were just over $1,000,000,000, up 30% year over year and up 16% sequentially. Current RPO was $642,000,000, up 27% year over year and up 12% sequentially. The strong year-over-year growth in RPO and CRPO was driven by four factors: strong Q4 bookings, healthy Q4 renewals, a large quarter for available renewal dollars, and a small increase in overall duration of contracts. Non-GAAP gross profit in the quarter was $138,000,000, representing a non-GAAP gross margin of 67.2%. This compares to a non-GAAP gross profit of $112,000,000 and non-GAAP gross margin of 69.9% in the fourth quarter of last year. The decrease in year-over-year margin percentage was driven primarily by higher premium messaging volumes and hosting costs, partially offset by improved efficiencies in personnel costs. Non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses were $70,000,000 or 34% of revenue compared to $60,000,000 or 37% in the prior year quarter. While the dollar increase reflects our year-over-year investment in headcount costs to support our ongoing growth and global expansion, the improved efficiency reflects our disciplined approach to investment as we continue to scale and expand our go-to-market organization. Non-GAAP R&D expense was $29,000,000 or 14% of revenue compared to $23,000,000 or 14% of revenue in the prior year quarter. The dollar increase was primarily driven by increased headcount costs to support the expansion of our existing offerings as well as to develop new products and features to drive growth. Our R&D expenditures reflect our intentional yet disciplined technology investment and are in line with our long-term non-GAAP R&D percent of revenue targets of 13% to 15%. Non-GAAP G&A expense was $25,000,000 or 12% of revenue, compared to $21,000,000 or 13% of revenue in the prior year quarter. The improved efficiency reflects increasing scale across public company expenses and the benefit of leveraging strategic locations for headcount expansion. Non-GAAP operating income was $15,000,000 or 7% of revenue compared to a non-GAAP operating income of $8,000,000 or 5% of revenue in the prior year quarter. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Braze, Inc. shareholders in the quarter was $11,000,000 or $0.10 per share, compared to $12,000,000 or $0.12 per share in the prior year quarter. Non-GAAP net income was negatively impacted by a $5,000,000 purchase accounting adjustment related to the deferred tax liability from OfferFit, the reinforcement learning engine company acquired in June. Excluding this one-time adjustment, non-GAAP net income and earnings per share were $16,000,000 and $0.15, respectively. Now turning to the balance sheet and cash flow statement. We ended the quarter with approximately $416,000,000 in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and marketable securities. Cash provided by operations during the quarter was $19,000,000 compared to cash provided by operations of $17,000,000 in the prior year quarter. Including the cash impact of capitalized costs, free cash flow in the quarter was $14,000,000 compared to $15,000,000 in the prior year quarter, and as we have noted in the past, we expect our free cash flow to continue to fluctuate from quarter to quarter given the timing of customer and vendor payments. Before turning to guidance, I would like to take a moment to highlight the Board's $100,000,000 share repurchase authorization. This authorization reflects our confidence in our fundamentals, outlook, and disciplined approach to capital allocation. We believe the share repurchase represents an efficient and meaningful way to drive shareholder value. As we noted in our earnings release today, the repurchase program includes a $50,000,000 accelerated share repurchase transaction with respect to our stock, which we plan to enter into before the end of the first quarter. In addition, our guidance for share count and EPS includes only the estimated impact of the $50,000,000 ASR. For the first quarter of 2027, we expect revenue to be in the range of $204,500,000 to $205,500,000, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of approximately 26% at the midpoint. As a reminder, our first quarter contains three fewer days compared to the other three quarters of the year, which each contain 92 days. First quarter non-GAAP operating income is expected to be in the range of $10,000,000 to $11,000,000. At the midpoint, this implies a non-GAAP operating margin of approximately 5%. First quarter non-GAAP net income is expected to be $11,000,000 to $12,000,000 and first quarter non-GAAP net income per share in the range of $0.10 to $0.11 based on approximately 112,000,000 weighted-average diluted shares outstanding during the period. For the full fiscal year 2027, we expect total revenue to be in the range of $884,000,000 to $889,000,000, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of approximately 20% at the midpoint. Fiscal year 2027 non-GAAP operating income is expected to be in the range of $69,000,000 to $73,000,000. At the midpoint, this implies a non-GAAP operating margin of 8%, a more than 400 basis point improvement versus fiscal year 2026. Non-GAAP net income for the same period is expected to be in the range of $69,000,000 to $73,000,000 and net income per share is expected to be $0.61 to $0.65 per share based on a full-year weighted-average diluted share count of approximately 113,000,000 shares. It is an exciting time at Braze, Inc. We remain committed to delivering industry-leading customer engagement solutions powered by AI as we continue executing against our long-term financial targets. And with that, we will now open the call for questions. Operator, please begin the Q&A. Operator: We will now begin Q&A. For today's session, we will be utilizing the raise hand feature. If you would like to ask a question, simply click on the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen. Once you have been called on, please unmute yourself and begin to ask your question. Please limit to one question and one follow-up before jumping back in the queue. Thank you. We will now pause a moment to assemble the queue. Our first question will come from Ryan MacWilliams with Wells Fargo. You may now unmute and ask your question. Ryan MacWilliams: Hey. Thanks for taking the question. For William, great to see three straight quarters of organic revenue reacceleration in the business. I know last year has benefited from some go-to-market changes along with moving past COVID-era customer renewals. But how do you feel about the underlying growth trajectory of Braze, Inc. from here? Has it improved more sustainably? And I know it is early, but how do you envision AI layering in to support growth trends? William Magnuson: Yes. Absolutely. Thanks, Ryan. It has been a great back half of the year heading into Q4. I think that the biggest difference in Q4 was also the differentiation of our AI roadmap, especially coming out of our Forge conference in September. It is clear that customers can see where we are going. They can see how our longstanding advantages are being made more and more capable with further investments in Braze AI. That helped with both win rates and deal velocity in Q4, as a lot of the competitor FUD just did not hold water against both our offering and our pace of new product delivery. We are also seeing stronger momentum with the partner ecosystem, including across both the global agency groups and the more focused regional players that are growing super fast through partnership with us. And our global sales leaders are moving with high velocity. And so I think that when we look at it all coming together, you have a robust product roadmap that is moving at pace. There is really exciting AI innovation that is not only bringing new capability, but it is also making our existing capability more accessible and more leverageable by our customer base. And we are out in front with that R&D advantage also being combined with a pricing model that has always been consumption based with a global go-to-market organization that operates in all the world's major markets. And a global customer community that has always been the world's most ambitious and creative marketers who have been on the leading edge of rapidly building with Braze, Inc. from the beginning. And so I think that this is just a great moment for all of our existing scale, performance, and innovation advantages to come together, and we are excited for this year. Ryan MacWilliams: Really appreciate the color there. And then for Isabelle, it seems like the initial full-year revenue guide is slightly stronger than past years. I would love to hear if there is any change to guidance philosophy here, and what were some of the key points that helped you build up to the full-year guide? Isabelle Winkles: Yes. Thanks for the question. So first of all, no change in the guidance philosophy. Really excited about the momentum that we saw in the business coming into Q4, coming out of Q4 in particular, as William mentioned, across a number of different dimensions. We are seeing more two-year contracts. We are seeing larger in-quarter contract sizes. Upsells continue to be really strong. There is real excitement around our AI capabilities, as William mentioned. Ongoing strength in the enterprise, ongoing strength in the Americas, which has been something we have been working on. And so there is just a lot of momentum across a number of different dimensions. I think as we mentioned, bringing Ed on in the middle of last year, he has been furthering our efforts across a number of different things that we have already put into motion. And it has been really great to see some of that success across verticalization. So, really excited for that, and you are seeing that in our guide. We are really comfortable with how we have guided for the year. Operator: Our next question will come from Scott Berg with Needham. Scott Berg: Hi, everyone. Really nice quarter, and my apologies, dialing in from an airport in case there is background noise. But first question I wanted to ask was off of a channel check or customer conversation, I guess, that we had during the quarter. We got to speak with one of your largest customers, and they noted to us that they had an internal project that spanned 18 months and over $10,000,000 in cost to try to actually replace their entire Braze, Inc. deployment at this well-known brand. But they killed the project because they were only able to achieve about a third of your functionality even after an 18-month time frame. I guess, William, as you think about a customer in this situation that might want to try to custom code their own platform with one of the generative AI, LLM models, what is most difficult to replace at the end of the day that makes a customer's approach to probably not feasible? William Magnuson: Yes. I touched on this in the prepared remarks, but I think that the meat of this answer lies in the combined requirement of, one, a tightly integrated high-performance infrastructure that encapsulates both the context and the intelligence layers; and, two, the comprehensiveness required to handle both the vastness of the modern enterprise data landscape on the ingestion side and then the complexity of customer journeys on the output or the interaction side. Within Braze, Inc., the Braze Data Platform is the dedicated context layer and Canvas provides the control plane. They work together to engineer the context that the Agent Console and other Braze AI capabilities harness to drive higher-performing personalization and orchestration decisions. For B2C audiences, which, of course, is where we primarily work, this has to happen at massive scale, and performance needs to be able to drive real-time interaction across an ever-growing set of channels and direct-to-consumer product interfaces. Over a third of Braze, Inc. customers use us for five or more channels. More than half of them use us for four or more. And amongst our $500,000-plus customers, more than 90% use our SDK. Over 80% use Currents to export the data that Braze, Inc. generates. And already 50% are now using Cloud Data Ingestion, which is our reverse ETL product that connects directly to cloud data warehouses like Snowflake, Databricks, and Google BigQuery. You overlay that with privacy, security, and regulatory concerns that are related to first-party data and communication consent. Then you add the operational demands that I also mentioned in the prepared remarks of things like demanding marketing schedules, the urgency of capitalizing on cultural moments or managing through emergencies. And then finally, just consider how much investment is already going into building these direct-to-consumer audiences and first-party datasets in the first place. The combined customer acquisition costs and the product investments for major consumer brands, consider the amount that that represents. That is the investment that is already made. Then customer engagement is a multiplier on that investment, and that means that even small basis points matter when it comes to performance. In finance, you understand the importance of having an edge in data, especially when it is driving decisions on large positions. I think sophisticated customer engagement is that same edge on a brand's customer acquisition investment. And we see time and again that settling for good enough just to save a little bit of money on the software line item is really throwing away enterprise value optimization. And so I know that is multifaceted, but I think that what you see in that anecdote that you shared is that there is a combination of the need for vertical integration, for reliability, for performance, and for comprehensiveness. And then you need to interface that with privacy, security, regulatory complexity, and the need for this to be operated in real time, and doing so with an external environment and complicated businesses and complicated consumer journeys. All that complexity needs to be managed. And that requires, I think, a professional focus on building the tooling and the platforms that address this problem. Scott Berg: Excellent answer. Well understood. Thank you. And then I guess from a follow-up perspective, I have been at the ShopTalk conference yesterday and today, and all have a big presence here, obviously. But there is a significant amount of brand momentum with new universal commerce protocol in a couple of different areas. I know you all had released your SDK for ChatGPT last fall to take advantage of some of the apps they were embedding in their platform. But as your customers use more of this UCP to capture transactions on these new channels and platforms, how do you all benefit? How do you capture some of that first-party data within that workflow or process? William Magnuson: Yes. So I think two things. One is that Braze, Inc. will always invest in every new consumer interface that helps us understand the customer and the customer journey better—any source of first-party data. And we will also invest in areas where we can communicate with customers and where we can help drive better personalization for the product experiences that are delivered to them. And, no matter what happens with consumer devices or app stores, the most valuable customers to a brand are going to continue to be those that they have a direct relationship with. Braze, Inc.'s bread and butter and focus has always been about helping brands expand and strengthen those audiences that they can access through direct-to-consumer interfaces, or other messaging channels that have low marginal cost that are dictated based off of user consent and the right to communicate with them, instead of needing to pay to acquire the right to put a message in front of their eyes over and over again, which of course is a great way to acquire customers, but cannot be how you run a business over the long term. And also managing the first-party data that contextualizes them and then orchestrating the product and messaging interactions that enrich those relationships over time. And so I think we are always on top of new innovations and developments and new direct-to-consumer interfaces of all kinds. We are always interested in how they can help us learn about customers better, communicate with them in new ways. And, of course, the more complex that landscape gets, the stronger the answer that I provided to your first question is. Because it means that there is even more complexity for where the data comes from. There is even more complexity for where the interactions are. And as I mentioned in response to Ryan, I think that when we look at agentic workflows, they are also characterized by moving even faster. And that is a place where our focus on performance that we have always historically had is going to be even more important competitively. Operator: Your next question will come from Raimo Lenschow with Barclays. Raimo Lenschow: Hey. Thank you. Can you hear me okay? Operator: Yes. We can hear you great. Raimo Lenschow: Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Can I start with DBNR? It got better to 109. You talked about it the last few quarters that it is a lagging indicator that kind of takes some time to improve, but it is really nice to see the improvement now. Can you talk a little bit about the journey we should expect from here? That is my first question. Second question is with Ed joining in Q2, normally, big changes to go-to-market happen more at the beginning of a new year. Is there anything we should be aware of as we go into this year in terms of changes that we should expect there? Thank you, and congrats from me as well. Isabelle Winkles: Yes. So on the DBNR, one thing that I had been providing is at least a directional view on the in-quarter organic number. And so over the last couple quarters, we had talked about it being a little bit below 107 and then a little above 107 and then continuing to kind of trend up from there. What I can say here is that the in-quarter organic is above where we are reporting. So I think the direction of travel here, we are very comfortable with what we are seeing. We are really excited about the momentum in the business that is driving this. And so it is a lagging indicator but I think we are comfortable that some of the troughing that we have experienced over the last couple quarters—we have talked about being through the belly of the beast—and we are, in fact, through the belly of the beast. So hopefully, that is some helpful color, though we do not specifically guide on the metric. And then with regards to Ed, look, I think in my last set of answers to questions here, I was indicating that Ed has been driving forward a number of initiatives that we had already put into motion. And so not a lot of massive changes. He is trying to be more effective and efficient about bringing on the new headcount and being rapid in the right areas, being disciplined about where that is being deployed, building out internal capabilities to help our sales team be more enabled and move more quickly. And he—you know, I think we said in the beginning, not only has he seen the movie, but he has seen the remake, and we are definitely seeing the impacts of that, and leveraging his relationships across the potential hires and prospects here. So nothing material that we need to call out, and he is moving things forward in a way that we feel really happy about. Operator: Your next question will come from Parker Lane with Stifel. Parker Lane: Hey, guys, thanks. Isabelle, maybe one for you on gross margins. If you look at premium messaging channel growth, you look at some of these new products you have and your comments about the immediate consumption of credits you see from Agent Console, what is the impact to the predictability of gross margins that you are seeing in the business? And what is the right way to think about not only the near-term picture, but sort of the mid-range picture for gross margins as well? Isabelle Winkles: Yes. So, look, we have talked about the evolution of the premium and how that mixes in. And just keep in mind that, really over the last couple of years, the only new channels that we have introduced are, in fact, these premium channels. So now we are introducing, certainly with the advent of Agent Console and some of the other features here, things that mix in with a slightly better margin. That said, it is starting off of a small base, and so it is going to take some time for all of that to kind of work itself in. And certainly, the premium messaging is still in demand by our customers. And so I do not think there is so much of an issue necessarily with predictability because we continue to look at that on a fairly detailed basis. But, certainly, we have got eyes on the direction of travel. And really, I think what is important is the 8% operating income margin that we feel really comfortable with for the year, and we are going to continue to manage to that. Parker Lane: Got it. Thanks. And, William, one for you. You talked earlier about AI not just helping in the form of new product, but making your existing capabilities more approachable and accessible. I was wondering if you could provide a concrete example or two of what you are seeing there. And where do you expect that to translate into business results? Is that better win rate, better utilization, less churn, all of the above? William Magnuson: Yes. So I think that when you look at the history of Braze, Inc., we more often are held back by making sure that our customer base can really flex into the full power and sophistication that Braze, Inc. has to offer. And one of the things that is most exciting to me about the Braze AI potential right now is that we are both making Braze, Inc. smarter and more powerful, and we are making it easier and faster to use. And so as we redefine that new front door to marketing technology again, the door is both easier to open and when you get to the other side, there is a lot more excitement and value generation there. And we are already seeing this in the Agent Console. I mentioned an example in the prepared remarks where we had a lot of customers who were working on building new agents within the beta test and were asking for more templates, more ideas, etc. And we actually went through and we had already been working on prompt-to-campaign, prompt-to-email generation, prompt-to-Canvas, where people can actually vibe-code their Canvases directly from the Braze Operator. And not only is it providing you advice, it is literally grabbing control of the dashboard and you watch it happen in front of your eyes. And so you are both having the Operator act for you, but you are also learning how to use it at the same time as you watch it. And that allows for marketers to then immediately go in and check things, tweak them, refine them, etc. I think as a platform that is used for publishing at massive scale or where there is a professional skill set of high consequence, when you are running marketing programs that you are relying on to hit your quarterly numbers or that need to go out to a 100,000,000 people around the globe in response to a critical emergency or to take full advantage of an evolving cultural moment or what have you, these are all places where you need to combine both rapid usability with high confidence. And being able to see the Operator building more confidence for people, speeding up their own workflows, and providing that inspiration with our existing feature set is incredible. Then when we go over to the Agent Console, where people are getting used to prompting, but there is still a lot to do there, and building a good agent does have a skill set around it. There is still some work that you need to do around the outputs from the agent and helping make sure that there is consistency and that you are getting the right context in the context window. And we have built incredible capability in Agent Console to manage that. Even more exciting is that Operator is helping write and inspire those agents for people. And so it is just driving faster adoption. It is driving higher levels of ability for people to be able to use new features that they maybe had not looked at before. And helping really build stronger confidence for them to use a system like Braze, Inc. that has always been a small number of builders and a small number of marketers wielding it at massive scale. And that has a stress and a pressure and a consequentialism to it that having that Operator assistant there with you really helps increase confidence and we think is going to drive a lot more usage. Operator: Your next question will come from Brett Huff with Stephens. Brett Huff: Good afternoon, and congrats on seeing in the financials stuff that I know you all have been working on kind of in the background for a long time. So nice to see that. Two questions. One big picture—I think this is for you, William. As you are hearing—as your conversations with folks you are selling to on AI, our checks tell us that data heterogeneity, lack of AI talent, governance issues are all roadblocks. At the same time, companies seem to want quick-hit ROI things that are happening in order to justify continued spend. How are you—how are those conversations going with Braze, Inc.? I think your point—more features, easier to get to—but is there some anecdotes there that give us a little bit of meat on the bone on that that we might be able to sort of get our head around? William Magnuson: Well, I think, first of all, every software investment decision being made right now, you have to have confidence that the company that you are spending the time to integrate with, to enable your teams on, and to build with and commit to has their arms around taking advantage of AI innovation. And so I think that is table stakes for everyone even if you, as a team, do not have confidence that you are going to be able to use it all on day zero, or maybe the incremental budget to drive new use cases is not there yet. There is simply no one that is making a switch in a software vendor right now without having the confidence that it is the right vendor for them to bet on as they move into this future being transformed by AI. And that is why, if you go back to my answer to Ryan's first question and talking about the strength in Q4, so much of that just came out of the confidence in the roadmap and the confidence in the beta test. We were able to show live demos of Operator and Agent Console. Now, obviously, they are out there in general availability, so it is even more palpable for everyone. And I think that a lot of the things that you just said are true. There is a lot of sources of anxiety around there. A lot of this is still dynamic. It is changing really fast. But at the end of the day, we already see Agent Console driving stronger performance in ongoing campaigns. These are not brand-new experimental use cases. The same customer journeys are actually just being executed on with higher performance. It is driving real revenue, real performance uplift. It is doing so in an environment that is easy to test and experiment and scale with. I mentioned Canvas as an important control plane. I think when you look at the difficulty of deploying AI in a lot of enterprises, a lot of it has to do with context engineering. It has to do with observability and governance and that control plane. And when you look at Braze, Inc., the Braze Data Platform is providing that context engineering. Canvas is providing that control plane. We have Decisioning Studio as another angle of being able to bring in agentic decision making over deep data science, when that reinforcement learning approach is the right AI technique to apply depending on where you are in the customer journey. And we have this full spectrum of the right solution and the right approach for the complex problem space of customer engagement, and we can help guide customers to that. And the vast majority of it is relying on the combination of a reliable, high-performance, stable, and secure infrastructure that Braze, Inc. has always maintained as a competitive advantage in our space. And now we are multiplying the value of that with our investments in Braze AI. Brett Huff: That is super helpful. Thanks for the insight. And, Isabelle, we are hearing more and more about verticalization, and we also got an update on the gross margin—sort of maybe we are going to get some tailwinds on that given the new AI products. Can you talk a little bit about long-term—any change in long-term sort of puts and takes on the gross margin pressures? And then should we think about any step change for verticalization spending, or is that just a matter of course? Isabelle Winkles: Yes. So I think on verticalization, I would just consider that kind of a matter of ordinary course. We are going to continue to expand slowly but methodically, just deepening our focus on some of the verticals. We already started this over the last couple of years, and I would just continue to expect that to expand. And then from a gross margin perspective, yes, look, we have been talking about the impact of some of the premium messaging. And then I did indicate that in my response to one of the last questions that some of these new products—and Agent Console—do mix in with a better-than-company-average margin. But it is obviously starting off from low and so will take a bit of time for that to kind of mix in more meaningfully. And so what we are really focused on is the operating income down to the bottom line, and we feel really good about that 8%. Operator: In the interest of time, please limit to one question. Our next question will come from Arjun Bhatia with William Blair. Arjun Bhatia: Perfect. Thank you, guys. William, maybe can we touch on—it seems like Agent Console is obviously getting a lot of traction, and I am just curious if you can kind of put that into perspective of when that might help monetization, which types of customers do you think will adopt that first? And then in the broader scheme of things, we are hearing a lot about obviously third-party agent proliferation. So I am curious how that mixes in with Agent Console and if you have any views on what access third-party agents would have to Braze, Inc. or not have to Braze, Inc., and the data that you store for your customers. William Magnuson: Yes. So I will just hit those topics one by one. So regarding Agent Console and pacing of adoption and revenue, as I shared in the prepared remarks, both Agent Console and Operator went into general availability months ahead of schedule, and we are already seeing great uptake on both. After just a few weeks, more than two-thirds of our customers are now actively using Operator, and we are watching Agent Console adoption grow week over week. But I think we are going to have a lot more to share about both of those at City x City London, which is our second-largest event of the year, just one month from now on April 23 at Olympia, London. And we are also lining up the entire company and our ecosystem to help push adoption. Agent Console is already showing material results for its beta testers and early adopters, and we are excited for it to spread rapidly across the customer base. But also remind you and everyone else quickly that Agent Console consumes Flexible Credits. So it is consumption-based pricing, but the revenue is recognized the same way that it is for messaging volumes, which is to say that it is ratably over the length of the contract. So we expect usage of Agent Console to be supportive of early renewals and upsells, but keep in mind that the consumption of credits does not lead to immediate revenue recognition in our contracting model. We do have the benefit that we have been shifting to the Flexible Credits model over the last few years, and the customers who have adopted the new credits plan—which has basically been the default for all renewals and new business over the course of the last couple of years, so it is already the majority of our customer base—already have credits that are ready to be used for Agent Console. We do have a portion of our customer base that is still on older pricing that we are working hard to move into this new world so that they can also rapidly adopt Agent Console. And that is something that we will be focused on throughout the year. With respect to looking at other tools, I think Braze, Inc. has always been built for composability and built for change. The combination of our composable architecture, our high-performance infrastructure, and our Flex APIs are not just a strong foundation that we use to build our own innovation. I think they are also really well suited for marketer workflows that are both transforming and inflecting through the use of other AI tools. We have always been architected to be composable, to be ecosystem-neutral, and to integrate with other best-of-breed tools across the modern marketing stack. And that is both for plugging in to enhance things like orchestration and predictive analytics decision making as well as personalization. It is also for evolving new channels, new use cases, new AI capabilities, etc. A few other things. I think we are also seeing that performance in the context layer is more important than ever with agent-to-consumer interactions. Agents move fast and they are tireless, and we think that that is a perfect match for the performance and reliability advantage that Braze, Inc. has always maintained over competing and homegrown products. And, as I mentioned earlier, we have always been a platform where leading-edge marketers with a builder mindset can deploy and optimize sophisticated strategies. And so I think what we are doing with Operator and Agent Console is simultaneously putting more power in their hands and making it easier to use. There are also big advantages to a tool like Operator being inside the Braze, Inc. dashboard information environment, having access to our internal use case libraries, the skills that we have built, the customer's dashboard information architecture, so that it can adapt recommendations and run the dashboard for them with knowledge of their specific Braze, Inc. integration. We actually had a really great anecdote on Braze Operator that was shared by a customer recently: they were working through a difficult challenge with Liquid that they had spent over an hour on using one of the big chat AI products, and Operator solved the problem for them in a minute because Operator had full knowledge of the way that Braze, Inc. uses Liquid, where it was in the dashboard, and the information architecture. And so I think being able to adapt both the context and the semantic layer and be able to train the Operator with the skills and the knowledge of the dashboard architecture is going to provide differentiation. But we have always been composable, built for change, and extensible. And so we are also already seeing a lot of customers that are using the Braze MCP Server and using our powerful and flexible APIs in order to innovate their own workflows outside of the ecosystem, and we embrace both of those through our composability. Operator: Your next question will come from Taylor McGinnis with UBS. Taylor McGinnis: Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. William, so I think there is a view out there that customer engagement and marketing is more workflow-heavy and lacking data moats that could make it more vulnerable to AI. You talked a lot about the context layer and what Braze, Inc. is doing there. But could you just maybe unpack that for us? What proprietary data moats does Braze, Inc. have, and does that give you an edge in creating some of the AI solutions you talked about, like Decisioning Studio and Agent Console? William Magnuson: Yes. So let me answer that on two dimensions. First, talking about context engineering with respect to Agent Console. And then second, talking about when I talk about us having a full spectrum of AI technologies and how we can compose them together to drive more innovation in the future. So first on the context engineering point, I think context engineering, of course, requires comprehensive rapid access to data. I think that underscores the criticality of the Braze Data Platform. And we were very happy to share some of the scale numbers on the Braze Data Platform recently—over 25,000,000,000,000 data points processed last year, and widespread adoption of the multitude of integration options that we have. And I think that is the beginning of the story because context engineering requires not just access to huge amounts of data quickly, but also deliberate design. And not just because of the cost and performance considerations of large context windows, but also because of the deliberate management of the attention of agents, which is a relatively new concept. We generally tend to think about data as just storage costs and latency and throughput. This idea of attention is really important as well because you can actually have context windows rot. And unless you can keep the agents focused, you start to see outcomes go down and the quality go down. And it sounds great to be able to dump a 200-page PDF brand book and every historical campaign result and every raw data point that you have ever seen about a user into a large context window and hope for the best, but that is not only slow and expensive. It also leads to lower-quality outcomes and higher volatility that creates both brand risk and lower performance. And so by taking the environment that we built in Braze AI with the Braze Data Platform, with Canvas and Agent Console, they are designed to solve that problem for customers. It lets them and their Braze AI Operator rapidly build, test, and scale new agent ideas that they have with tremendous promise to improve consumer experience, enhance their own bottom lines, and do so in a way where the context is being managed and governed in a way that is privacy- and regulatory-compliant, and it is being engineered in a way that it is managing the attention of the agents and it is doing so in a way that keeps performance, quality, and consistency top of mind. And so I think that whole problem space has a lot of additional complexity in it. We are working really hard to solve that for customers, and that is what is going to be able to drive both defensibility and rapid adoption. And then, going from there over to Decisioning, you have heard me speak about the full spectrum of AI technologies that Braze, Inc. is investing in. And I think that this is another advantage of both our R&D scale and the composable high-performance infrastructure that we are built on top of. When we look at Decisioning, there is another paradigm rising that relies on agentic intelligence overseeing deep data science that relies on reinforcement learning. And for those that maybe have not looked at Decisioning Studio closely in the past, this approach is similar to what personalizes your Instagram feed and injects ads into it. And it is the best way to enable the decisioning system to rapidly learn from past interactions across the rest of your customer base. You cannot just take, “Here are the last 10,000,000 push notifications that I sent, and how everyone responded to them and everything about them,” and jam it all into a context window and expect an LLM to be able to keep its attention in the right place and make sense of that. But by using decisioning and reinforcement learning around that, you are actually able to find those hidden points of resonance between the content and the engagement strategy and the individual customers and be able to drive that interaction. And that is also a field that is rapidly advancing. I have talked about how today it is best deployed to optimize the most valuable transition points in the customer journey, like when a free-trial streaming subscriber is upgrading to premium or when an on-demand or a banking customer adopts a new service or an add-on product that makes them more valuable and secure at the same time. So you want to bring that kind of heavyweight data science approach into those problems exactly because they are your most valuable and they are where you want to have the best performance uplift. But over time, we plan to continue to use decisioning science combined with agentic reasoning to increase the applicability of both approaches across more and more of the small moments in a customer journey as well so that customers can continue to harness these different approaches to AI and combine them together to get the best outcomes for consumers and for their businesses. And so, when we look broadly across the space, I think there is so much opportunity for additional value to be created out of depth. And, if you go back to the question from earlier about why it is hard to build Braze, Inc. and where that incremental value comes from, and think about the leverage that you get out of the investment made in building first-party audiences, combining together these optimizations and being able to compound them over time and to be deliberate about it is exactly how you drive additional bottom line. It is how you drive higher loyalty in your customer relationship and it is how you get competitive edge in these ruthless consumer markets. And so, we just believe that the brands that win these markets are going to be the ones that are arming themselves with the most sophisticated tooling and the strongest context engineering, not just trying to throw a whole bunch of data into a context window with a frontier model and hoping for the best. Operator: Your next question will come from Brian Peterson with Raymond James. Brian Peterson: Congrats, guys. Thanks for letting me take the question here. So, given the really good bookings this quarter, I am curious, has that changed your thoughts on sales hiring as you enter fiscal year 2027? And, Isabelle, if you could unpack some of the individual margin drivers by OpEx line and gross margin as we think about ramping into that 8% number for fiscal year 2027? Thanks, guys. Isabelle Winkles: Yes. So, just in terms of hiring—and we talked about this as we were closing out, getting into the end of the year last year—as we have seen rep productivity continue to improve through last year, we already put into our plan that we were going to hire incremental sales capacity. So that is underway and has been underway and continues to work productively. So definitely excited about that. And then as we think about kind of the pathway here to the 8%, look, I mean, the place where it is going to come out of mostly is, in fact, sales and marketing. We continue to expect to get efficiencies of scale there. And then G&A, as we continue to lean on some of these strategic locations, that is going to be helpful as well. R&D, we have said, is already kind of just operating where we expect it to. So we are really excited about the continued scale we are going to continue to get out of the sales and marketing piece. Operator: Your next question will come from David Hynes with Canaccord. David Hynes: Hey, guys, congrats on the nice quarter and the strong guide for fiscal 2027. Isabelle, I am going to pull on that bookings thread as well. When you talk about a 50% year-over-year increase in bookings, obviously, the timing of renewal cohorts can impact that math. I normally would not ask a bookings question, but since you shared the metric, I will a little bit. Any way to help us think about net new ACV growth? Is that growing faster than run-rate revenue growth? I am just trying to get a handle on the magnitude of the strength you saw in the quarter. Isabelle Winkles: Yes. I mean, look, I think both from renewal cohorts that then kind of added to through upsells as well as kind of the net new business, I think both were really strong. So I think overall, the momentum in the business in Q4 definitely kind of accelerated within the quarter. The renewals that we saw were very, very strong. And as we continue to work on the down-sell pressure that we had been seeing in years past, I think it is a combination of all of those things mixing together. Obviously, that strength in Q4 was certainly a part of the storyline going into this year and what helped us with the guide and our confidence in the outlook. Operator: Your next question will come from Nick Altmann with BTIG. Nick Altmann: Awesome. Thank you. Isabelle, can you just talk about what drove the strength in revenue this quarter? And just how much of the outperformance from Decisioning Studio is in subscription revenue versus professional services? Thanks. Isabelle Winkles: Yes. I mean, they mix in a little bit more with a little bit more professional services, but the reality is the proportion of professional services writ large across the company—the mix shift is not changing dramatically. And so we really sell professional services in order to sell more software. And as the bookings strength continues to be strong, there is some element of implementation and onboarding that is mixing into that. Obviously, we are also trying to bring in more partners to bring that in. So I would not read too much into the distribution between the two. The reality is that we truly sell professional services in order to sell more software. Operator: Your next question will come from Matthew Bensley with Cantor Fitzgerald. Matthew Bensley: Great. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe touching on the question about build-it-yourself earlier from a different angle. Are you guys using some of these AI coding tools internally to keep your advantage from a technical perspective and just evolve just as quickly as anybody else can? How is that, I guess, impacting the rapid adoption of some of this functionality? And, if anything, how does it impact your cost structure? William Magnuson: Yes. So I think that when we look at Braze, Inc.'s R&D overall, my major takeaway is just how excited I am that we have got in place a cadre of long-tenured leaders that have a ton of experience navigating through disruption. We were born in the disruption of smartphones. We have been in probably one of the most competitive software categories our whole existence. We have got a team that knows how to navigate disruption and knows how to win together, including both of our technical co-founders still here, both of the OfferFit co-founders still here, and a bunch of long-tenured R&D leaders that are driving ahead innovation pace and urgency, combined with experience of navigating disruption and really understanding our deep global customer community. And so, with respect to the adoption of agentic coding, you see it in the results: we released the Operator and the Agent Console months ahead of schedule. That was due to a combination of a strong beta test but also because of the velocity increases that we are seeing. Braze, Inc. engineering is also at all-time highs in pull requests per engineer per week and lines of code per week. But just like AI slop is not producing value for differentiated investment analysis, the volume of code is not the whole story there. The craft of building and scaling valuable software applications for professional workflows and enterprise workloads that are also transforming themselves is going to remain incredibly valuable—one that we are really excited to apply to customer engagement at scale. And I think that we are right in the throes of this, having fun with it. We are moving at pace, and we are really excited about what this means for our entire software category to go through another reinvention. A team that was born exactly because of the opportunity that came out of the disruption of mobile gets to see our product space transform again, find new opportunity. We get to do it this time with a global customer community, with a global go-to-market organization, with a lot more experience, but we are moving faster than ever. So it is just really exciting all around. Operator: Your next question will come from Brian Schwartz with Oppenheimer. Brian Schwartz: Thanks for taking my question and congrats on a strong finish to the year. William, I wanted to ask you a question again on the moat with AI. Maybe I would ask you the question in the form of the origin of the data model. So if you think about the outputs that are coming in your AI products and the decision engine, is it possible to think about what percentage of those—of the AI output—is coming from signals that are being trained on data specific and proprietary to Braze, Inc. versus those third-party foundation models in the market? Thanks. William Magnuson: Yes. So when you look at, for instance, everything going on in Decisioning Studio, those are reinforcement learning models that are proprietary to Braze, Inc. They are trained with our customers' data. The data is being fed through the Braze Data Platform. When you look at Agent Console, that is a combination of context engineering that is being done by Braze, Inc. that I spoke about earlier, but of course it is relying on the foundational models to be able to provide the broad-based reasoning and personalization capability. That is a big part of the distinction that I made earlier as well because there is no one size fits all. And while there is a lot of work that the foundational models can do and a lot of great opportunity for them to be able to do things like personalization once you already have a recommendation algorithm that has narrowed down the choices and you want to write an email that is maybe comparing the top choices for someone so that they can compare and contrast and you can drive up the conversion window, we have also found that being able to combine reinforcement learning with the intelligence that is in the foundational models is actually the best approach to not only get the highest performance, but to be able to improve it over time. I am sure you have seen in your own experimentation with LLMs that being able to continue to understand what is driving their performance and improve it over time is more of an art than a science. The explainability and observability within them and the attribution of what data really drives better outcomes for them is still a very hard, unsolved problem. Within Decisioning and within the reinforcement learning engine, we are able to actually see what data is moving the needle, and what can be thrown out, what can be optimized, and then go and search for more signals that are along the lines of the ones that are really driving better uplift, etc. So I think that is why we think that the right approach here is multifaceted. It is multifaceted both from a data source perspective, which is why you see the investment and the scale and the composability in the design of the Braze Data Platform, and then also one where you need to be using multiple approaches to assemble context and utilize your own bespoke training alongside, of course, the formidable intelligence that exists in the frontier models. Operator: Your next question will come from Sitikantha Panigrahi with Mizuho. Sitikantha Panigrahi: Thanks for taking my question. It is good to see some of this AI momentum. I want to ask specifically on OfferFit. It has been a year almost since acquisition. What kind of discussion you are having with your installed base? What kind of traction are you seeing cross-selling to the installed base? And then specifically, on the margin side, I know there are some plans there to improve it. What kind of progress are you making on improving margin for OfferFit? Isabelle Winkles: Yes. So I think just on the installed base, that is the primary area where the sales and the upsells are happening—is, in fact, within our installed base. There is a lot of momentum. The pipeline is strong. There is a lot of interest. And then on the margin front, yes, look. There is a growth element here where, as we bring on the necessary staff to enable the implementations and onboardings for customers buying it, we have to handle that expense. And that does mix into margins as well. But we are very focused on that, and we have been continuing to work on the product. And we are also working on expanding product tiers to include products that are a little bit more self-service, and those will also mix in with higher margins as well. So a number of things in flight to continue to work on that. But we are just excited overall for the momentum with our existing customers and how it is shaping up. Operator: There are no more questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to William for closing remarks. William Magnuson: I want to thank everybody for joining us today. As I mentioned, we are excited for City x City London in about a month, and then we will see you after Q1.
Operator: Good day, everyone, and welcome to MaxCyte, Inc.’s fourth quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To participate, you will then hear a message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, simply press star 11 again. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Erik Abdo with Investor Relations. Please proceed. Erik Abdo: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for participating in today’s conference call. Joining me on the call from MaxCyte, Inc., we have Maher Masoud, President and Chief Executive Officer; Douglas J. Swirsky, Chief Financial Officer; and Sean Menargas, Senior Director of Business Development. Earlier today, MaxCyte, Inc. released financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 12/31/2025. A copy of the press release is available on the company’s website. Before we begin, I need to read the following statement. Statements or comments made during this call may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Any statements contained in this call that relate to expectations or predictions of future events, results, or performance, are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, which are discussed in detail in our SEC filings. Except as required by applicable law, the company has no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. I will now turn the call over to Maher Masoud. Maher Masoud: Thank you, Erik. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining MaxCyte, Inc.’s fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. 2025 presented a challenging operating environment. It was also a year of meaningful progress for MaxCyte, Inc. We continue to sign new Strategic Platform Licenses, SPLs as we call them, and support customers in advancing drugs to the clinic. We acquired SecurDx, and successfully integrated the business into MaxCyte, Inc. We made meaningful changes to right-size spending and strategically improved our operations. And most recently, we launched a new product, the ExPERT DTX, that will allow us to work with developers earlier in research and development discovery. Let me start by reviewing our financial results. Consistent with the preliminary financials we announced in January, MaxCyte, Inc. reported $33 million of total revenue for the full year, which included $29.6 million of core revenue and $3.4 million of SPL program-related revenue. We grew our instrument installed base to 857, up from 760 at the end of 2024. Douglas will discuss fourth quarter and full year performance in greater detail. MaxCyte, Inc.’s results were within the range of expectations that we had updated you with in August. As previously discussed, the business was impacted by program consolidation and rationalization across some of our SPL customers, which included a 15% decline in purchases and leases from our largest customer reorganizing manufacturing and managing inventory. Now let me give you a little more detail on the launch of our new ExPERT DTX, which I mentioned earlier, and I am very excited to discuss. Even as we faced headwinds in 2025, our focus remained on innovation and leading the market with groundbreaking platforms. In February, we announced the launch of ExPERT DTX, a modular 96‑well electroporation platform designed for research and drug discovery applications. We are very excited about what this product represents for MaxCyte, Inc. The DTX enables labs to transfect primary cells and cell lines across up to 96 samples in a single three‑minute run, with consistent well‑to‑well performance that effectively eliminates transfection as an experimental variable. It is one of the most cost-effective 96‑well electroporation solutions on the market, with detachable eight‑well strips that can be processed with unique parameters, giving researchers the flexibility to test different cell and cargo combinations in parallel while reducing waste. The software is also differentiated. DTX Designer allows users to design experiments remotely and upload workflows when the system is available, maximizing instrument pipeline. That is a real practical advantage for labs running multiple back-to-back experiments. What makes the DTX strategically important is its full compatibility with the rest of the ExPERT platform. A researcher can optimize a process on the DTX in discovery and transfer it directly to MaxCyte, Inc.’s larger scale electroporation, the ATx, STx, or GTx, for scale-up into cGMP-compliant manufacturing without reoptimization. That is a powerful value proposition, which allows us to engage with customers at the very earliest stage of the workflow and provide a seamless path from discovery through to the clinic and commercialization, all on a single platform, which is the epitome of a therapeutic platform. We built this product around our customers’ needs, and we believe it will be additive to both instrument and Processing Assemblies, PAs, revenue in 2026 and beyond, as well as allow us to grow our SPL customers. We have built years of electroporation know-how and expertise into DTX, and I am confident we launched a product that will allow researchers to seamlessly progress from discovery to the clinic onto our GMP ExPERT platform. Turning to our guidance. As we enter 2026, the challenges that impacted growth in 2025 will have an impact on 2026. For our 2026 guidance, we expect total revenue to be in the range of $30 million to $32 million, consisting of $25 million to $27 million of core revenue, and $5 million of SPL program-related revenue. Given the timing of purchases and leases, we expect Q1 to be our lightest quarter for core revenue with a back half–weighted year. Included in our guidance is the impact of a recent notice received from an SPL customer terminating their license for reasons unrelated to our platform’s performance, along with approximately $4 million in core revenue headwind from select SPL customers, which began to impact our revenue in 2025, which I will provide further detail. We continue to believe that the headwinds facing our business are a result of the conservation of capital by biotechs in the cell therapy space, rationalization of customer programs in ex vivo cell therapy, and inventory management at our largest customer, which we expect to stabilize in 2026 and grow from that new base. There has been no fundamental change in the demand for our technology and the differentiation of our technology competitively. While these short-term headwinds influenced our revenues last year and the first half of this year, we are more excited than ever about our SPL programs and the business model, which is seeing multiple programs progressing deep into the clinic and much closer to potential commercialization. As I mentioned, embedded within the core revenue guidance, we expect revenue from SPL customers, including our largest customer, to be a $4 million headwind relative to 2025. This is about half from processing assemblies, and half from leases, a result of two factors. First, our largest customer reorganized our supply chain in 2025, impacting inventory management of PAs. Additionally, in 2025, due to manufacturing site reorganization, there was a reduction in leases midyear, so the full-year lease revenue for this customer has a difficult comparison to last year. Following in-depth conversations with this customer, we expect both PAs and leases will stabilize during 2026. Second, other SPL customers rationalized programs in 2025. On a net basis, we lost six SPL clinical programs during the year. The annualized revenue from the discontinued programs, including leases and PAs, will not recur in 2026, reflecting the headwind mentioned earlier. Twelve clinical programs we currently support are across 11 SPL partners, highlighting continued investment on the lead asset. This rationalization is part of our business model as we expect a certain number of biotech programs to discontinue. But we are consistently signing new SPLs and supporting later-stage clinical programs, which will eventually be commercialized utilizing our platform. In the last 24 months, we signed 10 new SPLs, and are now supporting more later-stage programs than ever. Also embedded within our core revenue guidance, we expect revenue growth for our non-SPL customers, which is inclusive of growth from SecurDx. With regards to SPL program-related revenue, as I shared, we are guiding to $5 million in 2026. Note, we received a seven-figure milestone payment from a clinical customer that began dosing patients in a pivotal study in the first quarter. The balance of the SPL program-related revenue guidance includes approximately $2 million of expected royalty revenue from our commercial-stage customer as the therapy ramps throughout the year. Despite these near-term headwinds, we are very encouraged by the medium-term opportunity, with five clinical programs to enter pivotal studies over the next 18 months and potentially receive commercial approval in 2027 or 2028. As I mentioned, one of these five programs began dosing patients in its pivotal study in 2026, triggering the milestone payment I referenced earlier. These programs include zuma‑cell from CRISPR Therapeutics, for B‑cell malignancies; Wu‑CAR‑T‑007 from WuXi‑GENE, for hematologic malignancies; Asia‑cell from Imugene for hematologic malignancies; and two programs from undisclosed SPL partners. I believe up to four of these programs will be pivotal by the end of the year. Outside the wave-two programs I just covered, there are another seven active clinical programs in earlier stages of development that continue to pursue FDA approval beyond 2028, and can represent meaningful core revenue and SPL program-related revenue for MaxCyte, Inc. over time. Across these programs, the total milestone opportunity exceeds $110 million. Today, we have received over $30 million in total milestone payments from our SPL customers, highlighting the strength of our portfolio-based, program-driven business model. We have 31 SPL agreements, including four new SPLs in 2025. Eleven SPL customers we work with have current clinical and commercial programs, while another eight are active in preclinical development, most of which we believe will become clinical SPL customers. However, 12 of the SPL agreements are with biotechs that are no longer active, having exited ex vivo or ceased operations. The 12 that are no longer active are part of our business model, as we do not expect every SPL we sign to result in a commercial program. There is meaningful revenue opportunity from newer SPL customers advancing toward entering the clinic. As I mentioned earlier, despite significant consolidation in 2025, SPL customers continue to advance assets on our platform, including up to six programs in late-stage preclinical development expected to enter the clinic within the next six to 18 months. This reflects continued expansion of our SPL portfolio beyond our current later-stage programs. Today, we support one commercial therapy, CASGEVY, and we remain very encouraged by the opportunity for the drug to continue to scale, with both Vertex and CRISPR recently reiterating CASGEVY’s multibillion-dollar potential. During Vertex’s most recent earnings call, it reported $116 million in CASGEVY revenue for 2025, including $54 million in the fourth quarter. Vertex noted that 147 patients with sickle cell disease or transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia globally had their first cell collections in 2025, and 64 patients received CASGEVY infusions, with 30 of those occurring in the fourth quarter. The momentum in patient collections is notable, and Vertex has indicated they expect a meaningful CASGEVY ramp in 2026 versus 2025. Despite the possibility of short-term quarter-to-quarter variability as the drug scales, we are optimistic about where this therapy is headed and truly believe in its transformative potential for patients around the world. To wrap up on the SPL portfolio, while any individual program carries risk, the multiple shots on goal we have across the same indications and across many different indications give us a high probability of generating meaningful core revenue with regulatory milestones and commercial revenues over time. We are now seeing the growth in commercial royalties starting to materialize in our revenue. This reflects the strength of our innovative business model, and we expect this trend to continue in the coming years as additional therapies are commercialized by our SPL customers. That conviction is what drives the decisions we make about how to operate this business. Moving to SecurDx, I believe 2026 is the year where the SecurDx opportunity starts to become more visible. We spent 2025 integrating the business, building the commercial pipeline, and working with early customers. The regulatory environment continues to evolve in our favor. Off-target risk assessment is becoming increasingly important to the FDA and other global regulatory agencies when reviewing gene-edited therapy. Our three assays—screening, nomination, and confirmation—serve both ex vivo and in vivo developers, which means SecurDx’s addressable market extends well beyond our legacy electroporation customer base. We acquired a relatively new start-up with an emerging and leading technology. Despite 2025 coming in lower than expectations, we expect year-over-year growth for SecurDx assay services and licenses in 2026. I remain very optimistic about SecurDx’s commercial potential and expect it to be a growing contributor to revenue in the years ahead. I want to underscore that we are entering 2026 with a fundamentally different cost structure than in prior years. While we are still investing at a rate that allows us to launch new products like ExPERT DTX, we have reduced annual cash burn by over $16 million and have put MaxCyte, Inc. on a dramatically different spending trajectory than what was planned in the prior operating model. This is the direct result of the restructuring and cost-efficiency actions we took in 2025. We do not expect to meaningfully grow our operating expenses from here, and we see a clear path to reducing cash burn further as revenue growth returns. We have a strong and healthy balance sheet, which allows us flexibility in capital allocation and investment decisions. Finally, as previously announced, Parmeet Ahuja will be joining MaxCyte, Inc. as Chief Financial Officer, succeeding Douglas J. Swirsky effective March 30. Parmeet brings more than two decades of finance leadership experience at Agilent Technologies, a global life sciences tools company. Over his career there, he held a number of senior roles spanning financial planning and analysis, operational finance, internal audit, and enterprise financial services. In particular, he led FP&A for Agilent’s global operations and supply chain organization and earlier headed controls, audit, and SOX, working directly with the board’s audit committee on risk and controls. Parmeet also most recently led Agilent’s investor relations function, giving him direct experience communicating with the investment community. We are excited about the breadth of his operational finance and governance experience as we continue to scale the company and strengthen our financial infrastructure. I want to thank Doug for his contributions to MaxCyte, Inc., and will now turn the call over to Doug to discuss our financial results. Doug? Douglas J. Swirsky: Thank you, Maher. Total revenue for the full year was $33 million compared to $38.6 million in 2024, representing a 15% decline. Total revenue in Q4 2025 was $7.3 million compared to $8.7 million in Q4 2024, representing a 16% decline. The decline in total revenue was driven by decreases in both core revenue and SPL program-related revenue. In Q4 2025, we reported core revenue of $6.8 million compared to $8.6 million in the comparable prior-year quarter, representing a decrease of 22%. Within core revenue, instrument revenue was $1.8 million compared to $1.6 million in Q4 2024. License revenue was $2.0 million compared to $2.6 million in Q4 2024. And PA revenue was $2.3 million compared to $4.2 million in Q4 2024. For the full year 2025, we reported core revenue of $29.6 million compared to $32.5 million in 2024, representing a decrease of 9%. Within core revenue, instrument revenue was $6.8 million compared to $7.1 million in 2024. License revenue was $8.9 million compared to $10.3 million in 2024. And PA revenue was $11.9 million compared to $14.0 million in 2024. These declines were partially offset by $0.8 million of assay service revenue from the acquisition of SecurDx and a modest increase in other service revenue. Total revenue for SecurDx was $1.1 million in 2025, including assay services and licenses. Of note, 47% of our core business revenue was derived from SPL customers in 2025, which compares to 55% in 2024. The year-over-year decrease reflects the impact of program exits and reduced purchasing activity from our large commercial-stage partner. SPL program-related revenue was $0.5 million in Q4 2025 compared to $0.1 million in Q4 2024. For the full year, SPL program-related revenue was $3.4 million as compared to $6.1 million in 2024. As it relates to SPL program-related revenue for 2025, $2.3 million was from milestone payments, and $1.2 million was from royalties. Moving down the P&L, gross margin was 78% in Q4 2025 compared to 74% in Q4 2024. Excluding inventory provisions and SPL program-related revenue, non-GAAP adjusted gross margin was 78% in Q4 2025, compared to non-GAAP adjusted gross margin of 84% in Q4 2024. Total operating expenses for Q4 2025 were $9.0 million compared to $19.3 million in Q4 2024. Part of these savings is attributable to the cost initiatives we took in 2025, which began to materialize in 2025. Excluding a non-cash goodwill impairment of $3.6 million in the fourth quarter, operating expenses decreased more substantially from the prior-year quarter. The overall decrease in operating expenses was primarily driven by the restructuring and cost-efficiency actions we took in 2025. We ended 2025 with combined total cash, cash equivalents, and investments of $155.6 million and no debt. Our very strong balance sheet positions us well moving forward, providing us with flexibility to continue to invest strategically for our business, customers, and shareholders. Finally, we anticipate at least $136 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments at the end of 2026. This represents a significant reduction in cash burn from prior years, a result of the restructuring and cost-efficiency actions we took in 2025. Let me close my remarks by saying it has been a privilege to serve as MaxCyte, Inc.’s CFO. I know that the company is in good hands with Maher and the rest of the team, including Parmeet. I will now turn the call back over to Maher. Maher Masoud: Thank you, Doug. It has been a pleasure working with you as our CFO as well. I want to thank everyone at MaxCyte, Inc. for their hard work and dedication in 2025. I look forward to executing on our plan in 2026. With that, I will now turn the call back over to the operator for the Q&A. Operator? Operator: Thank you so much. And as a reminder, to ask a question, simply press 11 to get in the queue and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw yourself, press 11 again. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Dan Arias with Stifel. Please proceed. Dan Arias: Hi, guys. Thanks for the questions. Maher, I have to say I really do not like the trajectory of the business right now. Pretty much all the commentary coming out of life sciences companies points to biopharma getting better this year and not worse. Our data points and others seem to suggest the same. When you look at the industry data that is out there on the emerging modality space, cell therapy trial activity seems to be increasing pretty significantly. Trial totals are way up. And so I appreciate the idea that there is some hangover from a tough ’25. But why is the core business expected to decline more this year than it did last year? Are you losing share somewhere? Because if not, then it really suggests that there is something else going on that we do not fully understand. And then ultimately, the question becomes, how do you grow this business again? Maher Masoud: Thank you for that, Dan. Look, I appreciate the question and the head-scratcher. The headwinds we are facing are $4 million, and it comes down to it is not a deterioration of our business in any way. It is not changing the fundamentals of our business in any way. We have about a $4 million headwind that we face from the customers that we lost last year. That is affecting our revenues this year, and most of it in the first half of the year. So that comes, as I mentioned, pretty much half and half. Half from the leases that we lost from those SPL customers that will not recur this year, and the other half really is from processing assemblies, a lot of it being from our largest customer that went through management and inventory management of their current PAs that they have in stock, where they are drawing down from those PAs. And on top of that, from midyear, we lost some licenses for that largest customer where they reoptimized their manufacturing footprint to go from a few manufacturing sites to a little bit less than that. And that has affected our revenues for 2026. This is not a case of capital spending in the market that is affecting us. I think we saw that more so in early 2025. That is not the case here. I really believe that this is just short-term headwinds. And in terms of where we see the rest of the year and going into 2027 and 2028, then look, if you take a step back, I believe we are going to be supporting roughly four pivotal-stage programs this year, and then five in the next 12 months. We have another seven behind it as well coming in right now that potentially can become pivotal as a second wave there. That bodes extremely well for 2027 and 2028. We also have the launch of the ExPERT DTX, as I mentioned. We are seeing a lot of good traction. We launched it less than a month ago. We are seeing a lot of good traction with customers and potential customers. We believe it will be a growth driver for us in the second half and in future years. In addition to that, we are seeing the ramp of CASGEVY. As I mentioned, we expect it to ramp throughout the year. That is the only commercial product we are supporting now, but we expect many others, especially because right now, as I mentioned, we are supporting more later-stage programs than ever before, Dan. So this bodes very well for us going to the end of the year, in 2027 and 2028. We are continuing to sign new SPLs. We feel confident we continue to sign new SPLs. I feel very good about this, Dan. Dan Arias: Does the outlook for core revenues assume that the industry demand dynamic improves over the course of the year? Or would that be upside to what you have baked in today? In other words, is your 4Q outlook at the industry level similar to what you have today, excluding the individual customer dynamic that you referenced there? Maher Masoud: That would be upside to what we have right now. So this is not a case where we are waiting for industry to come back for us to meet our core revenue guidance. That will all be upside from here, Dan. I feel very good where we are. I mean, the current guidance with the current situation we are in right now, if there is further industry demand, that is upside from where we are guiding to this year. Dan Arias: Okay. Thank you. Maher Masoud: Thank you, Dan. Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matt Hewitt with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please proceed. Matt Hewitt: Good afternoon. And, Doug, it has been a pleasure working with you and best of luck in your future endeavors. Maybe first up, could you talk—I realize you just launched it last month—but given that this was built, the DTX that is, was built with the customer in mind, I assume that you had been working with them or at least they had maybe trialed it or kicked the tires a little bit. What does that pipeline look like, and how quickly do you think you could see that start to trickle into the revenues? Maher Masoud: We see it trickling into revenues in the second half. Anytime we launch a new product, we need about a quarter or two quarters to really build up the pipeline for that product. That is true of any product you launch. But it is already in the hands of multiple beta users. It has been in the hands of multiple beta users. When we launched this product, we did it the right way. We actually listened to our customer needs. We went through the typical NPI process where we understand the user criteria, the customer criteria, the application criteria, and we built it with that in mind. So we see the trickling starting in the second half, but we are also seeing right now some DTXs being sold in the first quarter before it is even over. So it is obviously starting to make traction there as well, Matt. But we see significant traction happening in the second half and then in future years as well. I feel very good where it is. It really is a platform that allows us to go from discovery all the way to cGMP with the same protocols. That is a true therapeutic platform that none of our competition has. Matt Hewitt: Got it. And then maybe just a reminder, given that you have four partners that could be going into pivotal studies this year, how do you account for or how do you factor that into your guidance? What kind of a haircut do you take on the potential for those milestones? Thank you. Maher Masoud: We already received one milestone, a seven-figure milestone, in Q1 this year. You can haircut it by saying there might be at least one more, but we anticipate four more. One other customer is currently in pivotal, about to dose patients, that will result in another milestone as well. So at the very least, looking at two of those four, with potential for four this year. It is more of a timing issue. If the remaining two do not come in this year, that is just because those milestones happen in the first quarter or very early part of next year. But that is how you would haircut it. The very least will be two of those four, but potential for four this year. Matt Hewitt: Got it. Understood. Thank you. Maher Masoud: Absolutely. Thank you, Matt. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. That comes from Matt Larew with William Blair. Please proceed. Jacob: Hi. This is Jacob on for Matt. Thanks for taking the questions here. I just want to touch on the SPL cadence. I do not know if you mentioned on the call, but typically, you guide to three to five per year, and you typically have signed or at least announced one by the end of the first quarter. I think the last signing was in October 2025, and biotech funding trends and the whole market environment have really been improving since then. So just curious on your visibility and confidence into the cadence of SPL signings throughout 2026 and maybe what you are expecting for this year and in perpetuity. Maher Masoud: We have guided to three to five in the past. That is a number where, on average, that is something we sign in any given year. We feel good about signing at least three this year as well, and that three-to-five frames with some years where we have more than that and some years less than that. We foresee that we will sign the first one—I have Sean Menargas here with me and will put pressure on him—in the very early part of the second half of the year, possibly even before that. But I feel very good where we are. We are still the only company that can assign these licenses, and there is a good reason for it. What we provide is a differentiator. What we provide is really a platform that allows companies to go into clinical and commercial and scale and have a therapeutic that has the best chance of going through clinical development. We have done it with CASGEVY. We have signed 31 of these agreements. We signed four last year. I feel very good this year. We will continue to sign more, and do the same in the foreseeable future. And the DTX also adds to that. As I mentioned earlier, the DTX begins to seed that aspect of future SPL partners and customers for us. So I feel very good where we are. The timing of Q1, having not signed one, is just a matter of timing of when we are working with our customers in the research process, not in any way indicative of a reason why we have not signed one, if that makes sense. I am going to turn it over to Sean. Is there anything that you have to add in terms of where you see the signing? I am putting pressure on you here, but do you feel comfortable with this year as well? Sean Menargas: Thanks, Maher, and thanks for the question, Jacob. I do strongly believe it becomes a timing aspect as well. Just to frame your preference, our research customers turn into our SPL customers from there, and these can take 12 to 18 months depending on their development stage, so it becomes a timing aspect as well. But in the last 24 months, we have signed 10 SPL partners. Almost all of them are in the clinic or at least approaching the clinic from there, so looking to continue to add through this year. Jacob: Got it. Thanks. And I did just want to quickly go back to the launch of the DTX platform. You have covered it in pretty good detail so far. It sounds like feedback, traction, early contributions have all been really good. But is there any way you could quantify what you are expecting in the back half, or is it more just kind of a slow trickle and really expect material contributions in 2027? Maher Masoud: It is too early in the process. It has been a month since we launched it, and it will probably be more than a trickle in the second half. That is where you begin to see meaningful revenues in the second half and a lot more so in 2027. I will update throughout the year. Again, we are seeing very good traction at the beta sites. We are seeing good traction even outside the U.S. We have seen sales in Asia‑Pac as well. It is something that we truly believe differentiates us from any other platform. There are similar 96‑well discovery platforms out there, but none that can optimize the cGMP system like this one can, and none that can do it on a well‑to‑well basis with the same consistency, and really none that can do it where we have built into this our 20‑plus years of electroporation know‑how into this platform to make it streamlined for customers. So I feel very, very good about this, Jacob. Very good. Jacob: Great to hear. Thanks, guys. Maher Masoud: Absolutely. Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Massaro with BTIG. Please proceed. Vivian: Yes. This is Vivian on for Mark. Thanks for taking the questions. I just had two clean-ups on the 2026 guide. Just what is baked in as far as SecurDx contribution? And then I also think you have called out royalty contribution for the first time in the guide. So could you speak to your level of visibility and confidence in that, given it is from a partner therapy? Thanks. Maher Masoud: On SecurDx, we do not break it out in the guidance, other than the fact we see material growth year over year for SecurDx in 2026 versus 2025. Significant growth there from what we had last year. Obviously, last year’s revenue for SecurDx was a bit disappointing, but it was part of our integration. We bought an early start-up. We are still integrating it, and we are still ensuring that we are building up the processes there, really building up the platform there. So we see meaningful growth this year, and that is part of our guide. In terms of royalties, we finally broke out the royalty revenue. I mentioned earlier, we expect approximately $2 million of revenue from commercial royalty, and that will ramp up throughout the year as that product ramps itself. We feel fairly good about that. That is based on forecasts we have seen with that product from public forecasts as well as what we are seeing so far early this quarter. But we expect that ramp to happen over the year. We will continue from here on out to guide for milestones and royalty on a separate line as well. Vivian: Okay. Perfect. And then I just had one follow-up, kind of higher level. I think you have previously mentioned the dynamic that customers are opting for in vivo therapies over ex vivo. So could you discuss how you are seeing an opportunity for more complex edits longer term and maybe over what time frame would you expect that customer appetite to transition to ex vivo edits? Maher Masoud: We have been seeing the complexity of editing increase over the years. This is no longer the single‑base CAR‑T therapy. We are now seeing edits of five, six edits. I see what you are getting at regarding in vivo versus ex vivo. We are still a huge believer in the actual cell therapy space. In fact, we are seeing that start to return as well. We have had some headwinds there, but if you look at our programs, we have allogeneic programs, we have autologous programs, all progressing. The SPLs that we are signing right now are cell therapy programs, some of which are even coming back where at one point they were not in the clinic and now they are coming back to the clinic. I am a huge believer in the cell therapy space. I think as these therapies become far more complex, as we are seeing, it lends itself to cell therapy, especially cell therapy electroporation. You can control the safety, you control the dose, and the science is catching up. Our platforms are built for that. That is exactly what it is. So we are seeing that come back. That is what makes me feel very good about going into the second half of the year. It makes me feel even better about 2027 and 2028. That complexity lends itself to our business, and it lends itself to what we have built over the last decade. And we are seeing that traction start to come back to cell therapy. Vivian: Okay. Perfect. Thanks for taking the questions. Maher Masoud: Excellent. Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Matt Etoge with Stephens. Please proceed. Matt Etoge: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe to follow up on Dan and Jacob’s questions. We have seen funding pick up in the space in general. So I just want to get your sense of what you are hearing from customers in terms of the macro environment, what you are seeing in terms of demand. How should we think about the recent funding backdrop flowing through potential demand throughout FY ’26? Maher Masoud: Great question. As I mentioned, this is not so much anymore a demand issue or customer funding issue. This is about the headwinds we saw, and that is what affected us in Q1. This is more of a second‑half‑weighted guide that we are giving in that core revenue of $25 million to $27 million. We are sitting here right now about one week away from quarter end. This is not official guidance, but looking at where we are on the core, we see that upticking into Q2 and then being more second‑half weighted. I feel comfortable that $6 million on the core is appropriate for Q1, and none of that is contingent upon an upside in capital spending or customer demand. That is just where we sit right now. I feel extremely good where we are at the guide. I feel good where we are in Q1. This is a case of just building back a new base from the SPL customers that we lost in 2025. We found a new base here. Our largest customer is optimizing the processing assemblies, and they are drawing down from the inventory they have. We found a new base there. I feel very good about the year as it transpires. I appreciate it. I will leave it there for now. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. And as a reminder, if you have a question, please press 11 to get in the queue. We have a question from Chad Wiatrowski with TD Cowen. Please proceed. Chad Wiatrowski: Congrats, Doug. Look forward to seeing what your plans are going forward. Just one on the DTX. You have mentioned a few orders already flowing through here in the first quarter. When you are thinking about those couple of orders, but also the bolus more in the second half, are those mostly existing customers enjoying the convenience of that? Or is this something that enables more newer customers? And how do you expect that mix to play out through the year? Maher Masoud: Great question. The current customers are going to be the easiest ones to convert over because they are going to enjoy the aspects of it. Those are the ones we are approaching. But this is a mix of both. It is not just for current customers; it is also for new customers. Because this is a 96‑well discovery platform that can now allow you to transfect primary cells, this can be used for early discovery for the in vivo space as well. So this is, in essence, a platform we have never had before, which we are targeting for our current customers now, but we are prospecting for future customers as well. We are seeing that in the early placements. Actually, one of those early placements is a new customer. It is not a current customer. So it is a mix of both, but we are being very smart about it and ensuring that we work with our current customers because that is also where you learn about some of the things you may have to make improvements on any time you launch a product. I have said it earlier: innovations are hard. We are going to continue to innovate this product. We are going to continue to launch new products in the coming years. This is one of many to come. Operator: Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session. I will now pass it back to Maher Masoud for closing remarks. Maher Masoud: Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on today’s call. I feel very good about 2026, just as good as, if not better than, the future years and what we are building here. I look forward to talking to all of you in the next three months on our next earnings call. Operator: This concludes our conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Absci Corporation fourth quarter and full year 2025 business update conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers’ presentation, we will open for questions. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today’s call is being recorded. I would now like to hand it over to our first speaker, Alex Khan, Corporate Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Alex Khan: Thank you. Earlier today, Absci Corporation released financial and operating results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2025. If you have not received this news release or if you would like to be added to the company’s distribution list, please send an email to investors@absci.com. An archived webcast of this call will be available for replay on Absci Corporation’s Investor Relations website at investors.absci.com for at least 90 days after this call. Joining me today are Sean McClain, Absci Corporation’s Founder and CEO; Zach Jonasson, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer; and Ronti Somerotne, Absci Corporation’s new Chief Medical Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that management will make statements during the call that are forward-looking within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated and you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These include statements regarding the development and clinical progress of ABS-201, anticipated clinical trial design, enrollment, and timelines; expected clinical data and their timing; anticipated characteristics and product profile of ABS-201 as a drug product; our target product profile and attributes; the potential for an expedited development pathway, including the possibility of advancing directly from Phase 1/2a into Phase 3; our planned engagement with the FDA regarding development strategy; and potential market opportunity and commercial prospects for ABS-201. Certain statements may also include projections regarding potential market opportunity. These estimates are based on various assumptions, including potential regulatory approval, the final approved label, and the evolving competitive landscape, any of which could cause our actual addressable market to differ materially from these projections. In addition, certain research findings discussed today reflect participant responses to a hypothetical product profile and do not represent clinical results for ABS-201. Additional information regarding these risks, uncertainties, and factors that could cause results to differ appears in the section titled “Forward-Looking Statements” in the press release and on our website issued today, and in the documents and reports filed by Absci Corporation from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, Absci Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any financial or product pipeline projections or other forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast, March 24, 2026. With that, I will turn the call over to Sean. Sean McClain: Thanks, Alex. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter business update call. We had a strong fourth quarter. ABS-201 is in the clinic, and we have dosed our first three SAD cohorts in our Phase 1/2a headline trial with favorable emerging safety data. We expanded into endometriosis as a second multibillion-dollar indication, and we published what we believe is the first demonstration of de novo, full-length antibody design to zero prior epitopes. I will walk you through each of these today. Also on the call today is Dr. Ronti Somerotne, our new Chief Medical Officer. Ronti spent nearly two decades in clinical development across multiple therapeutic areas at Amgen, BioMarin, and most recently Vertex, where he served as SVP of Clinical Development and Translational Medicine. At Vertex, he was instrumental in the development of Gernabix, the first NaV1.8 inhibitor approved for acute pain, leading it from late-stage development through FDA approval. That registrational experience is exactly what we need as ABS-201 advances toward proof of concept and, if successful, into registrational trials. He will walk you through the clinical development program in detail shortly. I also want to acknowledge Andreas Boesch who retires this month. Andreas built our drug creation organization from the ground up, integrated our AI design capabilities with our wet lab platform, and recruited the leadership team that will carry that work forward. He will continue as co-chair of our scientific advisory board. Andreas has been more than a colleague to me. He has been a trusted partner and a friend. Our development operations are in excellent hands on the foundation he built. Our KOL advisory networks for both AGA and endometriosis continue to expand. You heard from Professors Paz Sinclair and Dr. Goldberg at our December seminar, and we have now assembled a dedicated endometriosis advisory board of esteemed experts that is actively shaping our Phase 2 trial design and endpoint selection. In December, we hosted a seminar on ABS-201 for AGA. We trained the Absci Corporation team and several of our KOL advisers. A full replay is available on our website. Durable hair regrowth remains a significant unmet need in AGA, with current approved therapies showing meaningful limitations in long-term efficacy for patients. ABS-201 was designed with the aim to change that. During the seminar, we presented human ex vivo data demonstrating the prolactin mechanism in androgenetic alopecia. Working with Professor Paz using translational human ex vivo scalp models, we showed that ABS-201 stimulates hair growth by regenerating the stem cell niche. Inhibition of prolactin receptor signaling correlates with prolongation of anagen and restoration of growth signaling, preservation and expansion of the stem cell niche, and potential for follicular reconversion from vellus to terminal hair follicles. Importantly, ABS-201 showed growth-promoting effects without exogenous prolactin, meaning it effectively neutralizes locally produced intrafollicular prolactin signaling. The clinical implication is significant. We believe ABS-201’s mechanism is not limited to patients with elevated systemic prolactin but that it can engage the target in anyone who has active local prolactin receptor signaling. ABS-201 was engineered with an extended half-life designed to support infrequent dosing. In preclinical studies, it demonstrated a three- to four-fold longer half-life than the competitor antibody. We believe this profile may enable a convenient dosing regimen of just two to three administrations for durable, multiyear hair regrowth. Looking at our clinical timeline, we anticipate sharing preliminary safety, tolerability, and PK data for our ongoing headline trial in the first half of this year. That will be followed by an interim 13-week proof-of-concept data readout, including exploratory efficacy endpoints, in the second half. Full 26-week proof-of-concept data will come in early 2027. Ronti will discuss the trial progress in more detail shortly. As a reminder, we intend to use safety, tolerability, and PK from the ongoing ABS-201 study to support initiation of the Phase 2 clinical trial in endometriosis in Q4 this year. The engagement we have had with endometriosis patient advocacy groups and KOLs has reinforced our conviction. This condition has been underserved for decades, and patients need better options. Endometriosis is estimated to affect approximately 10% of women of reproductive age worldwide. There is currently no FDA-approved disease-modifying therapy. Current medical and surgical management strategies have significant limitations. ABS-201 targets a non–sex hormone pathway distinct from existing hormonal therapies. Our preclinical data, combined with positive Phase 2 results from a competitor anti–prolactin receptor antibody validating the mechanism in humans, support the potential to modify disease progression, address both pain and lesion growth, and offer a differentiated safety profile. Beyond ABS-201, our other programs—ABS-101, ABS-301, and ABS-501—continue to progress. Each of these we see as better suited for a partner, and we remain engaged in discussions with multiple strategic parties. This allows us to focus our resources on ABS-201 and invest in additional early-stage programs. Our strategy is to go after underexplored targets in large markets where unmet need is significant and competition is low. That is where the platform creates the most differentiation and where we see the highest return on our R&D investment. To put a number on it, we have advanced our first two programs from AI design to IND in approximately two years at roughly $15 million investment per program, compared to an industry standard of four to six years and $50 million or more. Earlier this year, we published details on OriginOne, our generative AI platform for de novo antibody design, integrated with our lab-in-the-loop validation. OriginOne designs full-length antibodies against zero prior epitopes—targets with no reported complex structure. It generates lead candidates by screening fewer than 100 designs per target, with atomically accurate predictive structures and confirmed functional activity. But the value of the platform is measured by the assets we create. We are expanding our pipeline and expect to advance additional programs. We will provide updates as those programs mature. With that, I will turn it over to Ronti to walk you through the ABS-201 clinical program. Ronti? Ronti Somerotne: Thanks, Sean. Good afternoon, everyone. It is great to be here. My name is Ronti Somerotne, and I am thrilled to be joining the Absci Corporation team as Chief Medical Officer. I am a cardiologist and internist by training, and I have had the opportunity to work at great organizations such as BioMarin and Amgen, and most recently Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where I served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and Translational Medicine. I have been fortunate enough to lead clinical development of groundbreaking therapies during my career, including Gernabix at Vertex, the first NaV1.8 inhibitor approved for moderate to severe acute pain. I am excited to join Absci Corporation at such an important time as we continue on our journey to use our integrated AI and wet lab platform to create new and differentiated medicines to improve the lives of patients in need. In the near term, I am excited to be advancing our ABS-201 program for both AGA and endometriosis through the clinic. Both of these programs could represent significant advances compared to available therapies. I have been involved with multiple complex clinical trials spanning pain, cardiovascular disease, nephrology, and other diverse disease areas, and I am impressed by the Absci Corporation team’s rigorous approach to the ABS-201 clinical trial designs. I believe Absci Corporation has built a differentiated platform and, as a drug developer, I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to contribute to the advancement of our pipeline, including ABS-201, at this stage of the company’s growth. We are advancing the clinical development of ABS-201 for two indications with significant unmet medical need: androgenetic alopecia and endometriosis. Our ongoing Phase 1/2a headline trial is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study efficiently serving both as a first-in-human study of ABS-201 while also providing preliminary proof-of-concept data in AGA. The AGA POC component is incorporated into the multiple ascending dose part of the trial. The primary endpoints are safety and tolerability, while secondary endpoints include PK, PD, immunogenicity, target area hair count, target area hair width, and target area darkening and pigmentation. We will also collect patient-reported outcomes data. The trial is enrolling up to 227 healthy volunteers with or without AGA. The single ascending dose (SAD) portion of the trial is testing four intravenous dose groups for safety, tolerability, PK, and PD. The SAD portion of the trial will be followed by three subcutaneous multiple ascending dose (MAD) groups in healthy volunteers with androgenetic alopecia. While the MAD portion of the study also looks at safety, tolerability, and PK/PD, we have powered the MAD portion to demonstrate proof of concept in AGA. We plan to share 13-week interim proof-of-concept data in the second half of this year, followed by 26-week data in early 2027. With the 13-week data, we hope to demonstrate directionally positive hair growth compared to baseline, which would translate to even more robust growth at the 26-week readout and beyond. These results will be consistent with our understanding of the mechanism of action and supported by a naturally occurring nonhuman primate model for AGA. Furthermore, we have ongoing engagement with the FDA regarding an efficient clinical development strategy that could support expedited clinical development, with the potential of advancing directly from Phase 1/2a into Phase 3 registrational trials. Today, we are pleased to share that we have successfully dosed the first three cohorts in the SAD portion of our ongoing Phase 1/2a headline trial. To date, ABS-201 has been well tolerated with favorable emerging safety data. Additionally, emerging PK data support the current dosing regimen in the headline trial as we have modeled. We are on track to dose SAD cohort four as well as the first MAD cohort. For endometriosis, we plan to use data from the Phase 1/2a headline trial to provide safety, tolerability, and PK assessments that will support Phase 2 clinical development beginning in Q4. We anticipate an interim proof-of-concept readout from this trial in 2027. With that, I will pass it over to Zach to discuss our strategy, partnerships, and outlook, and to provide an update on our financials. Zach? Zach Jonasson: Thanks, Ronti. Our strategic priority is executing the clinical development of ABS-201 in both AGA and endometriosis, given the significant potential return on investment these programs offer. In particular, our lead program in AGA represents a unique opportunity. We believe this program has the potential for streamlined clinical development and a potentially significant commercial opportunity in the cash-pay market, if the program is successfully advanced through development. As Ronti discussed, we are currently executing an efficient Phase 1/2a trial design to position us for registrational studies that could enable a potential FDA approval in the 2030 timeframe. We expect the registrational trials to enroll rapidly and to cost significantly less than typical registrational trials for other large indications. Our market research, some of which was shared during the ABS-201 KOL seminar in December, supports the commercial potential of ABS-201 as a new premium category of AGA therapy. Results from the survey we commissioned, which included 610 participants experiencing AGA, support our belief that there is a meaningful demand for a product with the ABS-201 anticipated minimum target product profile. The TPP evaluated in the survey assumed a level of hair regrowth comparable to that reported in the literature for high-dose oral minoxidil, but with a potential durability of two to three years. The hypothetical profile also contemplated a six-month dosing regimen consisting of approximately three subcutaneous administrations, as compared to currently available oral or topical treatments that require daily or twice-daily administration. Key highlights from the consumer survey include 87% of men and 69% of women surveyed indicating they would be extremely likely or very likely to ask a healthcare professional about ABS-201 if it were available on the market today. Moreover, these figures increased to 92% and 89%, respectively, for men and women who are currently using oral standard of care, for example, oral minoxidil. And over two-thirds of men and women who are currently using another hair loss product said that they would be extremely or very likely to try ABS-201 as first line if it were available. These results, together with data from our survey of key opinion leaders, are supportive of potentially significant adoption of ABS-201 among AGA consumers, if the product is successfully developed and approved. Based on our market research, we estimate a potential total addressable AGA population for ABS-201 in the United States of approximately 15 to 18 million consumers. Assuming a two- to three-year treatment durability, the total potential annual treatable patient volume could range between 5 to 9 million consumers per year. Our survey data suggest this segment of the AGA population would be interested in purchasing a product with ABS-201’s anticipated profile at a premium price relative to the current standard-of-care treatment. Accordingly, based on all of our market research, we believe the total addressable market for ABS-201 in the United States could be substantial, with some estimates exceeding $25 billion on an annual basis. While we believe our estimates are reasonable and based on available data, actual market size and ABS-201’s ability to capture any portion of said market will depend on numerous factors, including clinical trial outcomes, regulatory approval, pricing, and competition. This program may offer additional commercial upside as the headline clinical trial is also designed to explore whether ABS-201 can achieve other aesthetic outcomes such as restoration of hair pigmentation. If such outcomes are demonstrated in clinical studies and supported by regulatory approval, they could open up additional significant markets beyond AGA. If ABS-201 is approved, we believe we will be well positioned for commercialization in the United States. Existing go-to-market channels and provider networks appear to be suited for a premium product with the anticipated ABS-201 target product profile. Approximately 80% of consumers seek hair treatments from dermatologists, med spas, and plastic surgeons, which together offer over 30,000 potential retail locations across the United States. We have begun establishing relationships with these practitioner market channels, and looking ahead, we aim to continue to create awareness among this practitioner community and, when appropriate, to establish direct patient engagement. As ABS-201 moves forward toward major potential value inflection points, we plan to continue progressing our internal preclinical programs as well as our partnered programs. In all, we remain highly focused and committed to diligently allocating our capital and resources to programs that offer the greatest potential return on investment. Turning now to our financials. Revenue in the fourth quarter was $700,000 as we continue to progress our partnered programs. Research and development expenses were $25.3 million for the three months ended December 31, 2025, as compared to $18.4 million for the prior-year period. This increase was primarily driven by advancement of Absci Corporation’s internal programs, including direct costs associated with external preclinical and clinical development of ABS-101 and ABS-201. Selling, general, and administrative expenses were $8.6 million for the three months ended December 31, 2025, as compared to $8.8 million for the prior-year period. Additionally, we recorded a $5.1 million gain on the settlement of the company’s contingent consideration during 2025. This resulted in net proceeds of $8.7 million of unrestricted cash. Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities as of December 31, 2025 were $144.3 million, as compared to $152.5 million as of September 30, 2025. We believe our existing cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities will be sufficient to fund our operations into 2028. We remain focused on opportunities to generate additional nondilutive cash inflows that could come from early-stage asset transactions associated with our wholly owned internal programs and/or new platform collaborations with large pharma. Our current balance sheet supports our execution of key upcoming catalysts, including potential proof-of-concept readouts for both AGA and endometriosis. We are also well positioned to continue progressing our early-stage pipeline and to advance new partnership discussions in line with our business strategy. With that, I will now turn it back to Sean. Sean McClain: Thanks, Zach. 2025 was a defining year for Absci Corporation. We dosed our first patient with ABS-201, expanded into a second multibillion-dollar indication, and published what we believe is the first demonstration of de novo antibody design to zero prior epitopes. In 2026, we expect to deliver on our catalysts: preliminary safety and PK data for ABS-201 in the first half, interim 13-week proof-of-concept hair regrowth data in the second half, and initiation of our Phase 2 endometriosis trial in Q4, subject to data and regulatory review. Full 26-week proof-of-concept data for ABS-201 in AGA will follow in early 2027. We have clinical momentum, the balance sheet to reach proof of concept in both indications, and the team to execute. Thank you for your continued support. Operator, let us open the call for questions. Operator: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press 1-1 again. Please stand by while we complete the Q&A roster. One moment for our first question. Our first question will come from the line of Vamil Divan from Guggenheim Partners. Your line is open. Vamil Divan: Great. Thanks. Thanks so much for taking the question. So I guess obviously a lot of focus on 201 and a common question we have been getting from investors is just what we should be looking for, what you are looking for in terms of target product profile, especially from an efficacy perspective. Obviously, there are not a lot of great options out there for others that are in development. I realize it is still a little bit early, but just if you can give a better sense of what you are hoping to see from an efficacy perspective. We obviously have the minoxidil options that are out there. We have competitors in development. Just where do you hope to see this land given that it will be an injectable? It sounds like it may be more of a premium-priced product. What are you hoping to see from an efficacy perspective? Thank you so much. Sean McClain: Thank you, Vamil. It is a great question, and what we are looking to achieve—and I will have Zach go into more details on this from our consumer quant study—but talking to physicians as well as patients, we believe that if we achieve a durable treatment as well as being able to achieve at or above minoxidil efficacy, we will definitely have a very attractive TPP. And, Zach, please feel free to walk through more of the details on that, given the consumer quant study we had just completed. Zach Jonasson: Thanks, Sean. And, Vamil, I would just note that the TPP that ABS-201 embodies, or we think will embody, is really a new category therapy that we hope will deliver not only efficacy but durable efficacy and convenient administration. So, to Sean’s point, if the effect size in terms of terminal area hair count—and the growth in terminal area hair count—is consistent with high-dose oral minoxidil, so 35 to 40 hairs per square centimeter, we think that is a home-run product. And that is supported by the research we have done with consumers and KOLs. We think there is a significant product even below that threshold. But I think at that threshold, it is a very significant product we would characterize as a home-run product. And keep in mind, that is additive with the other features of the profile, which would include durability and that convenient dosing of just a few injections. Vamil Divan: Okay. Thanks. And one other one—oh, sorry. Sean McClain: Go ahead. Vamil Divan: I was just going to also mention that, you know, if you look at the stump-tail macaque data, it was well above that. So we do even have room to run on this. I think as Zach said, this is a home-run product, but from what we are seeing from the stump-tail macaque and even ex vivo data, you know, it could be well above that as well for an upside scenario. Okay. Thank you. And then one other one, just a follow-up, is on the safety side. So I think the words you use are “favorable emerging safety profile.” So I do not know what you can elaborate at this point. What have you seen from the cohorts that have gone through the SAD portion? Thank you. Ronti Somerotne: Yes, absolutely. Thanks. So it is early in the trial, but at this point, there is no evidence of any on-target or off-target safety signal based on our review of the safety data accumulated to date. It is encouraging so far. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Brendan Smith from TD Cowen. Your line is open. Brendan Smith: Great. Thanks for taking the questions, guys. Maybe just another one quick on 201. I guess, kind of given other pivotal studies in the space and maybe even in your conversations with FDA to date, maybe first, is it fair to expect that six-month primary endpoint you are using in the MAD is the same duration of follow-up you would expect for a registrational study? And then separately, just on the drug creation partnership, I think you flagged at least one new one with big pharma this year. Can you maybe just tell us, even qualitatively, how those conversations are going? We get asked all the time, like, kind of given all the money pharma is spending internally on AI, what are they still coming to Absci Corporation for, and how should we really think about them leveraging the platform within the confines of those deals? Thanks. Sean McClain: Thanks. Ronti, do you want to answer that first one, and then Zach can take the second one? Ronti Somerotne: Yes. So we have not yet engaged FDA on the design of our Phase 3 program. We are going to. One of the reasons we are excited about the 13-week interim readout is that it is going to give us a much better idea of what the Phase 3 program will look like. But certainly, other companies are developing a six-month pivotal endpoint with another six months of long-term safety data follow-up. So there are some predicates in the field. But we are going to look forward to our 13-week interim and give you more details on that once we see the data. Zach Jonasson: Thanks. And I can comment on the partnership discussion. We continue to have productive discussions with pharma regarding platform partnerships. I do think it is important to note that we are focused on doing the right deal, not doing a deal, and so we are currently actively negotiating and looking at deal structures that could work for us. And I would comment as well, we have a healthy pipeline of internal programs that are being developed today. We have not yet announced several of those. But we will be looking to initiate partnering discussions around those programs later in this year. Brendan Smith: Got it. Thanks, guys. Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Brian Chang from JPMorgan. Your line is open. Brian Chang: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking our question this afternoon. Sean, I think you said in your prepared remarks, you said 101, 301, and 501 continued to progress. Each of these you see better suited for partner. Just to clarify, are all of them now on the table for partnerships, or do you think that you will want to develop 301 or 501 a bit more internally? Thanks. Sean McClain: Thank you. That is a great question, Brian. Just given our focus in particular in I&I, given ABS-201, we believe us developing oncology does not make sense, and so with 301 and 501 being in oncology, we think that this is much better suited for a partner. We do have an earlier-stage pipeline that is developing where we should be nominating DCs this year that have not been announced that are in I&I, and these, you know, we could potentially take forward ourselves assuming that the cash balance sheet is there, and then we also have the optionality to partner those as well. So we have definitely been hard at work building up that I&I pipeline. Brian Chang: Got it. And maybe just one quick one on safety. I know you touched on this a little bit already. Just is the profile that you are seeing in terms of safety consistent with what you have seen in nonhuman primates, and are you seeing any particular impact of interest? Just curious if you can give us a little bit more color on how we should think about the TEAE profile. Ronti Somerotne: Yes. We have looked at the TEAEs. There is really nothing that would point to any sort of mechanism-related safety signal or off-target mechanism-related safety signal. We are looking very closely at labs, and, you know, other than onesie-twosie things, there is no pattern of anything at this point. But, again, I have to caveat that it is early in the study without a ton of people exposed. Sean McClain: I will also say, given the encouraging profile, it definitely lines up really nicely with what you see from other studies—HMI-115—hitting a similar target as well as a few other assets that have been developed in oncology. You can see safety signals there for this particular pathway, and then you also have loss-of-function mutations in the prolactin receptor, and these individuals were perfectly healthy, just did not have the ability to lactate. So I would say from what we have seen in other studies as well as these loss-of-function mutations, it tracks very nicely to what we are seeing in our own study. And as Ronti said, it is early days, but very encouraging. Brian Chang: Great. Well, thank you so much for your time. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Next question will come from the line of Kripa Devarakonda from Truist Securities. Your line is open. Kripa Devarakonda: Hi. This is Alex on for Kripa. Congrats on all the progress. We had a question on 201 as well. Some of the investors that we talked to express caution about the ability for a molecule to get into the hair follicle to inhibit the prolactin receptor. Can you talk about the data that supports the ability for the molecule to engage the target, or if there is any reason to believe otherwise based on your perspective? Thanks. Sean McClain: Yes. So you are definitely not going to have the penetration you would have in—or the biodistribution, I should say—in other organs. But there is definitely ample blood flow going into the follicle, and again, you saw the data with the stump-tail macaques. You saw the data as well with the mice. And so, based on that, we have no reason to believe you would not be able to get an antibody into the follicle. And the way we modeled the receptor occupancy was using a known biodistribution coefficient for the scalp and hair follicle, which is much lower than other tissues. Ronti, I do not know if you have anything else you want to add on that point. Ronti Somerotne: No. Thanks, Sean. I think the animal data are very encouraging, suggesting that there is adequate tissue penetration with other antibodies and even in 201 and work. Kripa Devarakonda: Great. Thanks, everyone. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Next question will come from the line of Debanjana Chatterjee from JonesTrading. Your line is open. Debanjana Chatterjee: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. So, we have seen some recent updates for AGA candidates, including clascoterone, and also oral extended-release minoxidil is gaining traction. So how, like, you know, could you remind us how you envision an anti-PRLR antibody to be used relative to such agents assuming that they are approved? And also, do these new developments or agents shift the bar for success that you have in mind, particularly in terms of expected target area hair count improvement? Sean McClain: It is a great question. First off, I think the success that, you know, Veradermics and others are having is really great. I think, at first, it shows that there is a huge unmet medical need for androgenetic alopecia and, you know, it affects over 80 million Americans. And there is treatment that is needed. And we see what we are doing as very synergistic. I think even with oral minoxidil, you know, patients still are not—some patients are not seeing the full hair regrowth that they would like to see. Additionally, with a lot of these medications, you have to take it once or twice daily. And if you have the potential to, you know, take two to three doses over six months and then have durable hair regrowth after that, we see that being very attractive, assuming that you can reach the efficacy of oral minoxidil. And so that is really where we see this as being a premium product, really being able to rejuvenate the hair follicle and get that durable hair regrowth. This is a brand-new novel mechanism. You know, oral minoxidil, finasteride, they have been around for a long time. And the biology that we have seen here, it does appear that prolactin is kind of furthest upstream, really driving the hair loss. And you can see that in the ex vivo studies we have done. And so, overall, we think that this is a potential paradigm-shifting asset within AGA. But, again, we are really excited that other companies such as Veradermics are having the success that they are having because it does shed a light on how important this space is. Zach Jonasson: I will add to what Sean said, too. We saw that in our survey. We saw a very high level of interest in the target product profile for ABS-201 across the board for men and women. But when we segment out participants who have AGA who are currently using minoxidil—oral minoxidil—the interest level goes up even higher. So we saw 92% of men, 89% of women, who are currently using oral minoxidil said they would be highly inclined to go seek out the product—so extremely or very likely to go to a healthcare professional to obtain ABS-201—if it were on the market today. I think what you are seeing there are a couple things. One is the attractiveness of the TPP and the convenience, and patients wanting something that is durable and convenient. And then also some dissatisfaction with standard of care, in particular oral minoxidil, because you really have to take that once a day or, in some cases, twice a day to see the efficacy. And then, as Sean pointed out, the efficacy can be very variable across patients. Some patients do not see much. Some patients will see pretty decent efficacy. And then finally, there are some side effects with oral minoxidil as well, which some patients experience, including unwanted hair growth and a shedding cycle that may happen when you first go on the drug. So I think if you roll it all together, the TPP here really resonates with the AGA community because it sort of checks off the boxes of being durable and very convenient to administer—you can imagine a “set it and forget it” sort of solution. And we do believe long term, there will be a significant number of patients who probably use both products. Debanjana Chatterjee: Okay. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Gil Blum from Needham. Your line is open. Gil Blum: Good afternoon, and thanks for taking our questions. Maybe a bit of a math question. You said three cohorts were dosed. Should we assume this is about 24 patients at this point? Ronti Somerotne: Yes, I have to look at the actual math, but I do not think that is too far off. Sean McClain: It is a rough ballpark there, Gil. Gil Blum: Okay, that is fair. I do have a question specifically for Dr. Ronti. Can you discuss some of the expected challenges in developing a drug for endometriosis, especially when assessing involvement of pain measures? It seems like you have the right experience here. Ronti Somerotne: Yes. It is interesting because these are really pain studies, and pain studies require a lot of thought in how you select your sites, how the patients are selected, and how the placebo effects are mitigated. And so, I have learned a lot over the last three years working in pain. And I do not know if this has been previously appreciated in endometriosis studies, but these are the things that I think about, because in addition to treating the underlying biology, which we hope that ABS-201 will certainly do, we have to think about the end in mind, and at the end, these are numerical rating scores. So we have to be extremely thoughtful in how we write the protocol, select our sites, and then oversee the conduct of the trial. Gil Blum: Alright. Maybe a last one for Zach. How should we think about resource allocation between AGA and endometriosis? Zach Jonasson: Thanks for the question, Gil. I think both opportunities are very significant. I think we talked about the unmet medical needs in endometriosis and really not much competition there. We also think a similar view applies to AGA, where this would be a completely new category of therapy. So when we think about resource allocation, these are both programs where we think the potential ROI is very significant. And then the other thing that these programs allow us to do is take advantage of a streamlined development path. So, as Ronti noted, we will be using this Phase 1/2a trial that is ongoing today for AGA. We will use the SAD portion of that as safety to support initiating a Phase 2 trial in endometriosis later this year. So we are leveraging the current trial to support moving into proof-of-concept studies in endo very rapidly. And I think one other comment I will just make on the AGA trials is we are really excited there because those trials recruit very rapidly. When we think ahead to registrational studies, we think about trials that can recruit very rapidly and that will be significantly less in terms of invested capital to execute than you would see for other traditional indications that would be for large market opportunities. But I think you look at these two together and, when we look at these programs internally, we obviously have other things we can pursue, but these really stand out as unique opportunities. So we are really excited to pursue them. Gil Blum: Alright. Excellent. Thanks for taking our question. Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Sean Lammen from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Sean Lammen: Good morning, Sean and team. Hope everyone is well, and congrats on all the progress. I have a question back on the platform, and we do get a lot of inbound on potential AI “crowding,” if you like to call it that. But in the March deck, you emphasized OriginOne and the zero prior epitope design as key differentiators. Based on some of your 2025 interactions with potential partners, where do you see the strongest external validation relative to other AI-enabled discovery companies? And where is skepticism still the most common? Sean McClain: Yes. So I would say first off, pharma has very much embraced AI. I mean, I think it is progressing faster than we have anticipated in some regards and then not as quickly in others. But overall, I would say pharma’s appetite on this—and whether it is partnering or building out internally—is very strong. And I think the validation that we have been able to show in the preprint and the extensive validations toward the zero prior epitopes, I think, has been some of the most rigorous work that has been published to date. And I will note that a lot of these models are not being disclosed, whether it is within this industry or the LLMs. And, you know, we disclosed the methods and how we went about doing it. And we are now applying this to our internal pipeline to really be able to create differentiated assets. And I think with the emergence of agentic AI, really being able to start to have this fully autonomous workflow where you can have an agent help you look at targets, help you identify the epitope, and then that feeds directly into the de novo model and then helps you design the killer experiment and rapidly develop assets that quickly and rapidly test hypotheses. And so I would say that we are very excited about the future and where things are at. And, yes, it has been an exciting start of the year. Zach Jonasson: Thank you, Sean. And to stay at the comments, when we look at the value of doing a platform deal versus doing an asset deal, the value on an asset deal is significantly higher, and you can risk-adjust that and it is still a multiple. And so I think what we are really excited about is leveraging the OriginOne models, which we have been working on for the past year, to develop pipeline assets that we could either take forward or we could partner. And we have a number of those that Sean mentioned that we are bringing towards DC this year that could become excellent candidates for partnering activity. Sean Lammen: Right. Thank you both. Operator: Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Charles Wallace from H.C. Wainwright. Your line is open. Charles Wallace: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. This is Charles on for RK. So a question on 201 and kind of distinguishing between how internally you are thinking about the market opportunity for the two different indications. You mentioned earlier that both indications probably would be favorable, but maybe to dig a little more. You mentioned you provided a peak sales of more than $4.5 billion in endometriosis for 9 million patients. And then for AGA, I think you are targeting 5 to 9 million patients per year. So I am just curious, should we assume that the endometriosis opportunity is going to be the larger opportunity because it is a therapeutic? Or is that maybe not the right assumption? Sean McClain: Both of these indications are very large indications. One in ten women are estimated to have endometriosis worldwide. That is a very large population, most likely underdiagnosed due to poor standard of care and poor diagnostics in the space. And then, obviously, AGA is a massive opportunity—huge patient population as well, 80 million Americans in the U.S. And so, again, we see these as both very large opportunities. I think, at the end of the day, AGA is likely a larger opportunity. But at the end of the day, these are both very exciting opportunities from just a market size perspective. Charles Wallace: Okay. Great. And maybe just a follow-up. So given that, you know, endometriosis would be more of a therapeutic payer market, while AGA would be a cosmetic kind of self-pay market, how do you anticipate pricing would be once—if both came to market? Would it be similar or different? Zach Jonasson: Yes. So we cannot disclose what we think the actual price point will be. We would not announce those until day of launch. But I can tell you in our own internal analysis, we think the pricing for both of them—and given that endometriosis will also be predicted to have insurance coverage—we do not think there will be an arbitrage opportunity there. And so we think we are in a good position to leverage the development efficiencies of pursuing both indications with ABS-201. Charles Wallace: Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Sean McClain: And maybe before we close out the call today, I just wanted to share one exciting piece. I will actually have Ronti share that to close out the earnings call today. Ronti, over to you. Ronti Somerotne: Thanks, Sean. As we said, the SAD/MAD study is going well. We are on track, and in fact, we hope to dose our first MAD portion participants towards the end of the week. So we are very pleased with the progress. Operator: Thank you. With that, thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.
Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Gemini's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ryan Todd, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Ryan Todd: Thanks, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining this morning for Gemini's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Call. My name is Ryan Todd, Head of Investor Relations at Gemini. Joining me on the call today are Gemini's founders, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss; and Interim CFO, Danijela Stojanovic. Yesterday, we released our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results. During today's call, we may make forward-looking statements, which may vary materially from actual results and are based on management's current expectations, forecasts and assumptions. Information concerning the risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause these results to differ is included in our SEC filings. Our discussion today will also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in the shareholder letter on our Investor Relations website and on the SEC's website. Non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for GAAP measures. We'll start today's call with prepared remarks and then take questions. And with that, let me turn the call over to our founders, Cameron and Tyler. Cameron Winklevoss: Thanks, Ryan. Cameron here. 2025 was a remarkable year for Gemini. We crossed the threshold into the public markets and became a public company on September 12 after being a private company for over a decade. On that day, the price of Bitcoin was $115,000. Since then, Bitcoin has traveled down to $60,000 and then back up to around $70,000 where it hovers today. A reminder that one of the biggest challenges for crypto builders and investors is its cyclical nature. And a reminder that in order to move beyond these cycles, you need to build beyond them. We started as a Bitcoin company. We became a crypto company. We are now becoming a markets company. If Gemini's first decade was building a bridge to the future of money, today, we are building a bridge to the future of money in markets via a super app. Our first foray into people's daily financial lives beyond buy, sell and store crypto began with the Gemini credit card, which delivered strong growth last year. In 2025, card sign-ups grew nearly 15x and credit card revenue reached $33.1 million, up 185% year-over-year. Many of these Gemini credit card customers engage with Gemini multiple times a day to earn crypto rewards when they spend with the Gemini credit card. December marked a new era for Gemini with the launch of Gemini Predictions. We believe prediction markets will be as big or bigger than today's capital markets. They offer a profound and boundless opportunity to leverage the wisdom of the crowds and the power of markets to provide unique insights into the future. Our investment in securing a designated contract market DCM license from the CFTC to launch our own prediction marketplace positions us as an early mover on this new and exciting frontier. We have been building and operating regulated marketplace infrastructure for over a decade: sequencers, matching engines, order books, real-time settlement, post-trade reporting, custody infrastructure and more. This is a big part of what we do best. Our prediction markets are new instruments running on infrastructure we already know how to build and operate. As a result, we chose not to partner with a third party or license someone else's technology and instead build it ourselves. And in doing so, this also means we have chosen to invest in developing the unique operational capabilities for creating and resolving thousands of contracts on a daily basis, a new and fascinating challenge with growing complexity as we expect the cardinality of these markets to continue to explode over time. In short, we built Gemini predictions from the ground up because we want to own and operate our prediction markets end-to-end for the long term. We believe in the power of markets. Bitcoin is a store of value that is a product of market forces. The best economies are market-based. Markets are truth over the long term, and we believe that we are just figuring out how to apply them to the world around us. From politics to economic indicators, business, tech, culture and sports, prediction markets are forecasting the future more accurately and more quickly than traditional posters, experts and the media. This is a profound change in the world's source of truth and an equally profound solution to the loss of trust in our institutions and resulting epistemological crisis. The printing press created the fourth estate or the public press. The Internet created the fifth estate or decentralized public press. Prediction markets are creating the sixth estate. Decentralized information, combined with the integrity and accountability of markets [indiscernible] in the game. Like money, markets are an innovation and technology that continue to evolve thousands of years after they were first invented. From the birth of the bond markets in the Italian city states in the 12th century to the launch of the first stock market in Amsterdam in the 17th century to electronic trading replacing the open outcry of humans in trading pits on Wall Street in the 21st century, markets continue to grow and develop. Just when you thought the money experiment had reached its terminal steady state, Bitcoin emerged. Just when you thought markets were done maturing, prediction markets caught fire. Gemini was founded to help build and shape a new era of money. Today, we have a similar opportunity to help build and shape a new era of markets. Unfolding in parallel is the meteoric ascent of AI. Once these strains of technology, money, markets and AI converge, we believe they will supercharge each other in dramatic and novel ways that generate new economic activity that we are uniquely positioned to be at the center of and help build and shape to. This caldron of Promethean fire could make progress in these fields up to this point appear rather quaint. We have long felt that it is only a matter of time before we have more machines as customers than humans. Machines can't open a bank account, but they can easily plug into protocols and use crypto to become rational economic actors. Humans may have built crypto, but crypto is not so much money for humans as it is money for machines. We're just starting to see this take shape. Here's one example. For the first decade, we had 3 API protocols: REST, WebSockets and FIX. We're now adding a fourth, Model Context Protocol, or MCP, an open-source API interface designed specifically for AI agents like large language models or LLMs. While we believe AI is going to change the composition of our customer base, it's already changing the composition of our workforce and how we work. Up until recently, the impact of software engineers could differ by an order of magnitude or 10x. Great engineers would have 10x more impact than good engineers. AI has completely changed the game, expanding this paradigm by another order of magnitude at a minimum, making a 10xer, now a 100xer. Critically, we are seeing that this step change holds true for every engineer who adopts AI in their workflows. And it also holds true for non-engineering work as well. Doing more with less has never been more true or possible, and we believe this trend line is only just beginning. Notably, the force multiplier effect of AI for Gemini and our workforce is quite new. It wasn't until the end of last year that AI agents for coding and software development had a splitting of the atom moment. While different pockets of our technology organization have been experimenting with AI and their workflows for a while, AI was not core to them. For example, late last summer, when we were in the middle of our IPO roadshow, AI was used in only 8% of the code being written and shipped to production. In December, however, the future arrived. Models hit an inflection point and in combination with the internal tools we built for [indiscernible] management, AI is now too powerful not to use at Gemini. Today, AI is used in more than 40% of our production code changes, and we expect that number to climb close to 100% in the not-too-distant future. Not using AI at Gemini will soon be the equivalent of showing up to work with a type writer instead of a laptop. As a result, we have reduced the size of our workforce by roughly 30% since the start of 2026. We believe that a smaller organization leveraging the right tools isn't just more efficient, it's actually faster. Gemini started in America in 2015. Since then, we expanded our areas of operation to more than 60 countries. These foreign markets proved hard to win in for various reasons, and we found ourselves stretched thin with a level of organizational and operational complexity that drove our cost structure up and slowed us down. And we didn't have the demand in these regions to justify them. The reality is that America has the world's greatest capital markets and America has always been where it's at for Gemini. Furthermore, we are encouraged by the stated goals of the current SEC and CFTC and their efforts thus far to make the super app possible in America and usher in a new golden age of markets. So we decided it was time for us to focus and double down on America. This will allow us to build more meaningful and powerful relationships with new and existing customers. To that end, in addition to reducing the size of our workforce, we have reduced the areas in which we operate by exiting the U.K., EU and Australian markets. We expect this will help reduce our total expenses in line with our headcount reduction and meaningfully accelerate our path to profitability even in the backdrop of the current crypto market, simplify, consolidate, then accelerate. We love being a public company, perhaps a somewhat surprising statement when looking at the performance of our share price over the past 6 months since we've been public. But rather than being dispirited, we are motivated. And while it's never fun to see your stock drop, we love the feedback loop. It forces us to confront what is working and what is not working, and it makes us sharper. It's challenging, but absolutely the right challenge. We view this feedback loop as one of the greatest benefits of being a public company as growers losing a race provided invaluable feedback on the changes you needed to make in order to win. The path to the Olympics is paved in lost races and the invaluable learning that comes from them. So we welcome the feedback and love the challenge. 2025 marked the end of Gemini 1.0 and 2026 marks the beginning of Gemini 2.0. This starts with our shift into becoming a markets company with Gemini predictions and using the same infrastructure to power our perpetual futures contracts once these contracts are allowed in the U.S. And it continues with our plan to launch U.S. equities as the next phase of our platform, giving our customers access to the largest, most liquid markets in the world. Altogether, we have developed the foundation and building blocks for a super app, where users will be able to fulfill their existing and future financial needs all in one place, amazing awaits. Danijela Stojanovic: Thank you, Cameron and Tyler, and great to speak with everyone. Before I turn to the numbers, I'll briefly note that I stepped into the interim CFO role earlier this year after serving as Gemini's Chief Accounting Officer since May of 2025. I've been closely involved in the company's financial reporting, the IPO process and the prior 2 quarters as a public company. The broader finance organization remains fully in place, and there has been no disruption to our financial reporting or operational execution. I will begin with a few key takeaways from the quarter before walking through the results in more detail. First, revenue grew sequentially despite a materially weaker crypto trading environment in Q4. Second, the business continued to diversify meaningfully. Services revenue more than doubled year-over-year and now represent over 1/3 of our revenue. And third, the restructuring actions we announced earlier this year repositioned the company with a significantly lower cost base going into 2026. Now turning to the results. Net revenue for the fourth quarter was $56.4 million, up 13% from $49.8 million in Q3. This growth occurred despite a more challenging market backdrop. The biggest driver of that change was volatility in the crypto market. Bitcoin fell nearly 47% from its October high, and that environment put real pressure on trading volumes and transaction fees. The credit card business kept growing through it, which helped offset some of that, but Q4 was a harder macro quarter than Q3. I'll walk through the key components. Transaction revenue was $26.7 million, up slightly from $26.3 million in Q3 on spot volumes of $11.5 billion compared to $16.4 billion in Q3. Retail volumes came in at $1.6 billion and institutional at $9.9 billion. As a reminder, we earn fees from both retail and institutional customers with rates varying by order type, instant orders at the top of the range and active trader orders lower. While volumes declined, transaction revenue proved relatively resilient. This reflects improvements in fee economics across both retail and institutional trading as well as a mix shift in retail trading towards higher fee order types. Services revenue for the quarter was $26.5 million, up 33% sequentially from $19.9 million in Q3. This category continues to grow quickly and represents one of the most important structural shifts in our business. A few things worth calling out here. Credit card revenue was $16 million, up 87% from Q3's $8.5 million. We added nearly 30,000 new card sign-ups in the quarter compared to 64,000 in Q3, and receivable balances grew to $219.8 million. Staking revenue was $5.1 million, down 13% from Q3's $5.9 million, largely reflecting lower crypto asset prices during the quarter. However, we continue to see adoption of staking across the platform, including through auto staking features integrated with the credit card rewards program. Q4 was our first full quarter with Card Auto staking rewards live, which came alongside the Solana card launch in October. That feature is a great example of natural multiproduct engagement in providing customers a way to stake organically. They pick a stakable reward. It gets staked automatically on every card transaction and their staking customer without any extra steps. Staking balances at quarter end were approximately $509 million. Staking fee rate adjustment we made in Q3 also ran through a full quarter for the first time. Let me turn to expenses. Total operating expenses for Q4 were $171.7 million, essentially flat compared to Q3. Compensation and headcount expenses declined to $72.3 million from $82.5 million in Q3, reflecting lower stock-based compensation expense. Stock-based comp in Q4 was $36 million. Headcount at quarter end was 650 compared to 677 in Q3. Importantly, the roughly 30% workforce reduction that occurred in early 2026 is not yet reflected in those numbers. That impact starts flowing through in Q1 of 2026 with the full run rate savings expected to be reflected by Q3 and beyond. As of March 1, total headcount was approximately 445. Sales and marketing was $39 million, up from Q3's $32.9 million, reflecting the continued growth and momentum of the credit card portfolio and increased cardholder spending, which drove higher crypto rewards during the fourth quarter. As we've said consistently, we treat marketing as a variable line and calibrate it to what we are seeing in acquisition performance and growth opportunities. For the full year, sales and marketing was $97.1 million or $52.5 million, excluding credit card rewards and promotions, which remained in line with the $45 million to $60 million range we previously guided to. Transaction processing expenses were $7.3 million, down from Q3's $8.6 million, reflecting lower trading volumes during the quarter. Transaction losses were $6 million, down from Q3's $7.7 million. This includes a provision for credit losses on the card of $2.8 million, which remained broadly consistent with the prior quarter. Overall, credit quality across the card portfolio continues to remain stable as the book scales. Technology and infrastructure was $22.3 million, up from Q3's $20.3 million, mainly reflecting higher cloud infrastructure and software licensing costs as the platform scaled. General and administrative was $24.9 million, up from Q3's $19.3 million, driven mainly by higher professional services and ongoing public company operating costs. Full year tech and G&A came in at $154.6 million, in line with our guidance range. Now turning briefly on to full year metrics. We served approximately 601,000 MTUs as of December 31, up 17% year-over-year, reflecting continued growth in engagement as users adopt additional products across the platform. Full year net revenue was $174 million compared to $141 million in 2024, up 24% year-over-year. Transaction revenue for the year was $98 million, while services and interest revenue reached $76 million, representing a significant and growing portion of our overall revenue base. This shift towards services is a key structural change, reducing dependence on trading activity. Services and interest revenue came in ahead of the $60 million to $70 million range we provided at our third quarter earnings call. This was driven primarily by stronger-than-expected card flows with more than 116,000 new card sign-ups during the year in response to card addition launches such as the XRP card. We saw growth across several other services categories. Custodial fee revenue increased 25% year-over-year, driven by higher average crypto assets under custody. We also recognized approximately $4.8 million of advisory revenue related to services provided to a strategic customer as well as $1.2 million from new on-chain offerings, including integrations and token listing services. As we continue expanding the platform, we see increasing opportunities to drive monetization across multiple services as users engage with additional products beyond trading. Total operating expenses for the full year were $525 million versus $308 million in 2024. The year-over-year increase was driven largely by 3 main things: first, stock-based compensation tied to the IPO, including the Q3 bonus accrual that settled in equity; second, the significant marketing investments we made after going public to drive card growth; and third, continued spend in technology, compliance and public company infrastructure costs. These investments were deliberate and the restructuring actions we announced are designed to reset the company's cost structure going forward. Full year adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $258 million, which is inclusive of $33.4 million of net realized and unrealized losses. On a GAAP basis, full year net loss was $582.8 million. It is important to note that a substantial portion of the net loss relates to noncash items. These include $178.5 million of fair value losses on our prior related party instruments and mark-to-market adjustments on crypto assets as well as $85 million of stock-based compensation expense associated with the equity awards issued in connection with our IPO. We believe that adjusted EBITDA is a useful way to look at the underlying performance of the business. That said, our adjusted EBITDA result is not where we want it to be, and we've made decisions since year-end that are designed to change that. Now briefly on the balance sheet. We ended the year with approximately $252 million in cash and cash equivalents. The largest cash outflow in the quarter was the $117 million repayment of the Galaxy loan, which was completed in Q4 and removed that obligation from our balance sheet. As a result, we enter 2026 with a simpler balance sheet and lower debt levels. Following the restructuring actions announced earlier this year, we expect our normalized operating cash losses to decline meaningfully. Going forward, our focus is on continuing to narrow the gap to profitability through disciplined cost management and growth in higher-margin services revenue. The card warehouse facility had $154.4 million outstanding at year-end against $188 million in pledged receivables, supporting capacity of $250 million. As the receivables book grows, we'll execute additional funding capacity to support expected growth. On restructuring costs, the $11 million in pretax charges associated with the Gemini 2.0 plan will land almost entirely in Q1 of 2026 and are expected to be cash charges. They cover the U.K., EU and Australia wind down and the headcount reductions. Timing on some of the international pieces will depend on local consultation requirements, but we expect the full plan to be substantially complete by midyear. We expect these actions to simplify the organization and reduce our operating cost base going forward. Before I turn to the full year outlook, let me share what we are seeing so far in Q1 2026. Through February, trading volume was approximately $5.3 billion, down from Q4 levels as broader trading activity has continued to soften. On the card, payment volume has exceeded $330 million with over 150,000 open card accounts. And on predictions, approximately 15,000 users have traded since launch across more than 12,000 listed contracts. Total monthly transacting users across the platform were approximately 606,000. As always, we urge caution in extrapolating partial quarter activity. With that context, let me turn to how we're thinking about fiscal year 2026. At this time, we are not providing total operating expense guidance for the year. With the restructured cost base still taking shape and the macro environment that is difficult to forecast, we think the more useful approach is to frame the key expense categories individually. The restructuring actions we implemented earlier this year began flowing through the cost structure in Q2. Since year-end, we have reduced headcount by approximately 30% from peak levels. Because 2025 compensation reflected the full year at pre-restructuring staffing levels, the year-over-year decline is more moderate than the underlying headcount reductions. We expect compensation, excluding stock-based comp and restructuring charges to decline 15% to 20% relative to 2025. Stock-based compensation is expected to total $100 million to $115 million in 2026. 2025 included only 2 quarters of stock-based compensation at post-IPO levels following our September listing. The full year figure is higher in absolute terms, but the quarterly run rate is stabilizing as the IPO-related grant cycle normalizes. Technology and G&A is expected to range from $155 million to $190 million. The lower end reflects the post-restructuring normalized base. The width of the range reflects the variable costs that scale with card and trading activity, and we plan to narrow this range as we gain visibility through the year. Marketing expenses, excluding rewards and promotions, are expected at 10% to 15% of revenue, depending on market conditions and the opportunities we see in our highest returning acquisition channels. On the revenue side, our credit card product remains the principal engine for acquisition and growth. Predictions are still early, but with more than 15,000 users since December, we see early traction as encouraging, and it is central to where we are taking the company. While 2025 was the most expensive year in the company's history, given our IPO, the card investments and international expansion, the actions we've taken since then are designed to ensure that 2026 looks very different financially. Overall, we believe that the organization we enter 2026 with is leaner, more focused and positioned to drive improved operating leverage as we continue to scale our business. Together, we expect these dynamics to result in an improvement in adjusted EBITDA in 2026 as we operate with a more disciplined cost structure and a more diversified revenue base. To summarize, 2025 was a year of significant transformation for Gemini. We went public, scaled our credit card program, expanded and diversified revenue through services, launched prediction markets and took decisive steps to reset our cost structure. We enter 2026 with a simpler organization, a lower expense base and a more durable business model. We see the core story of Gemini today as straightforward. The business is becoming less dependent on crypto trading volumes and increasingly driven by recurring and diversified platform revenue. And with that, we will now turn to questions. Thanks, everyone. Ryan Todd: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from James Yaro at Goldman Sachs, who asks, could you update us on the drivers of the recent executive departures and how this fits into your new strategy? Cameron Winklevoss: Thanks for this question. So this summer was a different world. And when we IPO-ed in September, the price of Bitcoin was about $115,000 per coin. Of course, the markets dropped significantly from that point in time. But in addition, our ability to build a super app in America with predictions, there's now a path forward for that. And with the inflection point of AI, we have determined that we can move faster as a smaller, flatter AI-enabled organization that is still, of course, very much founder-led. So we think that we have the right team and the right organizational structure for today and tomorrow. Ryan Todd: Our next question comes from Matt Coad at Truist, who asks, you continue to see traction growing your user base despite the rough crypto market backdrop. What do you believe is driving this user growth? And how do you plan to cross-sell prediction markets into this large and growing user base? Danijela Stojanovic: Thanks for the question. I think I can start here and then maybe kick it off to Cameron or Tyler to speak a little bit more on predictions. So we're very pleased by the continued growth we see in our user base, particularly given the broader market backdrop. I think one of the key drivers here is we're continuing to see meaningful user acquisition through our credit card program and just alongside broader engagement driven by new products that we're introducing and diversifying our revenue base, such as predictions. So we'll hand it over to see if Cameron or Tyler want to touch on predictions a little bit more. Cameron Winklevoss: So Gemini started -- when we started in 2015, we were a Bitcoin company. And people came to us and they could buy, sell and store Bitcoin. Over time, we became a crypto company, and we added additional money words like stake, where users could stake their assets with us. And then we added the Gemini credit card, and that's become an active part of people's financial lives who want to earn crypto back every time they swipe. And we're going to continue to add things to our product where users have reasons to do more with us over time. And eventually, like a number of these activities will continue to be independent of crypto cycles. And I think that we're excited to see the engagement with prediction markets, our credit card and other things that we're going to bring to the Gemini app so that people don't have a reason to go elsewhere. Ryan Todd: The next question comes from Adam Frisch at Evercore, who asks, can you help us frame the path to sustain positive stand-alone card economics, specifically the relative contributions from rewards optimization, lower acquisition costs, provision and credit normalization and cheaper broader funding capacity? Danijela Stojanovic: I can take this one. Thanks for the question, Adam. So we're really encouraged by the progress that we made in Q4, reaching near breakeven on the card. The card business has scaled really quickly, and we believe it has a clear path to profitability as the portfolio matures. There's a few primary levers that we think of. So first, on the revenue side, we're seeing strong growth driven by interchange as spend increases. And then also important to note, interest income is still under earning relative to the size of the receivables space. So as the portfolio seasons and matures, interest income becomes a meaningful tailwind. And then on the cost side, we have several levers really. So rewards are the largest expense today, but these were intentional and front-loaded to drive adoption and really establish the credit card, and it worked. We went from roughly 30,000 open accounts at the start of '25 to now over 150,000 as of March 1. And when you think about it, the Bitcoin card has only been out for about 9 months, XRP for about 5 months. So we're just getting started with this program. And rewards are really fully within our control, and we expect to optimize those over time. And to add to that, we've also really been pleased with the organic sign-up direction on a smaller spend base. We're still averaging well north of 100 sign-ups a day, which is more than double where we were a year ago. And then we're also seeing improvements in bank fees as we scale, which will reflect better underlying economics. And then from a credit perspective, the performance is trending in the right direction. We see loss rates stabilizing and also continuing to improve as the book matures. And then finally, on funding. So while funding costs are now coming into the model, we expect those to become more efficient as the portfolio grows and also as financing options expand. The expansion of the funding facility is really an important step. And longer term, we see opportunities to lower the cost of capital and diversify funding sources as the portfolio grows. So putting it all together, we're already near breakeven on a pre-provision basis and the path to sustained profitability is driven really by a combination of portfolio seasoning, cost optimization and scale-driven efficiencies. So we don't need one single lever to do all the work. It's really incremental improvements across each of these areas that we believe will drive the card business into consistent profitability. Ryan Todd: The next question comes from Michael Cyprys at Morgan Stanley. 15,000 users have used Prediction Markets through the end of February. How has that translated to revenue? Where do you see the growth potential from there? How do you compete versus peers that have a higher number of active users? Cameron Winklevoss: Thanks for this question, Michael. So we will provide an update on revenue in the near future, but it's very early at this point. But we are very encouraged with the fact that 15,000 customers have already engaged with this marketplace, which is brand new, and we did not have even a quarter ago. So we're very excited that our users are engaging with the product. We continue to grow that number on a daily basis and add many new contracts to the offering. I think crypto is a great example. I think we started with monthly contracts. We are now down -- moved down to weekly, daily, hourly, 15-minute and just offering all these different types of intervals and ways for people to hedge and trade around the price of crypto, and we're just getting started. So we're very encouraged. I think that looking at the market as a whole, it's also very early for this market, and we see the pie only growing from here. And we think we're one of the few people who are building the full end-to-end marketplace for predictions. And we're excited that our customers -- it's resonating with them. Tyler Winklevoss: Great. And just to add on to that, we've been building technology trading systems in marketplaces for well over a decade. So this is -- this is -- these are the kind of things that we know how to do very well. We have a website, we have a mobile app. We have API interfaces. And we've been doing market surveillance. We know how to onboard customers, KYC them and build great trading and marketplace experiences. So this is very much an extension of the over a decade of experience and expertise that we've developed over the years. Ryan Todd: The next question comes from John Todaro at Needham. John Todaro: How are you thinking about capital raising and liquidity if we assume crypto volumes remain lower than 2025 levels through 2026 and 2027? Danijela Stojanovic: Thanks for the question, John. So we really appreciate it. And we're planning the business with a conservative set of assumptions, which include a scenario where volumes remain below '25 levels through '26 and '27 as well. And from a liquidity standpoint, we've taken really meaningful steps to reduce our cost base and improve cash efficiency. And really, we're focused on scaling a more durable recurring revenue streams that are less dependent on trading volumes. So our main focus is to execute on our operating plan with that discipline in mind. But with that said, we're always evaluating opportunities to strengthen our balance sheet and support sustainable growth. And if there are opportunities for this on attractive terms, we would consider them. But we're, first and foremost, focused on demonstrating the operating improvements and letting the results really create the conditions for any future transaction or capital raise. But the key point is that we aim to build a model that can sustain itself across cycles and not one that depends on near-term recovery in volumes. Cameron Winklevoss: Yes. So look, as founders, we've been building Gemini for over a decade. We don't just have our skin in the game. We have our entire bodies in the game. We're deeply committed to Gemini and the mission and very excited to continue building it and as we expand the mission into the super app. And I think one of the things that we've talked about is that, that really helps us break free of the crypto cycles and give customers things that they can do throughout their daily financial lives, whether it's using a credit card or trading predictions. We're hoping to launch U.S. equities as well, investing in U.S. capital markets and really building out a more durable story of revenue and engagement that moves beyond simply buy, sell, store or say, crypto, which is obviously very core to the business, but we want to build on that and give our customers more reasons to use Gemini. And we're seeing the beginnings of that. And I think we're really excited to keep doing that. So even if crypto prices do remain depressed for some prolonged period of time, we will be building other products that continue to drive engagement and growth of our business. Ryan Todd: The next question comes from Pete Christiansen at Citi. What is Gemini's OpEx discipline going forward? And has management put in place guardrails that helps ensure eventual profitability at the EBITDA level? Danijela Stojanovic: Thanks for the question, Pete. So OpEx discipline is a core focus for us coming out of the restructuring. We've reset the business to a lower fixed cost base, and we put clear guardrails in place around any incremental spend. So that includes being very selective on headcount growth and tying it directly to revenue or strategic priorities and also continue to manage marketing as a variable lever really based on ROI and market conditions. And so that's a real lever that we can dial up or down depending on market conditions and requiring clear payback threshold for any new investments. And just as importantly, we've become much more focused as an organization, so prioritizing a smaller set of high-impact initiatives and exiting or scaling back areas that just didn't meet our return thresholds. And that really allows us to concentrate our resources and our capital where we have the strongest product market fit and demand. So we believe that the organization is now structured to drive really operating leverage as volumes and engagement recovers. And what's important to add is we don't need to meaningfully re-expand the cost base to achieve our growth target. A lot of the growth from here really comes from just better monetization of our existing user base and also just leveraging the infrastructure that we've already built. So I'd say the right way to think about this is we have a relatively stable OpEx base coming out of the restructuring with modest or highly targeted investments layered on top rather than us returning to a broad-based spending. And if 2025 was the year of investment, I'd say 2026 is really the year of focus and discipline. Ryan Todd: The final question comes from Dan Dolev at Mizuho. Given the regulatory and competitive landscape in crypto and prediction markets, what are the biggest external risks you're managing against in 2026? And what would you point to as your most underappreciated competitive advantage? Cameron Winklevoss: Thanks for the question, Dan. So I think one of the things that we want to talk about is the fact that, obviously, there's a lot of effort to pass a crypto market structure bill. And I think what is very encouraging to see is the SEC and the CFTC in parallel are doing great work to bring about the super app era independent of a bill. And so while we are hopeful that a good bill will ultimately get passed, there is a lot of great work going on at both agencies to create a path for super apps in the event that a bill does not pass for whatever reason. So we believe like the future for crypto in America has never been brighter. And I think that sort of there is a lot of great work being done that we're excited about. I think the second point that I'd like to make is that we are one of the, I think, the few end-to-end prediction marketplaces that also has a crypto marketplace within the same organization. And so we believe there's a lot of synergies for people who want to trade, for example, a Bitcoin event contract, but also be able to trade spot Bitcoin within the same place and hopefully eventually perpetual futures down the road in U.S. equities. And so I think that being an end-to-end marketplace for both predictions and spot as opposed to plugging into another marketplace, we believe that's an advantage for us going forward. Ryan Todd: At this time, there are no more questions. Thank you all for listening, and we'll talk to you soon. Operator: That concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Good afternoon, and welcome to the Spectral AI Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Devin Sullivan, Managing Director of the Equity Group. Please go ahead. Devin Sullivan: Thank you, Gary. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Spectral AI's 2025 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Results Conference Call. Our speakers for today will be Vincent Capone, the company's Chief Executive Officer; and Thomas Speith, our Corporate Controller. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during this call, certain statements made are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the company's strategy, plans, objectives, initiatives and financial outlook. When used in this call, the words estimates, projected, expects, anticipates, forecasts, plans, intends, believes, seeks, may, will, should, future, propose and variations of these words or similar expressions or the negative versions of such words or expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, conditions or results and involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside the company's control that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. As such, listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Investors should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the Risk Factors section of the company's filings with the SEC, including the registration statement and other documents filed by the company. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Vincent Capone, Spectral AI's Chief Executive Officer. Vince, please go ahead. Vincent Capone: Thanks, Devin, and thank you all for joining us today. We issued our earnings release this afternoon, which contains additional details of our operating results. We will also file our 10-K with the SEC later this evening. Today, I will focus my remarks on our year-end review and corporate developments, and our Controller, Tom Spieth, will take us through our key financial metrics. We will then open the conference call up for questions. 2025 was a pivotal year for Spectral AI, in which we made great progress along a number of fronts in support of achieving our primary goal of commercializing the DeepView system for the burn indication. The DeepView system is a diagnostic tool that empowers medical personnel to make quick data-driven decisions regarding whether a burn wound will heal on its own or if it requires significant medical intervention. This currently unmet clinical need is dramatically magnified in the event of a mass casualty burn incident, where the ability to triage burned patients rapidly and properly would be crucial in allocating valuable resources and managing the surgical burden. Our DeepView system is designed to assist the U.S. government in preparing for any such mass casualty event. As many of you may be aware, a hallmark event for our company was the June 2025 submission of our de novo application to the FDA. This submission was the culmination of years of work by our talented, hard-working and dedicated team. Following our submission and as anticipated, we received an additional information notification letter from the FDA, which we timely and completely responded to just earlier this month. We are maintaining an active dialogue with the FDA, and its feedback has been consistent with our expectations. We are hopeful for a positive response from the FDA before the end of the second quarter of this year. Now to give a review of the 2025 year. In March 2025, we completed our burn validation study. This 15-month study represented one of the largest burn trials ever conducted in the United States with data obtained from 164 adult and pediatric patients across 15 burn centers and emergency departments in the United States. In this study, the DeepView system significantly outperformed the clinical judgment of burn physicians. Following our anticipated FDA clearance, we will initiate an outcome study to measure the real-world impact of the DeepView system within the hospital setting. This study will focus on the benefits across patients' journeys and clinician workflows. The results of the burn validation study were submitted as part of our de novo application to the FDA. More broadly, the use of our DeepView system in these burn centers and emergency departments raised awareness of the technology among a larger set of likely users of the device if approval from the FDA is ultimately obtained. By way of scale, in the United States, there are approximately 125 burn centers, 700 trauma centers and 5,400 federal and community hospitals with emergency rooms where the burn patients are most likely to present upon injury. Let me next turn to a discussion regarding our BARDA contract. We have had a long-term significant and strong partnership with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority since 2013. Its support has been instrumental in our product development to date and most notably related to the Project BioShield contract that we signed in September of 2023 with a value of up to $150 million, $55 million of which were awarded at that time as part of the contract's base phase. This BARDA funding has supported product development as well as funding extensive U.S.-based studies to validate our DeepView technology and our AI algorithm in emergency departments, trauma and burn centers. Last week, as we announced, BARDA reaffirmed its commitment to the development of the DeepView system by awarding Spectral AI $31.7 million of advanced funding to accelerate and support additional feature aspects of our innovative AI-driven diagnostic device. In connection with this award, we have also committed to provide an additional $9.7 million to the total overall development costs associated with these advancements. The acceleration of the second phase of our BARDA contract will enable us to expedite further development of the DeepView system, most notably with our total body surface area measurement tool and our EHR integration. Our contract with BARDA upon an FDA approval of our device also includes a provision that will allow BARDA to subsidize an initial sale and distribution of up to 30 DeepView systems in burn centers in key regions across the United States. This contract also allows a further subsidy by BARDA for an additional 140 DeepView systems in burn centers and trauma Level 1 emergency departments across the United States. Internationally, the DeepView systems that we have placed in the United Kingdom have generated positive user feedback. As previously shared, we have obtained UKCA authorization for the burn indication in 2024. In 2026, following a positive FDA determination of our de novo submission, we will be updating our UKCA authorization to include the improved DeepView system as we have submitted it to the FDA. Thereafter, we anticipate initial sales in the U.K., Australia or the Gulf Cooperation Council nations to begin in late 2026 following such UKCA expanded authorization. While there will be a transition phase following our anticipated FDA approval, we will begin commercial activities in earnest in 2026 with our existing manufacturing relationships and expanding our sales team to facilitate the first commercial sales in our company's history. We believe we have a clear strategy to drive rapid market adoption, both inside and outside of our BARDA relationship. I would also like at this time to share some additional information about our handheld device, which we continue to develop as part of our Department of Defense contract through the contracting consortium called MTEC. In late 2025, we signed a no-cost extension of our current Phase II contract to extend it through June 30, 2026. Consistent with our current contract requirement, we anticipate delivering a fully functioning prototype of our handheld device by the end of the second quarter of 2026. After such time, we will also determine if there are any additional scope items that we can complete as part of that contract before the end of the third quarter of 2026. Phase II of the MTEC contract is scheduled to be reviewed and awarded by the end of the fourth quarter of 2026, and we are hopeful that we will be asked to bid on such work. We also anticipate leveraging any approvals at the FDA for our cart-based DeepView system as a predicate to our handheld device. At such time, we will look to obtain a 510(k) approval of our handheld device after receiving approvals for the cart-based DeepView system, currently under review by the FDA. Before turning things over to Tom, I am happy to say that we entered 2026 in the strongest liquidity and financial position in our recent history, and certainly during my tenure with our company. Our cash position of more than $15 million at year-end tripled from December 31, 2024, and we have aligned our operating expense profile with our strategic priorities. This allows us to pursue our growth objectives, both preapproval and hopefully, post approval from a position of strength and with a sufficient cash runway. While I have participated on numerous calls in the past, I also want to recognize that this is my first call as the company's Chief Executive Officer; I want to thank the Board for their continued confidence in me as well as the amazing team of people I am fortunate to work with every day. They are driving our success. I am grateful to lead Spectral to bigger and better things. With that said, I'll now turn over the conference call to Tom for a review of our financial results. Thomas Spieth: Thanks, Vince. As Vince noted, we had a strong year and believe that we have the financial performance in place to continue our R&D efforts and evolve into commercial business. Beginning with the fourth quarter. Research and development revenue for Q4 2025 was $3.8 million, compared to $7.6 million, reflecting the anticipated reduction in research direct labor, clinical trial and other reimbursed study costs relative to 2024, as the company moved closer to completion of the base phase under our contract with BARDA, we call the BARDA PBS contract. Gross margin for Q4 2025 was 39.8% compared to 44.0%, due primarily to a lower percentage of reimbursed direct labor as a component of overall revenue from the BARDA PBS contract. General and administrative expenses in Q4 2025 were $4.0 million, down from $4.5 million in Q4 of 2024, and reflecting lower spend on third-party accounting and legal providers. Net income for Q4 2025 was $0.6 million, or $0.02 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $7.7 million, or a negative $0.41 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2024. Net income in Q4 2025 included a $4 million gain in the fair value of the company's warrant liability as compared to a net loss of $5.4 million. Now we turn to the full year. Research and development revenue decreased to $19.7 million from $29.6 million reflecting the anticipated overall reduction in the company's reimbursed costs associated with the BARDA PBS contract during 2025, following the company's submission of its de novo application to the FDA. Gross margin was stable at 45.4%, compared to 44.9%, reflecting a consistent mix of direct labor as a percentage of the total work performed on the BARDA PBS contract from the prior year. G&A declined to $17.5 million from $19.9 million, reflecting a continued focus on operating efficiencies at the company. Our net loss for the year was $7.6 million, or a negative $0.29 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $15.3 million, or a negative $0.85 per diluted share, primarily due to the change in the fair value of the company's warrant liability, reduced borrowing related costs of $1.5 million, net of amortization of debt discount and improved operating efficiencies. As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately 30.7 million shares outstanding. With respect to our financial condition, as of December 31, 2025, cash improved to $15.4 million from $5.2 million in December 31, 2024, reflecting previously announced debt and equity financings completed during the year as well as warrant and stock option exercises. Total debt was $8.5 million. I will now turn the call back to Vince. Vincent Capone: Thanks, Tom. Before turning things over for questions, I would like to address our 2026 outlook. For 2026, we are forecasting revenue of approximately $18.5 million, which includes the effect of the new BARDA funding. This guidance does not include any significant contributions from the sale of the DeepView system. With that, I will open up the floor to any questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Ryan Zimmerman with BTIG. Ryan Zimmerman: And let me just start by saying congrats on the BARDA funding, and Vince for new role. Maybe as we think about your transition into a commercial organization, this year, Vince, you could talk to us a little bit about kind of how you're thinking about preparing for commercialization, what you need to do to get the organization ready to be a commercial organization and so forth. And then I have a few follow-ups. Vincent Capone: Sure. Good to hear from you, Ryan. So I mean, there's a few things that we're working on in preparation for what we believe will be hopefully, FDA approval. Some of that is, we've already started our search for a new Chief Commercial Officer. We have also engaged Deloitte Consulting to help us with our strategic plan for commercialization moving forward, both in the U.S. and overseas. That is already underway. We continue to have plans in place to expand our sales team. I'd like to do that in concert with the hiring of a new Chief Commercial Officer and that should get us in a position where we're ready to see sales inside and outside of BARDA in late 2026. Ryan Zimmerman: And just to be clear, let's assume that the approval comes on time, the 30 systems that are distributed to burn centers around the U.S. How do you think about the commercial activity that is generated from that? Because if you're not necessarily selling those systems, maybe because, again, BARDA is distributing them. Just how do you think about kind of what that does to the business model? Or how should investors think about that over time? Vincent Capone: We're -- well, so ultimately, each health system will make its own determination on really how they want to treat the device, if we can install it into their facilities, right? Whether it's purchase or lease, it's a different -- it's different from us. It's a different revenue recognition from a company perspective, but we foresee an opportunity for us to be in place with each center that we can place a device at. Hopefully, with a 3-year contract for both improvements in the software, the software licensing, and then the delivery of the device maintenance. So you package that whole thing together. Again, it's going to depend on the health system on how we, as a company, treat that revenue stream, but we think that we're well positioned to see. I don't see that adding a lot to our revenue number for 2026, but that will be obviously significant in 2027. And clearly much so -- much more so in 2028, where you have the layer on of the different -- of all the different levels of installations. Ryan Zimmerman: Okay. And then with this new BARDA contract, which was great to see, we didn't expect -- we certainly did not expect this kind of guidance, which is great, again, very positive to see for 2026. What kind of things are you going to be working on with this additional money from BARDA to enhance DeepView that allows, like I imagine you have to be speeding up some things, maybe pulling forward some opportunities just given the development revenue that you're getting now as part of this contract. And so what does that do for DeepView for sitting here a year from now looking at some of the capabilities and some of the investments you've made over 2026? Vincent Capone: Yes, I love that question. We have so many things that we see as kind of line of sight. We're going to be doing a label expansion. I think that's probably going to be one of the first things you see where we're going to pick up different areas of the body. We'll look to do a label of expansion. We're going to do further work on our TBSA, total body surface area, offering to make it better for the doctors, better for the physician assistants, better for the nurses. That is a process that we've worked on significantly to get it to this point, and it's part of our FDA submission. But the next iteration of that is going to be much better, and the next iteration after that, if there is one, will be even better. So add that into improved EHR integration, I mean, at a minimum, we're also working on things that are -- we've heard from other users. We're going to improve the battery. We're going to improve some of the user interfaces. This refinement, I think, is going to make our device even that much more valuable in a burn center. Operator: The next question is from Carl Byrnes with Northland Capital Markets. Carl Byrnes: Congratulations again on the BARDA advance, particularly prior to DeepView's approval here, and also Vince your promotion in your new role, congrats there. But with respect to the 31.7 BARDA advance, I'm wondering if you can kind of tell us a bit how you expect that to hit in '26 and '27. And the same with respect to the $63 million remaining on the contract or thereabouts in terms of filling Clin2, Clin3, and Clin4, I would call them obligations, but the buckets there over fiscal '26, '27 and '28. I know that's a lot. But any sort of visibility you can give would be awesome. Vincent Capone: Well, I think we're clearly pleased that BARDA was able to accelerate the second phase of the contract for us in advance of FDA approval. They've been a valued and frankly, a very supportive partner for us. This does a number of things for us. It's going to open up the opportunity for us to really begin in -- if we can gain FDA approval to really begin to start manufacturing devices with the new de novo system in place, really start in earnest with hospital systems for the placement of these devices, and that's part of the contract acceleration. I can't get into too many weeds on the terms of the contract as to what it will do in 2028, but we have economic outcome studies that we plan on doing. We have an expanded label work that we're going to do internally for expanding our label on what the indication is for, there's outcome studies that we were going to start in earnest sooner rather than later. All of this is great for us as an acceleration and providing us with getting to the part where we can provide better patient outcomes to burn patients and providing a better alternative so that we can help the health care system be in a position to really treat these patients in a more timely and more efficient manner. Operator: The next question is from Ram Selvaraju with H.C. Wainwright. Raghuram Selvaraju: Just 3 quick ones. Firstly, can you just remind us of the time frame within which you anticipate the entirety of the BARDA funds to ultimately be disbursed? Secondly, I was wondering how you're looking to approach the fine-tuning or revising of revenue guidance as and when the DeepView system achieves FDA licensure. And then lastly, with respect to the potential optimization of DeepView's value outside of the United States. I was wondering if you could perhaps say a few words on that. Vincent Capone: Sure. Happy to do so. Three pretty broad questions, but let's kind of walk through that. The BARDA contract in and of itself, I believe, extends until 2030. But if you take a look at the acceleration that really runs mostly through 2028. So that contract is going to help us with revenue earlier rather than later. And that's the time line for the entire BARDA contract. Ultimately, as things progress, that time line may be moved up, but that's the terms of the BARDA contract in and of itself, but you're going to see an acceleration through 2028. Refining and revising our forecast on revenue. As I said to Ryan, some of this is dependent upon health systems, and how they want to treat the actual deployment of the device. However, they treat it is going to really impact our revenue recognition. But for us, the installation to burn centers is obviously a pivotal event even if it -- even if the revenue is recognized, say, over a 36-month period. But you layer that on with the software licensing piece that is going to benefit them as we make improvements you're going to see that kind of stacking of installations in '27 and 2028 as we move along the continuum of installations, both in burn centers and EDs and Level 1 trauma centers. And that's within and without BARDA. And I'd like to make that point pretty clear. I mean we look to commercialize this in the United States with BARDA's assistance, but not solely exclusively through BARDA's assistance. And that's the same thing with respect to our U.K., our GCC, and our Australian international sale opportunities, we're going to modify our UKCA authorization to expand it to what is in the current DeepView system that's under de novo review with the FDA. And at that point, then we will pivot and look to deploy those devices overseas. And that revenue model may be different, as those health systems and some of them are nationalized, and how they wish to treat the sale of the DeepView systems abroad. Again, I put little stock in those numbers for 2026, they may be larger, but you'll see more of that as a larger component of revenue clearly in 2027 and in 2028. Operator: The next question is from John Vandermosten with Zacks. John Vandermosten: Vince, what does the training force look like? And how will you go about training the trainers for this? Because I assume you're going to have a group go out and get everybody up to speed on how to use them when you do the implementations. Vincent Capone: John, good to hear from you. We have a group of a fairly decent staff of BMEs currently in place here. And we're going to expand there. We have that in the budget for 2026 on expanding both our sales reps, and our biomedical engineers here at Spectral. And it's going to be kind of -- it's going to be in concert with both the BMEs, and our sales force to make sure we get out there and train many of these centers when they take the device, how to use it. The device -- and I know you've seen it, but I'm just going to say it for others that haven't, it's intuitive. And so we have a Q4 to make sure that the image capture is the right distance. And we're working on a number of different additional features to it to make it even more user-friendly. So yes, we're going to need to expand our training force. We plan on that. We plan on expanding our sales force. I'm just excited about where the company ended in 2025. Our cash number is significant. I think, we're in the best financial position we've ever been in, especially during my tenure here, which is now into my fifth year. And so I'm excited with what we have and where we're going, and we'll marry our training force to meet the expansion of where we're going. John Vandermosten: And do you have a number in mind in terms of how many individuals that might be for to train? Vincent Capone: I don't. I mean I have an estimate in my head. We're talking we're talking -- we're not talking hundreds. We're talking a much smaller number than that. But I'm pleased that we're working in concert with Deloitte Consulting to make sure that we have the right path forward. John Vandermosten: Okay. And how much time after clearance do you think you'll need to place the first units? Vincent Capone: John, I wish I had a crystal ball, right? All I know is it's going to take us a little while to manufacture the devices. But my hope, and as we've said this before, my hope is that we place devices in late 2026 and you'll see a significant pivot in 2027. John Vandermosten: And last question is just on looking forward in terms of the allocation of R&D spend. I know you've got snapshot. There are some indications outside of burn. And then also, you've talked about the future evolution of the DeepView cart. And then perhaps, I guess, development of AI technology or just the AI ML side of things, how do you see that breaking down going over the next year, 2027, perhaps and beyond in terms of that R&D spend. Vincent Capone: Well, I will tell you that we're definitely going to do a label expansion with head, hands and feet. I mean that's definitely going to be there. We've looked at a different -- a number of different opportunities for us. A number are being presented to us from third parties. I think the lowest hanging fruit will be the label expansion, the work on that. There may be another indication, whether it is critical limb ischemia and things related to that, whether it's amputations, or whether we partner with, maybe a wound bed - a wound company to check biofilm markers or wound bed preparedness we continue to see that as a near-term additional indication. But look, we're excited on where we ended up 2025. We're excited about BARDA's commitment to us with an additional 30 -- almost $32 million. We're excited to bring this to the burn community, and then expanding thereafter. Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Vince Capone for any closing remarks. Vincent Capone: Gary, thanks. In closing, I would like to again thank our investors for their continued support of our company. I'm excited to deliver on our commitment to develop and commercialize our DeepView system, which we believe will significantly improve patient outcomes. With our strong cash position and continued advances in our product development, I am pleased with where we are to date and where we are going in the near future. Thank you all for your attendance and interest in our company. Have a good evening. Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.