Dear ladies, gentlemen, and investors;

Our profitability indicators were impacted by a sluggish market environment. In this context, we are actively stepping up the deployment of synergies, accelerating cost rationalization, to return to higher levels of profitability as soon as possible. Having successfully completed the major acquisition of NTW in Japan, we are also announcing the acquisition of François Frères, enabling the Group to achieve an immediately accretive transaction and to integrate our principal intermediary and long-standing business partner into our structure. The implementation of our operating levers, the success of our external growth policy and the synergy potential of our recent acquisitions, will enable us to take full advantage of the upturn in business. We are confident of achieving our sales and profitability targets.