Well, if you weren't awake before, hopefully you are now all awake. I certainly am. Listen, it's great to see you all here today, and welcome to Saatchi & Golden Square. Last time I saw a number of you was in April, when I'd been three weeks into the role of Chief Exec. I'm now five months into this role. You can see I'm still counting in weeks and months. My goodness me, it's been an exciting and interesting five months, and we'll talk about our half year results obviously shortly. I just wanted to make a few overarching comments though to begin with. We're living in a world, and I know this sounds trite, of just unprecedented change. We have aligned with huge geopolitical uncertainty. We have two wars, none of which show any signs of concluding peacefully in the near future, sadly.
Oil prices today stand at $100 still a barrel. We have inflationary pressures, we have likely interest rate rises, and a cost of living crisis that shows no signs of abating. Alongside all of those challenges is the world of AI and technology, and none of us can keep pace with what AI is managing to achieve. But what we all know is that it's fundamentally changing business models, and it is also fundamentally changing routes to profitability. This is the stage which this group is standing on, alongside all other industries and sectors, and these are the headwinds that we are constantly trying to meet and respond to. Simon will talk through the detail of this, but I just wanted to give a couple of headline points.
I've been meeting colleagues from some of my past in the audience today where I've done work in film and television. I've also done work in football, and I'm going to use a football analogy, if I may, just for a moment, which is this first half is a story of two quarters. The first quarter, continuing challenges as we really look to reset ourselves as we move forward. In the second quarter, what we've started to see is an improvement in like-for-like growth, continuing strong margin growth in our Performance & Issues business. I'm also pleased to say we're seeing growth in Advertising across U.K., Europe, and the U.S., and really notable wins across geographies and disciplines. There's a little reference in this corner here, Great British Railways.
We're going to talk about some of these others, and obviously Simon will talk further about the detail, but Great British Railways is probably the largest infrastructure change this country has seen in decades. It is bringing all of the railway companies together in one entity, and Saatchi is delighted that it is the agency of choice to work with GBR as it forges this new and exciting future. Let me say a few things that I've been trying to do during these early months of my journey as the Chief Executive here. The first, and one of our real, my sort of constant refrain is about growth and simplification. We've dealt with a subscale business in Malaysia, and it's now on a franchise model. The Australian Advertising business, as we all know, has been a real challenge over many, many years. We're now migrating those clients.
Also what I am pleased to say is that our Australian Issues business that works with governments is continuing to grow. Fundamentally, the work that we have all been involved with is how we have empowered the leadership, the executive leadership in this business. Not only to run their businesses, to share in the collective endeavor of how we shape strategy, in this very challenged marketplace, but also how we win, how we win pitches, how we increase the scope of work with our existing clients, and how we hunt down new opportunities. Everyone at the leadership table is involved in that. That is their prime motivation. How do we grow? I count myself in that I am also involved in how do we grow and how do we win pitches and how do we win new clients.
Aligned with that mission is really our DNA, which is this is a massively creative company. It is. There are so many talented people, and one of the things we have been working on is how do we unlock their creative voices to ensure they bring the best of their creative selves to those pitches and help secure wins. You will see some examples of that work later on in this agenda. Of course, as I mentioned at the beginning, no presentation is complete without us mentioning AI, data, and tech. We have recently brought together a new transformation team with deep expertise in this area to accelerate our growth in this space. I would like to give you one example of work we have already done with how we are deploying AI-enabled tools to really power our work with clients.
This is an award we won for the Media specialism recently. We have built a really fantastic suite of tools enabling our clients to redeploy their investment and also really helping in terms of execution. What is, I think sometimes gets lost in the conversation around AI, data, and tech, it is the relationship between human creativity and intelligence and how AI enables us to deploy those plans much more effectively. You need both working together. It is how do we upweight our creative, our human intelligence at our leadership level. When I say leadership, I mean across leadership, across many layers in this business. How does our AI support that execution?
That relationship is constantly shifting and changing. It is how do we continue to learn, but it is fundamental to a creative agency such as ourselves. This is a great example of work that is already in play, and we will talk further. Finally, I just want to mention myself. As I said, I am five months in. There is more work that we need to do together. I will be continuing to do that work over the forthcoming future.
Let me hand over to Simon, who will now give you the full detail.
Well, thanks very much, Heather, and good morning, everyone. Good to see you today. Thanks very much. We are very grateful that you have come along to listen to our update on the business. Heather has already described that the market context continues to be characterized by uncertainty, and that is not just for us, that is also for our clients. Despite those volatile conditions, our strategic and operational focus remains consistent. That is about driving momentum through our growth businesses. That is about simplifying our model in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness, and that is about unlocking intrinsic value for our shareholders. To demonstrate that, we would like to step through our half year results and our outlook.
Well, as expected, given the year-on-year shape and the annualization effect of the global tariff disruptions, Q1 was a predictably slower start to the year. As Heather has already referred to, with marked improvement in Q2, when we returned to low single digit like-for-like growth as a group. This meant net revenue overall for the half was down 1.4%, which was a significant improvement on 2025's full year negative of -7.3%. I will cover in more detail the subcomponents of that performance in the next few slides, both by region and by specialism. The overall shape of our performance very much fits with the market context. The Middle East was our weakest region. More project-based businesses like Consulting and Sports and Entertainment were more challenged.
However, we saw strong structural growth in both Issues and Media. Operating profit was down year-on-year by GBP 2.9 million to GBP 6.2 million on a like-for-like basis. Notably, this reduction was almost all in Q1, with Q2 in aggregate close to flat. Subsequently, we have moved into year-on-year growth as revenue has strengthened and cost programs more than offset any modest targeted investment. Net cash was down GBP 6.2 million versus a year ago, with GBP 2.2 million of share buybacks as at the 30th of June. A further GBP 1 million as at today. We also saw a temporary working capital outflow of approaching GBP 6 million, with half two always seasonally stronger with performance Media and production. So full year we target to be back into net cash of double digit millions.
Almost half of our business now is made up by Issues which covers our government and public sector clients and our performance Media business, almost half of our business now. Both of these drove strong growth with Issues at 9.3% like-for-like and Media at 9.9% like-for-like, and with Q2 a strengthened trajectory. Passions & PR, which is our Sports and Entertainment business, was strongest in Europe and strongest in the sports component. However, there was a weaker overall delivery in the U.S. and the U.K. and reductions in the entertainment component, particularly in the alcohol segment, which drove the negative result. After a tougher few years, and you might remember we have talked about this, our Talk PR business in the U.K. has had some really encouraging recent wins, including the Frasers Group.
Consulting, which has a higher mix of projects alongside rather less retained work, continues to see some volatility, but even that within its sub-elements has some really encouraging performance. You might remember that within Consulting we have data, strategy, brand, and creative, and the data and strategy sides we are seeing good progress. Finally, we saw encouraging signs, and Heather's already referred to this, in Advertising, and that is across our largest markets, the U.K. and the U.S. We often remind stakeholders of this, but Advertising in 2026 is principally digital. Within this line, there is a wide array of services that we provide all the way through from being JPMorgan Chase's global social agency in the U.S. and now further into the U.K.
Also including our continued work with Screwfix and the Olympian Mo Farah, who you may have seen on your TVs in the U.K. It is a wide array of services, and we are encouraged by moving that into growth. Excluding the Middle East, which is our UAE business, Advertising was in mid-single digit growth for the half, and at GBP 23.5 million of net revenue, it is still our second largest specialism. This next picture is our regional matrix of revenue. It is the same revenue just cut into regions. What it demonstrates is that our largest region, which is the U.K., and which offers our full array of services and is our most mature market, was in growth. It is up 5.9% to GBP 52.6 million.
Importantly, and you can check this out if you look back at previous presentations, importantly, that business is now bigger than it was in 2024 before all of the tariff and other global market disruption. Outside of the U.K., the U.S.'s growth in Media and Advertising was not sufficient to offset those declines in Consulting and S&E, which I have mentioned. EMEA's decline was principally down to the Middle East, again, which I have already talked about. Europe is showing improved momentum. We have got some fantastic clients across the business, but also in Europe, we work with, for example, Lidl, which is a growing and sizable client for us in Germany. We work with Ferrari in Italy. We have got some brilliant brands and clients, and we are seeing growth with them.
In APAC, which now excludes Australia, we saw a flat performance. As already noted, the GBP 2.9 million reduction in like-for-like operating profit was around 90% driven by Q1's negative like-for-like and cost annualization. As the half has progressed, and as we have moved now into half two, we have seen a momentum shift in profit delivery as Media and Issues growth has accelerated and other half one and prior year cost actions have flowed through. As signaled in the RNS, on a full year basis, we expect like-for-like profit to increase in line with market expectations.
Let me move on to talk about cash. Compared to our year-end position, net cash reduced by GBP 11 million or GBP 6.2 million versus the same time last year. As those familiar with the business will recall, half one is the seasonally weaker cash generator, and the effect of this was part exacerbated by one-off costs relating to Australia and leadership restructuring, the latter of which will drive savings in half two and beyond. Operating working capital was an outflow of GBP 5.7 million, which is expected to reverse in H2, part helped by Media and production seasonality. Cash focus in the business is strong, and we continue to navigate an uncertain market.
Finally, we saw the cash impacts of our share buyback, which was about GBP 2 million, with a further GBP 1 million in half two as the program reaches completion. The possibility of a further program remains under board review. For completeness, we do provide a reminder of our capital allocation priorities. They are unchanged to what we've shared previously. I'll just remind everyone, therefore, that most important is about driving organic growth. It's the top of our list of priorities across our focused specialisms and our regions. That is underpinned by a number of structural enablers, for example, our capital light model, as laid out on the right-hand side of the slide.
In conclusion, my last slide, outlook. We expect to experience the continued negative impact of the Middle East conflict and reduced project spend in Consulting and S&E, but we are very encouraged by the Q2 exit and early H2 performance. Given this, we anticipate a strengthening revenue, operating profit, and cash flow to drive a full year improvement on a like-for-like basis, as is reflected in the market numbers.
Now I'd like to pass back to Heather to detail our unique market position and the opportunities to leverage this in half two and beyond. Thank you very much for listening.
Thank you, Simon. He gets the hard part. I wish I could find another word for unique. I'll work on it. I'm sure if I ask Claude, he'll give me or she will give me a clue, but I don't like asking Claude. We do have a really special market position. It is a market position, actually, that's been earned over decades of being a really independent business. We have worked at government, at public policy, and in the commercial world for decades. We have years of data insights about what really prompts behavioral change. What we're really trying to do now is to use that history, use that insight as we superpower our offer to clients going forward.
W e are constantly now looking at how data, our infrastructure, and how we connect creativity drive all of this expertise, but particularly working in a really collaborative way. That's a culture that we're really fostering. I begin to see real green shoots, and I'll give a couple of examples. One, there was earlier mention of Dawson. Dawson is a very large U.S. real estate player. Our Middle East colleagues have real deep experience of real estate. They came together to work on an integrated pitch, which we won. We're also being able to take some of our understanding, our data with long-standing clients and increasing the scope, such as JPMorgan and Ferrari. I'll come back and give you, talk a bit more about JPMorgan . This is a slide we've shared before.
It is about what really holds these two worlds together. It is the world of culture. If you were to go to any conversation with our colleagues and our peers in this sector, everybody's talking about how do brands live in culture? How do they take advantage of culture? How do they still feel relevant and sustainable in culture, in cultures that are hugely disrupted? That is the work that we have been doing in Saatchi. We've talked about some of the work we've been doing on Return on Cultural Power. That harnessed with our decades of insight, we believe gives us a really special offering in the current marketplace. If we were to just move forward. Here's a real example. JPMorgan , long-standing client. We engaged in a conversation about that whole way in which you leverage your position in culture.
We won this piece of work, which was reigniting the American dream, leveraging a cultural moment to create cultural power. This is a classic example of the work that springs out of that understanding I've just mentioned. On the other side, this point about culture, everybody talks about it. You go into, we've doubled our U.K. government wins in 2026 as we've talked about creativity and integration. We've just opened a new office in Berlin as we start to work with more European member states. This is how we constantly connect these two worlds. What is also connecting them, apart from the data, the insight, the quality of the work, is the creativity and what we can now bring to bear.
Let me show you an example of that in action. We did for teachers, a major recruitment campaign across all platforms, whether it be social, television, posters, a real moment. The ads were run during the World Cup. Let's just play the ad now.
[Presentation]
Whilst the main teacher is a professional dancer, many of the other people are all teachers. All the people on the posters are real-world teachers. It has been a great campaign, been really successful in pulling more and more people into a really important and valuable profession. Issues is a great example of work we do at government level. HUGO BOSS is a fantastic example of what we do in a commercial world. It was a joint win, and again, another really good collaboration between Sport & Entertainment, between U.K., U.S., and Europe to become the agency of record for BOSS , unifying their communication strategy, working across fashion, sport, art, culture, digital customer engagement, and again, crucially important, how we leveraged our data stack and data-driven consumer insights to win this gig.
Again, a real great example of the work that we are being able to do as we work in a much more integrated way, constantly connecting our offer across the geographies and across specialisms. Finally, as we said, we are working on a dual engine approach. Engine 1 is very much how do we put in AI and agentic, an agentic level that really helps drive the process. This is a good example. These are planning frameworks that really help our clients Grab, which our performance media team work on. Much more exciting is Engine 2. How do we really now upscale our IP development and our productization based on all of those years of insight that we have across both the public and system realm.
Here we have used deployed AI, but actually it has been human-directed creativity to really drive the production on these media outlets here. What we are always looking to do now is improve the processes and then adapt AI to enable us to really drive IP and productization, which we believe will gain future value for the business. Then finally, I think we are seeing some early signs of improved business momentum, as both Simon and I have talked about. There are really strong underlying fundamentals of this business. It is a great business with huge heritage. We have simplified the structure. It is absolutely about empowering the voice of creativity, harnessed by AI, but not replaced by AI. With all of these working together, we continue to focus on how we unlock value.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, and we will now take questions. Hello. Do you want to. Right. Okay. You first and then you. Do you want to just say who you are and where you are from?
Thanks. Will Larwood from Berenberg. In the statement, you talk about investing in the growth areas within your business. Just if you could help us quantify that, particularly into 2027 as well, and how we should expect the margin to evolve going forward. Secondly, obviously, you talk about simplifying the group in terms of Australia being deconsolidated now and you have sold Malaysia and doing that through a license. What sort of other restructuring can we expect, or is this now that you are focused on the core markets?
Thirdly, just in terms of the Middle East, obviously a bit of a drag in some of your specialisms. How much confidence do you have that we've then reached the bottom in that market, and there's not going to be any further drag in there?
I'm a prophet, didn't you know? Let me take that last question first, and Simon will ask your first question. I'll take your last and your second. Look, the Middle East, it's obviously going through an incredibly challenging period, and none of us know. We all hope the conflict would've ended. When we were last here in April, we were hopeful that there would've been a settlement, and here we are today, and there isn't one. However, as we speak today, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is still going to go ahead. Dubai Airport has reported it's not fully back, but almost back to the volumes it saw before. We are seeing ongoing investment into the real estate in the region, people still buying off-plan. Indeed, we're seeing other opportunities. It's not straightforward. We still don't know what's going to happen.
Do I think it's reached the bottom? I really don't know. Nor does anybody. I would hazard a guess, but maybe you'll find somebody who's much more expert in those global politics than myself. But ultimately, we have confidence in this region, and we can see why we have confidence by the examples I've just given. In terms of restructuring, I believe that we've completed the restructures in terms of the subscale entities and Australia. As I've said, Issues is very strong in the Australian market, and we will obviously continue to support that work there. But fundamentally, we're focused in obviously U.K., Europe, and the U.S., and we will continue on that trajectory.
In terms of the leadership, I think we've now simplified the leadership in a way that I think accords with our mission around growth and how we're driving our data and AI agenda. Question one.
Yeah. Just the other small item on the simplification of the group is we have talked about there may be a few more small geographies that are more appropriate for a license. We have already publicly disclosed that previously. We have got a very small business in Pakistan, for example, a small business in India. Those will remain under review as to what is the best go-to market, because sometimes applying the same operating model in the U.S. and in Pakistan may not be appropriate, so we just look at what is the best model. In terms of the first question around investing in growth areas, for both our growing Issues and Media businesses, that tends to be growth that then requires investment because we effectively put in the resource behind the revenue growth.
We do not tend to have to move ahead of the revenue, so it does not tend to have a sort of negative impact on the margin. The exception to that is where we have built capability. For example, we have over the last few years been really investing in our Issues securitization and data stack capabilities, some of their tools, their technology tools, and that has really put us in a position where we believe that that unit has some really unique capabilities worldwide, let alone in the geographies we currently operate worldwide. We think that is unique. The same within the Media business.
We have been investing, for example, in some of those AI tools, where, as Heather mentioned, we have got the combination of human intelligence to work out how do we reduce someone's cost per acquisition, or how do we think about a campaign that enables them to have a higher level of app downloads, like with Grab, it is an app-based business, or Gopuff in the U.S., it is an app-based business. We think about how do we optimize their business, but then technology helps us to flight that campaign and do that really accurately and make sure it is on time and has low error rates.
That is another example of that sort of human and machine. But those investments have been effectively within the P&L. There is not sort of big one-off requirements for those. We have been able to manage those on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, we think the strong margin characteristics of both our performance and Issues businesses will be retained.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Morning. Steve Liechti from Deutsche Bank Numis . Yeah. Can I have three? One is just on the first quarter and second quarter like-for-like and the kind of momentum into the third quarter, can I push you to give us some harder numbers to help bring that alive between those? Also just remind us, we hit a really easy comp in the fourth quarter. Kind of give us some sensitivity on that one, sorry, fourth quarter for the like-for-like.
Yeah.
Second question is, given we've just done six, let's say, a profit in the first half, I don't know where consensus has landed, but let's say you need to do between 15 and 20 to get to sort of consensus now in the second half. Just give us some building blocks to help us get conviction that you can do that. Overall. The third question is more general. One of the things the big agency holding companies are trying to deal with us analysts about is the shift in the model. AI is giving you, in theory, a lower cost per content unit and a better ROI for customers, which implies customers may pay you less for the same work.
What are you seeing, and how are you adjusting your business model to reflect this new? If it is reality or not.
Shall I just make a comment on that last piece before you.
Perfect. No, I will come to you after.
I mean, as you say, this is a fundamental conversation that all of us are involved in. It speaks to whether the model needs to shift. I think what is crucially important, I try to allude to this in the course of my presentation, there are two challenges, a rush to the bottom because you do not need 10 people anymore, you need one and a group of agents. Or a rush to the middle, where AI actually gives forth a whole range of ideas, but they are often you are in the middle of the pack. I think what we are trying to do here is what I have just been talking about, is actually to say that the human intelligence and the creativity that we are bringing to bear still commands a premium in the market.
Yes, we can execute differently with the use of AI and data insights, but actually, you still need that really powerful creative and human intelligence. That is the work that we are constantly talking with our clients around. Ultimately, I am sure there are going to be more fundamental structural changes. We know some of our colleagues in the big holding companies, for example, will roll in for free some of their services. That is not a place that we are at, nor would we want to be at. We really want our people, our creativity, and our strategic insights to be valued by our clients. So far in the work we are winning, we are continuing to see that.
Yeah.
Can I just pick up on one point there? Sorry. Because you mentioned the kind of effectively bundling, which[crosstalk].
That you see elsewhere.
Yeah, elsewhere. Which some people might say is the same as integration and an integrated offering. I am trying to distinguish in my head what you are saying.
I think there is bundling where you offer certain services for no charge as opposed to having an integrated offer, where you have a whole range of disciplines that you are bringing to bear on any one client request, all of which command their own fees and price point. That is the difference. Okay.
Okay. If I start with the Q1, Q2, and then ongoing like-for-like shape question. I mentioned it in my part of the presentation, Q1 was mid-single digit negative like-for-like, so let us call that -5%. We saw improvement into Q2 of what I called early positive single digits. Let us call that +2%. So that is the swing. We have seen about a 7% swing between Q1 and Q2, and what we have seen into Q3 is a further improvement from that, so moving more positive. I mean, you mentioned Q4. I do not think any business at the moment would describe their numbers as being easy. But putting aside the fact that that word was used, look, we definitely get a benefit in Q4 from the fact that we had a shutdown in the U.S.
For those who are familiar with the story, you will remember this, but for those who are not, I will just remind you. There was an unprecedented U.S. shutdown last year, 43 days. It meant that from the 1st of October for 43 days, we were not able to do a series of work in the U.S. government, in the U.S. business. What that meant was not only did we have a reduction in revenue, but we also had a reduction in profit because those people that did that work were ongoing in the business. It is not as if they left the business, and they picked up the work on day 44 and beyond. But it meant that we had that sort of hiatus. That both hit our revenue and our profitability in Q4.
Now, no one has got a crystal ball about the combination of midterms and possible shutdowns and what is going to happen in the U.S. administration. None of us have got a crystal ball. But we do not forecast for that event, therefore, on the assumption that that does not beat the previous record, then obviously we get some favorability of that year-on-year. Look, the client has taken some steps to preempt what would happen if there was another period of shutdown. For example, pre-funding projects, for example, that you can do legitimately within the frameworks. Look, in terms of half one versus half two profit building, we always have a seasonal shape half one, half two. I mean, historically in the business, that has been sort of 40/60. More recently, it is probably been more like 35/65.
It is a bit increased by this shutdown point I mentioned because that in effect, we lost the revenue, and it was an almost 100% flow-through into profit. We described at the time that that was GBP 3 million to GBP 4 million sort of impact, so you can obviously do the maths of that. We think there will be some drag on profitability from that continued Consulting, and Sport & Entertainment challenge that I have mentioned in the Middle East. But going the other way, we have got that growth in Advertising, that growth in our Media business, that growth in Issues which are our higher margin businesses. We think those sort of help to sort of neutralize one another out.
I mean that that combination, that seasonal shape, the Issues improvement, and then the momentum that we are seeing come back into the business, that is what drives the sort of bridge half one, half two.
Yep.
Morning. Thank you for the presentation. It is Roddy Davidson from Singer. Two to three things, one of which builds on some of the questions asked already. Just a little bit more granularity, if you can, on the cost savings that have yet to come through, and whether there are any other specific initiatives that we should look at in H2. Also, just wondering if you are able to give any kind of color on the Australia business with regard to the fact that the MBO was not able to achieve funding, and if that has any implications for the quality of earnings as you migrate clients. Finally, I mean, one of the things you talked about is clearly a big part of the agenda is unlocking that intrinsic value in the business.
The other way of doing that is obviously considering M&A, in terms of things that might be attractive to external buyers. Is the board or how actively is the board considering that issue as well? Thank you.
Okay. If I take your last question, the board is currently not considering anything in terms of M&A. We obviously stay open on an opportunistic basis. If there was something that we thought was particularly exciting that built some of the capabilities faster than we are currently able to do ourselves, we may consider it, but there is not anything actively under consideration as we speak. In terms of cost saving, we have obviously been involved in some fundamental shifts in our cost structure. I do not think there is any business in the current age of disruption that would say it is at an end. I think as we deploy AI capability, we will constantly need to keep it under review.
What we do feel is that the fundamental shape of the business feels about right now, and the leadership and how we are trying to work on that collaborative culture. I think we have tried to push that as a reset button as we look to grow our clients in the future. Simon?
Yeah. I mean, just to endorse what Heather has just said on the cost savings. We have had a number of programs over a number of years, starting in 2022, simplifying our operation, bringing together the global network. Most recently, some of those efficiencies and savings have been about where we have gone through some of the transformation stages. It means that we can now de-duplicate layers between the groups and our end markets. That has meant that we have been able to simplify some of the group structures that needed to lead some of that transformation, because now we have enabled the regions and the specialisms to run with that from here onwards. Whether that be some of the creative work, some of the strategy work, we have been able to sort of de-duplicate.
Some of that was done in half one, and therefore will be a flow-through into half two. I mean, it is meaningful. It is more than GBP 1 million of ongoing savings, multimillion pounds. That is just an example of, whilst that is not about bringing the group together in a different way, it is about the fact that we continue to evolve and simplify. That is a good example. The other thing we still think there is a big opportunity is our global production. We have done a lot of work on that, but we still think there is more we can do to keep more production in-house and use our global capabilities in the Middle East and the U.S. and U.K., Europe, to do more of that work within the group.
Because we now operate as a whole network rather than just individual regions doing their own thing, we can move work around the group much more flexibly than we ever used to be able to, and Heather has given some examples of that with people like Dawson and so on. Look, on the U.S. business and the MBO, it is a regret that it did not proceed. We worked hard to try and move that to success. I mean, ultimately, it could not move forwards on deals that were acceptable, on terms that were acceptable to both parties, and that was regrettable. We are looking after clients. We are making sure the transition is smooth. We are looking after colleagues in terms of treating them in the right way.
Whilst it is a regrettable outcome, we are doing it, I think, in the right way. Ultimately, as Heather has mentioned, we have got a number of big businesses still in Australia. World Services is a big business in Australia. We still work in our Media business with Amazon Australia as one of their export markets. It is not that we are not present in the region. It is just that Advertising part of the business which has concluded.
Yes.
Hi, morning. It's Jessica Pok from Peel Hunt. I've got three, please.
Three, the magic three today. Okay.
It's the analyst way. I mean, you've had quite a good momentum of client wins of late. Obviously, it's going to bode well for the rest of the year. Can you just talk, it's early days, but can you talk a little bit about how we should think about early start of next year or into Q1, maybe into Q2? Are some of these new wins work which phases into next year? The second one is just on UAE. I mean, one of the impacts were mostly about cancellation of events.
Yeah.
Events normally take a, there's a lead time for events. Does that mean events in the UAE that you participate in or help in for 2027 is definitely a no-go? Or is it actually there is still a chance that some of these events will go through next year, and there could be a you might beat what people have expected in their numbers. The final one is just on incentives. Can you remind us, because you have had more and more pitches which are integrated or connected, what are the incentives in terms of are there incentives in place to kind of make sure that more parts of the business are used when you do go in for major pitches?
Okay. If I try and address maybe your first two points and pick up the last one, Simon. I think we are increasingly feeling confident about an emerging strong pipeline. It is all about conversion, though. As I remind everybody, this is a hits business. What we are looking to do is to increase our chances of success. Clearly, some of the work that we have already won will flow through into 2027. We continue, obviously, every day, we are involved in pitches for both this year and for next year. I think what I am increasingly feeling confident is on our abilities to execute and, as I said, really pull together that data insight and AI enablement that every client wants with that sort of human intelligence and creativity.
On the Middle East, it is interesting that they have not canceled the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It is probably too early to say what could stay in the 2027 calendar or not. I think, as we get towards the end of this year, and whether we see any signs of the war abating, that will be obviously hugely defining. As I said, there are other opportunities in the Middle East that we continue to work on, but it is an emerging picture.
Yeah. Heather mentioned this just on, to finish on the U.A.E., Heather mentioned this, but one of our biggest specialisms in the region or capabilities in the region is in the world of real estate. That gives a view of how people think about the region in the next three to five years. Because, as Heather has mentioned, people are buying off-plan and investing in new developments on that sort of timescale, and the key point is they are still investing. There are still new build campaigns. There are people buying off-plan on the assumption that within three to five years, it will be much more normalized. I am just using that as a barometer of how people are thinking about the region.
Now, what happens between year zero and three is a bit crystal ball stuff, to use Heather's phrase earlier. But clearly there's a lot of work being done by local business and the local government to show that the region is open for business and is a well-controlled, well-managed region, and that will help to give people confidence to come back, as seen in hotel occupancy and flights and so on. In terms of our incentives, we do have regional incentive programs, so it looks at the region's performance against its budget. Then they ladder up to a group overall requirement, if you like. Everyone understands their bit in the story, but they also understand that they need to help the group achieve its position.
T hat's the gating that both encourages people to deliver their local performance, but also understand that if they collaborate with another region or if they work across specialisms, that is also helping to enter the gate of the overall scheme. We've tried to design it that it both encourages that collaborative working as well as making sure people feel local accountability.
I work in film, and one of the first things I said to the ELT is, remember that great speech when he goes into the Colosseum? You've obviously all watched "Gladiator," right? And he says, "We work together as a team, we survive." That's what we do. We work together to survive and grow. That's the mantra. Any other questions, ladies and gentlemen? No? It's a great pleasure to see you all. Please help yourselves to coffee, teas, pastries, and I will see some of you in the course of the day. Thanks very much indeed.
Thank you.