Welcome to the Carmila first half 2026 results presentation. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers, Marie Cheval, Chair and CEO, Sébastien Vanhoove, Deputy CEO, and Pierre-Yves Thirion, CFO. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our first half results presentation. Operational performance this semester continued to be very strong, both in terms of growth and profitability. We are in a position to upgrade the full year guidance and report an increase in the value of our portfolio. Today, I will start with the key takeaways. Sébastien will deep dive into our three growth engines. Pierre-Yves will take you through the financials.
Let me begin with the key messages. This was a very strong first half. I want to be clear, it is not a one-off. It is a continuation of a track record we have built year after year. Behind is the same engine, our ability to transform our assets. First, we are upgrading our 2026 guidance on the back of operational outperformance and our new acquisition.
Second, momentum was strong across our three growth engines. Organic growth, with net rental income up 1.4%, boosted by recovered tenant demand and by strong momentum in Spain. Investment growth with the immediately accretive acquisition of Grand Quetigny . Innovation growth contributing EUR 40 million with our new Retail Media offering now being deployed.
Third, asset transformation is driving excellent operational performance, record leasing activity, strong retailer sales, and rising portfolio valuation. Fourth, the strength of our balance sheet provides efficiency and opportunity with net debt at 7.3 x EBITDA and a EPRA LTV of 39.3%. Fifth, we continue to create value for shareholders through disciplined capital allocation. We completed EUR 20 million of buybacks in the first half. Net profit per share rose 3.3%. In short, a very strong half. Above all, the continuation of a proven model powered by asset transformation.
These takeaways are grounded in strong operational and financial performance. We signed 530 leases. This is our highest ever volume of leasing activity with reversion of 2.8% above indexation and occupancy held at a high 96%. That fed directly into financial performance. EBITDA margin of 80.8%, up 80 basis points on last year, and gross asset value up 2.6% like for like. Strong operations translating into strong returns. As you know, our performance is powered by three engines.
Organic growth, net rental income up 1.4%, driven by strong retailer demand, asset transformation, and once again, 100 basis points above indexation. Investment growth this half was marked by the acquisition of Grand Quetigny, adding 1% to recurring earnings on an annualized basis. Innovation growth, EUR 13.7 million of recurring earnings, up 13% year-on-year with Retail Media now live and high demand for Specialty Leasing.
Three engines all firing. Why do retailers choose our centers? Shopping centers are winning share. They outperform overall consumption and that includes the convert. In a world where the cost of acquiring a customer online has more than doubled, a store is the most efficient channel. Add to that genius scarcity, no new greenfield supply is being built, and consumers who are looking for experience and social interaction.
That combination is exactly what our leading shopping centers offer. We operate a European platform of 250 assets across France, Spain, and Italy, worth nearly EUR 7 billion. At its core are 80 leading shopping centers. They make up 80% of that total value and are the primary driver of our performance. Alongside them, a resilient network of 170 convenience centers anchors us in an everyday local life. I want to insist on these leading shopping centers.
These 80 leading shopping centers are perfectly positioned to capture retail growth. They sit in the most dynamic region of our three countries, in attractive catchment areas with strong economic and demographic growth. They host around 70 top-tier brands. Occupancy is above 97%, and they are where we scale our innovations, Specialty Leasing, Retail Media, and Next Tower. We lead in the regions with the strongest growth, delivering highly scalable performance right across the portfolio.
This performance is not accidental. It is built through asset transformation. How do we do that? Merchandising mix, 50 restructuring projects a year, and reinforcing the customer experience. We consistently grow organic recurring income above indexation. As the chart shows, we have done this year after year, and in the first half again, 100 basis points ahead of inflation. The same transformation drivers lifted our portfolio value by 2.6%.
The operational picture is strong across all three countries. Group footfall was up nearly 1%, and retailer sales up 2.3%. The standout is Spain, where retailer sales rose 6.6% and the occupancy cost ratio remains healthy at around 11%, which means our tenants are profitable and there is room for further rental growth. On investment growth, we acquired Grand Quetigny for EUR 45 million. It's a deal that ticks every box.
First, it's a leading asset with strong fundamentals and a natural fit for our leading shopping centers portfolio. 4.2 million visitors a year, 66 stores, and a dominant position in its local market. Second, we have identified exactly where the Carmila platform can add value through higher occupancy, reversion, and asset transformation. The result is immediate equity, adding 1% to recurring earnings. On innovation, our third engine.
This is where Retail Media stands out, and it rests on something advertisers truly value: data. We are unlocking Europe's deepest transactional data. We are pairing over 600 million annual visits with Carrefour first-party data and JCDecaux co-expertise. We give advertisers something they can't find anywhere else, which is the ability to target precisely and to measure real impact all the way through to sales. That's exactly why our first clients, brands like Ferrero and Heineken, are already advertising across our 900 new digital screens.
For Carmila, it's high value, high margin, and we expect Retail Media to contribute up to 2% of EBITDA. All this leads to our guidance upgrade. Organic outperformance and cost efficiency are extending our EBITDA margin. Our net buyer strategy is attractive, and innovation is accelerating. Together, they take our 2026 recurring EPS guidance to EUR 1.87, up 3% on last year and above our initial guidance of EUR 1.84. With that, I'll hand over to Sébastien to take you through the detail.
Thank you, Marie. Let me take you deeper into our three growth engines and the record leasing activity behind it. This was our busiest ever half year for leasing, 530 leases signed. That reflects real record demand from retailers, with reversion up 2.8% and occupancy at 96%. The default rate of 10.9% tells us tenants remain healthy and profitable.
Just as important is the quality of demand. We are welcoming the leaders in the most dynamic categories that are health and beauty, sport, fashion, food, leisure, and the fast-growing Asian taste concepts. When the best brands choose us, it's the clearest signal of how centers appeal. This demand is what lets us do what Carmila does best, transform our assets. Through restructuring projects, we drive incremental rental growth. In the first half, we approved 39 projects at a 9% yield and cost.
Let me now show you three examples that capture what we do. In Toulouse Labège, Zara first place grew to three times its original size, creating a 3,400 sq meter flagship. The impact was immediate. Footfall up 7%. That's 130,000 additional visits versus last year. A stronger anchor makes the whole center stronger. In Rennes Cesson, we did something different. We turned an underused parking area into a 7,000 sq meter leisure complex with Speed Park and Fort Boyard Adventures.
The result, footfall up 22% with 50,000 new visitors in June alone. This is how we densify our existing footprint and create value from space we already own. In Talavera, in Spain, we opened a new Primark. Since it opened in mid-June, footfall is up 19% with 77,000 additional visitors. It has repositioned the center as a shopping destination for its region. Three projects, one pattern.
This is asset transformation in action. The right brands in the right places lifts the entire asset. Beyond bricks and mortar, the customer experience is central to what we do. Customer experience is critical because it keeps people coming back, driving sustainable repeat footfall. Across our 620 million visits a year, that translates into stronger sales conversion.
We enrich it constantly through events, for example, like Panini card trading during the World Cup, Specialty Leasing concepts surfing the Asian wave, and during the heat waves, turning our centers into cool, welcoming places to spend time. Finally, on innovation, we are building recurring income streams beyond traditional leasing. Together, they contributed EUR 13.7 million in H1, up 13% year-on-year. Specialty Leasing leads at EUR 7.4 million, complemented by marketing services, Carmila Retail Development, and the ramp-up of Retail Media. I will single out Next Tower.
By monetizing 5G on Wi-Fi connectivity across our sites, we are turning our physical footprint into a new recurring revenue stream, already contributing EUR 1.8 million with substantial investment plans through 2030. It's a perfect example of how we extract fresh value from assets we already own. Taken together, high margin, low capital are the structural driver of our future growth. With that, I'll pass to Pierre to turn this growth into earnings.
Hello, everyone. Marie and Sébastien have shown you the strength of our top-line growth. I will now show you how we convert it into earnings through cost discipline, a rising portfolio value, and a strong balance sheet. Demonstrated ability to grow revenues with stable operating costs. This is the essence of our model. Net rental income rose to EUR 204 million, up 1.4% like-for-like. EBITDA reached EUR 178 million, up 1.9% like-for-like, growing faster than rental income.
That operating leverage lifted our EBITDA margin by 80 basis points to 80.8% and took recurring EPS to EUR 0.97, up 3.5%. Beyond operating leverage, we have two additional levers to optimize our cost base, AI and ESG. The first is technology. AI has enabled us to build a suite of tools that deliver tangible efficiency gains. AI-driven building management system to optimize energy consumption in real time.
A new data lake centralizes our operation to unlock further savings. By automating high-impact workflows, our AI agents are delivering a return on investment above 20%. The second is ESG. Our decarbonization strategy lowers energy costs structurally through lower consumption renewable energy usage while keeping us on track for net zero by 2030, with emissions already down 78% versus 2019. Together, these two levers reduced our cost base and directly supports profitability.
On slide 26, our portfolio appraisal value continued to rise. They were up 2.6% like-for-like to EUR 6.8 billion. That is EUR 170 million increase since December 2025. Growth was broad-based, led by France, up 2.9%. This growth is underpinned by rental growth, green certifications, scarcity value, and above all, the transformation of our assets, which accounts for more than half of the value increase. This is value we are actively creating, not just market movements.
We believe these valuations make a turning point. On the left, you can see that net initial yields have started to compress down 12 basis points since 2024. On the right, we detail the main drivers behind the increase in our portfolio value. Out of the EUR 170 million like-for-like increase in gross asset value, EUR 60 million came from rental income growth.
Around EUR 100 million came from asset transformation. This is nearly 60% of the increase. EUR 12 million came from the strong momentum of yields in Spain. In short, our valuation growth is driven by operational performance, not sentiment. On slide 28, our debt structure is a real competitive advantage. We have a well-spread maturity profile with no major refinancing needs before 2027. Our cost of debt is fixed and low at 3% and expected at just 3.15% next year.
In a higher environment rate, this visibility gives us the firepower to keep investing in growth. On slide 29, rising values and controlled debts reduced our leverage further. Net debt was broadly stable. This increase simply reflects our buybacks, while growth asset value continued to grow. As a result, EPRA LTV improved by 40 basis points to 39.3%.
Here is the balance sheet at a glance. Leverage at 7.3 times, maturity at 4.2 years. This is reflected in our earnings. BB B stable from S&P and Fitch, and a BB B+ from Fitch on senior unsecured debts. Efficient and ready for opportunity. On slide 31, our value creation flows through net asset value per share. EPRA NTA rose 3.3% year-on-year to EUR 26.75, with NAV and NDV up similarly. Consistent growth value per share. On slide 32, put together, this is an attractive, well-positioned returns profile.
Cash flow growth, an NTA valuation of 3.3%, high earnings visibility above 96% occupancy, and a strong balance sheet. I would draw particular attention to shares liquidity, where we have made a real step change. Average daily number in our shares doubles in a year at EUR 3 million and has now tripled since 2019. This deeper liquidity opens the stock to a whole new pool of institutional investors who applied strict liquidity thresholds, broadening our shareholder base.
On slide 33, this bridge shows how this strong first half performance flows through to an upgraded guidance. From EUR 1.81 last year, we initially guided to EUR 1.84. Now, our strong H1 operational performance and the acquisition of Grand Quetigny, already accretive, take us to EUR 1.87 for a total EPS growth of 3.3%. I will hand back to Marie.
Thank you, Pierre-Yves. It has been a great first half of the year, and there is more to come. We will host a Capital Markets Day on November 19th to announce our new strategic plan to 2030. Five key topics, our leading shopping centers portfolio, our asset transformation engine, growing revenues through innovation, balance sheet strength, and sustainable earnings growth. We look forward to seeing you in person. This concludes the presentation. We will now be happy to take your questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six. The next question comes from Aakanksha Anand from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, team. Thank you for the presentation. I have two questions, and I'll go through them one by one. The first one is on the like-for-like portfolio value change. It was 2.6% for the portfolio overall and 2.9% in France, which is actually higher than what your other European shopping center peers have reported. Is it reasonable for us to expect these trends to be more sticky in the future?
As in, is that something that you expect to be outperforming going forward from here? Along with that, if you could also provide some color on the investment markets and the opportunities that you see for future accretive acquisitions. That's the first one.
Okay. Thank you for your question. As Pierre-Yves explained, the increase in the portfolio creation is driven by two main pillars. First, the robust rent growth, Second, the asset transformation. Importantly, appraiser did not change our methodology. We think that there are more to come on asset transformation. As you know, we have an objective of around 50 projects of transformation per year. We did 39 of them in the first half, there are more to come.
I think it's really the rollout of a very strong strategy of transforming our assets. As Sébastien mentioned, three good examples in the first semester, the Zara in Toulouse Labège , the Speed Park and Fort Boyard Adventures in Rennes Cesson , and the Primark in Talavera. There is more to come. We are confident on our ability to continue to grow, to create value on our portfolio.
On the acquisition, as you notice, we acquire Quetigny. We have reached 50% of our objective of EUR 100 million of acquisition this year in the first half, meaning that we are on track. We have a pipeline of projects, we are confident in our capacity to reach our targets, depending, of course, this is subject to market conditions. We will keep you posted on this important part of our strategy.
Thank you for that.
Sorry.
No, you go on. Sorry.
No, just on acquisition, our focus is on our three core markets. Clearly we are targeting leading shopping centers when we can secure yields of at least 100 basis points - 150 basis points above capitalization rates. That's what we are looking for.
That's very clear. Thank you. The second question is on Spain, actually, because there seems to be a pretty strong momentum in that market. Could you just help us understand what's happening there? The 7% increase in retailer sales obviously is much higher than what France and Italy have performed. Is Spain, because of the attractiveness of the country, is that something that might become a bigger part of your portfolio going from here?
Thank you for your question. As you mentioned, the growth in sales in Spain is quite amazing, at 6.6%. I think it reflects, first, the quality of that portfolio. Second, the fact that economy in Spain is booming more than in France and even Italy. We are benefiting from this trend, especially tourism is very high in Spain. We are very well located in Spain on a touristic area.
We think that there is more still to come in Spain. We are ready to catch all the good impact on the Spanish economy. As I mentioned previously, we are in an acquisition mode in France, Spain, and Italy. We are looking for asset to acquire in Spain. Spain is a very competitive market. We need to find the right opportunity.
It's very clear. Thank you so much for taking my questions.
The next question comes from Florent Laroche-Joubert from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Marie and team. Thank you for this presentation. I would have maybe one or two questions, and I can ask one by one. The first one maybe is on the guidance on your slide 33. Actually, we understand that in your guidance, you have maybe taken into account the impact of your acquisition in Dijon. Shall we expect maybe also some disposal to be taken into account in 2026? Maybe you are more to look for disposals in 2027?
Thank you, Florent, for this question. Yes, we have uplifted the guidance from EUR 1.84 to EUR 1.87. Part of it comes from the Quetigny acquisition, around EUR 0.01, and EUR 0.02 come from operational performance, which is very strong with the improvement of the EBITDA margin. Regarding of the impact of potential disposal, we have already done around EUR 15 million of disposal this year, and the yearly objective is around EUR 50 million.
We are working on it. We have the capacity to do it as we have done it, and we have disposed of more than 6% of the total portfolio in the last three years. That's really good conditions. That won't impact the guidance for 2026, as we are already starting the second semester, the impact of potential guidance won't impact the guidance for 2026.
Okay, thank you. My second question would be on your acquisition in Dijon. You expect that it will be accretive by +1% on net earnings on an annual basis. Shall we consider this as a first conservative estimate, or do you already include maybe some results regarding the transformation of the assets and upgrade of the operational performance?
Yes. Thank you for this question. The 1% is the immediate accretive impact. As we have said, we are well above of target objective of 150 basis points above the cap rate for the net acquisition yield. On top of that, as Marie said, this center is really the kind of center that we are looking for, a leading shopping center. We have capacity to optimize the mixed merchandising. We have the capacity to make restructuring and to optimize the customer journey. On top of that, there will be additional value creation.
Yes. Maybe my last question. In terms of, you have spoken about implementation of cost efficiency, notably thanks to artificial intelligence. Shall we expect any further improvement in the future in terms of cost efficiency?
Yes. Artificial intelligence is starting to be really concrete within Carmila. It's not just a concept, but we are starting to develop really interesting solutions. By the way, for example, we are currently developing an agent dedicated, for example, to automated reconciliations for cash resets with outstanding invoices.
This is really important for us as we have more than 6,000 tenants, many invoices, and it helps a lot the team to optimize the process and to be more efficient. We have good returns on it. As you have seen, last year, we have improved the margin. We are continuing this semester with an improvement of 80 basis points, and there is more to come with efficiency around artificial intelligence solution deployments.
Thank you, that's very helpful. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Benjamin Legrand from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, thank you for the presentation. I've got a few questions. I will go through them one by one. The first one maybe is on the guidance. Just quickly, do we agree that there's no additional acquisitions or disposals in the guidance? Meaning that if there is anything happening soon, that could be impacting the guidance again.
Yes. There is no additional impact, as I said, we are entering in the second semester, there won't be big changes due to perimeter impact to the guidance. We are comfortable with that guidance, we will deliver that guidance.
Okay. Thank you. Maybe regarding the Specialty Leasing and pop-up store. They're up more than 8% year-on-year, it's quite a good performance. I was just wondering, how come? Do you drive such a good performances in this area and should we expect more to come in the second part of 2026 and in 2027?
I think on Specialty Leasing, it's a good example of the power of the Carmila platform. We have people on the ground, we have a great network, and we have very efficient tools. If you remember, we launched ClickStand, AI-powered tool in order to be more efficient.
We have very good streamlined process because we have many leases on Specialty Leasing, so we need to be very efficient. I think we can innovate to propose our tenant with new concepts and be able to deploy it very quickly. Clearly, it's a very good example of the power of Carmila platform. We think that there is still to come and probably in the coming year, the double-digit growth in this pattern, in this Specialty Leasing.
Okay. Clear. Thank you. Maybe on Italy because you didn't really mention anything this time. I know it's not your main geography, but it seems that the figures are a bit softer this time. Obviously, it's related to the change in operator, but I'm just wondering if you could add a bit more colors on the market and what you're expecting for 2027 with the new operator. Are you looking for growth or are you trying to reduce the exposure, basically?
Yes. Thank you for this question on Italy. As you mentioned, there is a new operator for Italy. We have eight shopping centers. Seven of them are anchored with a new principal, a new operator. He is currently transitioning and rolling out new concepts. It can explain why footfall is slightly down, but retailer sales actually grew by 1%.
This proved the robust strength of our tenant mix. We are very pleased with our current portfolio. We consider our platform in Italy, that the platform is a significant opportunity, and we are clearly in a net buyer position in Italy, as in Spain and as in France. We would love to expand if we find the right opportunities.
Okay, thank you. If I may, just the last question, you seem to emphasize your 80% of leading shopping centers and then 20% is a bit of the rest.
Yeah.
Should we understand that those 20% at your Capital Market Day maybe you're going to try to get rid of those 20% or transform it? What's really the plan for those 20% or should we just wait for the Capital Market Day?
We hope to see you at the Capital Market Day for sure. Those 20%, first, they are not low quality, they are not bad, and we like them. It's a network of convenience centers, checkout gallery, providing daily essentials, and clearly it's a valuable and very resilient segment. It's not a problem to be solved. That said, clearly, our direction of travel is clear.
Over the plan, we are steering the portfolio toward more leading shopping centers through acquisition and disposal. We want to buy leading centers like Roncadelle, and we are a selective seller of non-core assets like we did with Villers-Semeuse. The idea is to recycling that capital and either on the exact phase, the term, the buyer universe, we will explain that at our Capital Market Day on the November 19th.
Thank you very much, Marie and team. Thanks.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Alex Kolsteren from Van Lanschot Kempen. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Good morning. Thank you for the presentation. Two questions from my end. First one, there's been a number of wildfires in essentially all of your countries you're present in. Have any of your assets been affected by this and do you see a change in consumer behavior? Secondly, the EPRA vacancy rate you report now excludes the strategic vacancies. Why did you decide to change your metric here? What would the number be if you do consider the strategic vacancies?
Yes. On the fire, first of all, we want to demonstrate our support to the people concerned by the fire. No Carmila shopping centers exposed to this area. As you know, our portfolio is very well spread and I think in term of risk management, it's a kind of comfort. On your second question-
On your second question about the EPRA vacancy rate, we are just aligning with the market. Publishing the EPRA vacancy rate as everybody is calculating it. The result is 96% of financial occupancy and 4% of vacancy. The impact of strategic vacancy is pretty stable. It allows us to develop restructuring projects such as Zara in Labège, Primark in Talavera. It creates value, but the idea was to align with the market practices and that was why we decided to publish the vacancy as are doing our peers.
Let's say you would have provided the number as you did previously, what would it have been?
Yes, we can, of course, there's no problem with the strategic vacancy. It creates value. It's around 1.8% and it's pretty stable and has always been very stable over the semesters.
Okay. All right. The EPRA occupancy rates are roughly 94% then in H1?
No, EPRA vacancy rate is 96%. That's how it's calculated. That's how our peers are calculating it. That's why we decided to align with the peers and the EPRA occupancy rate is 96%.
Okay, thank you.
We have a few questions on the chat. The first one is about the acquisitions. Do we target centers attached to Carrefour or can we look at other hypermarket operators, centers attached to other hypermarket operators?
Yes, we can buy the kind of asset we will like. No problems to buy an asset anchored by another operator. As you know now, Carrefour is anchored mainly with Carrefour hypermarket and we are very happy with that. But we have in Italy eight shopping center without a Carrefour hypermarket and in France now two centers without a Carrefour hypermarket. Clearly our acquisition policy is clear. We want to acquire shopping center in which we can create value. If it's anchored by a Carrefour hypermarket, it's very good. If it's anchored by another hypermarket, it's good also.
The second question on the chat is about the share buyback program. Do we plan to launch a new share buyback program? On the share buybacks, we have already done EUR 20 million during the first semester. Last year, the total was EUR 30 million. We are currently happy with the EUR 20 million. We haven't decided to launch a new program for the third quarter, but we will keep you updated for the fourth quarter. Then the question about the heatwave impact on visitors' numbers and retailers' revenues.
Clearly in June, especially in France, heatwave has a positive impact on the footfall. Not major, but a positive impact. I think everybody realized that when it's rain, when it's cold, and when it's very hot, the shopping center provide a comfort for the visit, which is very appreciated by the clients. We try to be very in touch with local authorities during the heatwave.
For instance, some schools came into our center to do the class, especially in Montesson Paris. I think it demonstrates that we are a place that give comfort and that we are very anchored in the local authority in order to be part of the social link, which is very important for us.
A last question, where will the Capital Market Date be hosted?
Thank you for this question. We will host it in Paris because we think it's more convenient for a lot of people. We will organize after this CMD visit our shopping center, especially at [ inaudible] , in order to see the new leisure complex in our Rennes Cesson shopping center. I think there is no other question. I thank you for your attention. Have a nice day. Have a nice summer. Thank you very much