Welcome to the SMCP 2026 half-year results presentation. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answer session, participants will be able to ask questions by dialing pound key 5 on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers to begin today's conference. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for being with us today for the publication of SMCP half-year results. I'm here with our CEO, Isabelle Guichot, and our CFO, Patricia Huyghues Despointes. You can listen to the publication via the usual conference call, or you can connect to the webcast to have the presentation displayed. As usual, we will go through the presentation and then we'll have the Q&A session. Before I hand it over to Isabelle and Patricia, I invite you to go through our usual disclaimer on page two. I think we can start now.
Thank you, Amélie, and good evening, everyone. Thank you all for joining us today for these first half results. Overall, H1 confirms that we are executing our strategic plan well, and our business model continues to strengthen quarter after quarter. Here are the three key messages I would like to draw your attention on today. First of all, we delivered positive top-line growth despite a still very challenging consumer environment, while remaining disciplined on our strategy of lower discount rate. Second, marginal profitability continued to improve significantly, reflecting both the strengths of our business model and the impact of the initiatives that we've implemented over the past two years, and it is a very satisfying result for us. Third, we maintained a strong financial discipline with continued focus on cash generation, cost management, and deleveraging, and that shows in the numbers that you have on that slide.
Based on this solid first half performance, we are confirming our 2026 guidance, an adjusted EBIT margin of around 10% in the second half, and a EUR 50 million of free cash flow generation for the full year. Let's move a bit more in detail on the semester. Next page, you can see that our first half results came in at EUR 597 million, up 0.6% organic and 1.6% like-for-like.
I would say that the key message this semester is the improving momentum after a slightly negative first quarter. Sales accelerated in Q2, up 2% organic and 4% like-for-like, which is very satisfying for us. On a two-year stack, our like-for-like network was up 6% in Q2. A few points I would like to highlight. Of course, the growth was supported by America, EMEA, and APAC, with a particularly dynamic performance of Maje, while Sandro pursued a very solid trajectory.
Remain fully committed to our strategy of discount management. I mentioned it earlier, with a reduction across all regions by around 2 points versus last year, and this is absolutely key in the protection of our margins.
Finally, the network stabilized in Q2 after a decline seen in Q1, supported by continued expansion through our partner network. We ended the period with 1,589 points of sale, a net increase of 2 units during the quarter. Page 6 now. You have the detailed bridge of our sales evolution between H1 2025 and H1 2026. What is worth mentioning is the like-for-like growth, positive at +1.6%, contributing to an additional EUR 9 million, which demonstrate the underlying resilience of our businesses. The network evolution accounts for a decrease of about EUR 11 million.
You know that more than 2/3 of that drop is explained by the closure of the BHV and SGM network in France, and the Saks closure last year. Wholesale continued to grow, adding almost EUR 6 million to our performance, fully in line with our strategy.
Finally, we recorded foreign exchange headwinds of around EUR 7 million. You can see that bridge, which shows really our ability to mitigate with like-for-like, the decrease of the network and with wholesale, the foreign exchange impact. We're really happy about that ability for us to grow sales in a very healthy way. Moving on to page 7, trends by region. Patricia Huyghues Despointes will come back into more detail and granularity later on in the presentation. A few highlights. The semester was driven by strong dynamic in America, up 11% organic, and EMEA up 7%.
APAC confirm its return to growth, up 2%, and like-for-like at 3%, which is a very interesting result for us. While France remain impacted by a tougher environment, down 11% coming from network contraction, of course, and other impact for half of the variance and with a like-for-like up -5%.
By brand, with a good dynamic, Maje gained 2 points versus last year, and by channel, in line with the group strategy, wholesale gains 1 point versus last year and reaches 12% of the global contribution. A few elements on the next page on the key P&L figures for the semester. Additional details will follow in the course of the presentation.
Four messages, if I may, management gross margin ratio reaches an outstanding level of 76%, improving by 1.7 points versus last year, thanks to an overall work from all the teams, from initial margin to retail margin, wholesale margin, full price strategy. I think it's been a big ambition for the organization, and that has delivered that outstanding performance.
Adjusted EBIT margin reaches 8.9%, up 1.8 points versus the first half of last year. Very satisfying for us. This puts us firmly on track to reach our H2 2026 target. Net income increases strongly by more than 50%, mainly driven mechanically by the EBIT progression, and our financial leverage, which is a record level of 1.1x, with net debt down EUR 61 million versus one year ago. That puts us now really at a very satisfying level of leverage.
A strong semester across all key indicators, fully supported by our strategic action plan. I will now move to more qualitative and brand topics. I think it's important that we also mention our CSR achievement. It's a strategy on which we are really eager to keep on progressing across our four brands. We continue to expand the use of recognized certification such as GOTS, a certification on organic fabrics, GRS, about recycling material, RWS, which is certification for wool, which is an important raw material in our collections, and finally, Organic Content Standard. I think it's maybe something that we don't stress so much in financial publication, but I would say that it is also an underlying strategy for everyone in the organization. I'm really proud to show those certifications.
These labels provide customers with greater visibility on the origin and traceability of the materials used in our products. This is an important step in making our sustainability commitments more concrete, more transparent, and easier for customers to understand. It also reflects the progress we're making in increasing the use of certified fibers across our collections and in strengthening the standards applied throughout our supply chain. A few brand desirability initiatives.
I will start with Sandro. Sandro, two initiatives I would like to highlight: the reopening of the flagship store in Paris, Francs-Bourgeois, in the heart of the Marais, with a renewed and elevated store concept implemented in both our women and women's stores, which perfectly showcases the collections. Second, you know that Sandro partners with Maison Méditerranée for a prize aiming at recognizing savoir-faire and craftsmanship in textile.
This year, the winner is Joana Duarte, a Portuguese designer, for her work on denim around innovation and durability, and she's collaborating with the brands on a few initiatives. Next page, Maje initiatives. Maybe we can highlight the collaboration of Maje with the Spanish highly influential figure, Blanca Miro. This capsule collection with a sunny Mediterranean spirit generated strong engagement and perfectly reflects the brand identity. You can see it in stores these days if you have the chance to enter a Maje store.
Next page, some key initiatives. It's also always important to have our product worn by key opinion leaders. You will see for Sandro, Chris Pratt and Scott Speedman, Poppy Delevingne for Maje, or Diane Kruger at the Cannes Film Festival. This is an underlying strategy for the brand, and it's just something that we monitor very closely. Claudie Pierlot and Fursac, next page.
For the winter collection at Claudie was animated with elevated cotton strategy, notably along a few influencers like Caetana Botelho Afonso and Rita Montezuma, about a point de croix capsule. It's that cross-stitching capsule, which is also presently in store and very interesting. For Fursac, we pursued a key strategy with personalities such as Cesar de Rummel from the French music group Ofenbach, and Paco Leon, the Spanish actor and movie director. They are also endorsing some tailored pieces from Fursac. I will now leave it to Patricia to go more into detail into the figures, and I will come back for the conclusion.
Thank you, Isabelle. Good evening, everyone. On sales by region on slide 15 with France and EMEA first as usual. In France, sales stood at EUR 185 million, down 10.8% organic. The drivers of the second quarter were similar to Q1, which led to a first half of the year affected by soft consumer demand, especially in provincial stores, a negative perimeter effect, and more limited liquidation activities compared to last year.
However, as you can see on the graph on the right, the trend somewhat improved in Q2 with like-for-like sales recovering, -7% in Q1 and -2% in Q2. Such like-for-like being in line with market indices. We continued our margin strategy with a 2-point reduction in the average discount rate, and in the network, we closed nine point of sales in Q2, mostly less profitable stores.
In EMEA, sales reached EUR 218 million, +7% organic. Interesting to see a +5% in Q1 and an acceleration of +9% in Q2, coming mostly from strong like-for-like, which was positive in nearly all retail markets, driven by Southern Europe and also Germany. We also saw solid momentum with our partners, notably in Eastern Europe, and the performance in the Middle East, which was, I would say, more than resilient. The region added 13 point of sales, both in retail and in wholesale.
On page 16, America sales reached EUR 98 million, up 11% organic. Once again, a strong trend driven by good momentum at both Sandro and Maje. In the U.S., retail sales grew in Q2, and it's worth noting that it was coming from both robust like-for-like growth in volume and price and also both in physical and digital.
Canada grew double digits in both brick-and-mortar and digital. Wholesale continued to support the trend with successful development in Mexico and also in South America. In APAC, sales stood at a very similar level, EUR 97 million, up 1.9% organic, confirming the return of the region to growth, driven by like-for-like at +3%. Most of our directly operated countries grew on a like-for-like basis. In Greater China, we recorded positive both in brick-and-mortar and in digital in the context of a strict full price and margin strategy with a 4-point reduction in the average discount rate, which continues to support brand equity. We saw also resilient trends across the rest of Asia, with strong growth in Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The network was slightly down five point of sales, a few in China and a few in New Zealand. On page 17, I will now move to profitability.
As you can see on this slide, which is, I would say, quite self-explanatory. Adjusted EBIT reached EUR 53 million in the first half, up 25% versus last year and representing 8.9% of sales in the semester, i.e., an improvement of 1.8 points from H1 2025 to H1 2026, which you can see on the arrow on the graph. You can see that there is another arrow at the bottom. I think it's good to take a step back and look at the trajectory over the past two years, and the progress is particularly striking. Our first half EBIT has increased by EUR 34 million compared to H1 2024, with a margin that has improved by 5.7 points in two years.
As you may remember, H1 2024 was when we launched our action plan for profitability, and at the time, we had indicated that we were aiming at improving EBIT by EUR 25 million between 2024 and 2026. In only H1 we have delivered much more than the target. This steady improvement semester after semester demonstrates the effectiveness of this strategy and puts us firmly on track to achieve the ambition of around 10% adjusted EBIT margin in the second half of 2026. On page 18 now, you can see the evolution of the net profit versus last year. LTIP costs increase from a better operational performance. Non-recurring expenses include impairment of stores and goodwill for Claudie Pierlot, with no impact on cash and for an amount which is not materially different from last year.
Financial results improved thanks to a lower level of bank debt, and excluding IFRS 16, net financial interest expenses decreased by a third, and income tax logically increases from a higher pre-tax income. Finally, net result lands at nearly EUR 17 million, a progression of EUR 5.8 million compared to last year, i.e. more than a 50% improvement. Let's finish with cash and debt on page 19. Our net debt keeps decreasing. You see that basically it was divided by two in two years, and the leverage ratio, which is our lowest level ever at 1.1x , compared to 1.9x one year ago. This is driven both by EBITDA growing 6% year-over-year and net debt decreasing 30% year-over-year, so roughly a EUR 60 million improvement in 12 months. You know that our target is to deliver EUR 50 million free cash flow for 2026 full year.
We expect this to happen mostly in the second half. In the first half, we generated EUR 3.5 million, with inventories and CapEx stabilizing to support the business in a timely manner, which is a bit different versus last year as we had registered a decrease both in CapEx and inventories versus the prior year. We had announced that, and it was fully expected. Compared to last year, we also have a temporary timing difference regarding working capital and supplier payments and cash collection. It's only anticipated payments in June of suppliers compared to July last year. This timing difference, as we speak, has already reversed. Finally, on financing, we extended our term loan and RCF by one year, so it's now due on May 28th and not May 27, which strengthened the liquidity of the group.
We have a substantial headroom of more than EUR 150 million of liquidity if we take into account undrawn RCF and also overdrafts. This is it for finance, and I now hand over to Isabelle to conclude this presentation.
Thank you, Patricia. As a conclusion, I would say that the first half confirms the solid execution of our strategic plan, with the key takeaways that you can find on this slide, reflecting positive message on sales, profitability, cash, and debt. All this enables us to consider that this first half was solid and to confirm our 2026 guidance on adjusted EBIT margin and free cash flow generation. I'm really confident in the strength of our businesses and in our ability to keep on delivering our strategic roadmap. Before taking the questions, traditional update on the sales process of SMCP shares. I know I'm patient, you all are, for more precise updates, several discussions are ongoing with interested parties. As you can imagine, today I cannot comment further. We will update the market of any material development in due course.