Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the CRH Plc 2020 Interim Results Announcement. For the duration of the you.
Morning, everyone. Albert Mano Fortier, CRH Group Chief Executive. And you're all very welcome to our conference call and webcast presentations, which accompanies the release of our 2020 interim results this morning. Joining me on this call is Sena Murphy, our Group Finance Director Randy Lake, President of America Materials, and Keith Hass, President of Building Products. Also on the call this morning is Frank Heistkamp, Director of Capital Markets And ESG, and Tom Holmes, Head of Investor Relations.
Before we take you through a brief presentation on the results we've published this morning, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the extraordinary dedication and resilience of our people across the group in light of the challenges presented by the COVID-nineteen pandemic. The last 6 months have been very difficult and an unprecedented time as we've all had to adapt to this global health emergency. As always, the health and safety of our employees, contractors and customers is parliament at CRH, and every effort has been made to ensure we continue to provide a safe working environment for them to carry out their activities. Now, over the next 30 minutes or so, Sven and I will take through a brief presentation on the results we have published this morning, highlighting the key drivers of our trading performance for the 1st 6 months as well as providing you with our expectations for the remainder of the year. As always, we will take any questions you may have and all told we should be done in about an hour or so.
So, at the outset on Slide 2, let me take you through some of the key highlights of our first half performance. The impact of COVID 19 restrictions varied significantly across our markets during first half of the year. In Western Europe, our operations were heavily impacted by nationwide shutdowns across a number of key markets, while construction demand Eastern Europe and North America remains more resilient. Against the backdrop of these varying restrictions, we reacted swiftly and comprehensively to protect our business. Particularly during the second quarter.
And overall, I'm pleased to report a robust first half performance for CRH. EBITDA of $1,600,000,000 2% ahead of last year and 70 basis points of underlying margin improvements all delivered against a 3% decline in sales. As ever, cash generation remains a key focus across our businesses. During the 1st 6 months of the year, we generated $1,000,000,000 of operating cash flow, a record performance, which further all depends on our strong balance sheet and liquidity position. And Sailing will take you through more of that in detail later on.
All of this supports continued dividend delivery to our shareholders, a track record that now spans 50 years, in light of the group's resilient first half performance and despite all the uncertainties that persist across our markets, I'm pleased to report that we are declaring an interim dividend of $0.22 per share in line with last year and reflecting the financial strength of the group and also reflecting what you've come to expect from CRH over many years, continued delivery in ever changing and uncertain world. Now before I take you to our divisional trading performance, I'd like to give you a brief overview of how our individual markets evolved during the first half of the year. Slide 4 set out our quarterly sales trends so far this year. After a positive start for with the first quarter sales like for like sales 3% ahead, we experienced unprecedented level of business disruption in quarter 2 as COVID-nineteen restrictions were implemented across many of our key markets. As a result, 2nd quarter like for like sales declined by 8%.
But the chart of our multi like for like sales performance on the right hand side tells the story of the 1st class in more detail. Here, you can clearly see the scale of the declines we experienced particularly in April as government restrictions significantly impacted our operations. However, it's encouraging to see some improving trends towards the end of the second quarter as these restrictions were eased with like for like sales in June 3% ahead of the prior year. The impact of the pandemic was far from uniform across our businesses, not only by geography, but also in terms of the timing and scale of the impacts across our sector and end use markets. Turning to Slide 5, here you can see some examples of the varying impact that pandemic restrictions had across our core markets during the first half of the year.
Our operations in Western Europe and the UK in particular were significantly impacted by nationwide shutdowns during the second quarter, resulting in unprecedented clients for our businesses. In the United States, while construction was deemed essential in most markets, restrictions on certain types of activities resulted in lower levels of nonresidential demand. Pulling all this together, as you can see here on the slide, the adverse impact of the restrictions felt in these markets were offset by more encouraging trends in less effective markets. Generally speaking, U. S.
Infrastructure works continued and in some cases, we even saw state DOTs taking advantage of lower traffic volumes to accelerate projects. U. S. Residential repair, maintenance and improvement activity experienced significant growth in demand as shelter place orders were implemented across most states, and people were confined to their homes. And in the absence of nationwide restrictions on construction activity in Central And Eastern Europe, our businesses there held up quite well.
So here you can really see the benefits of our balanced and vertically integrated portfolio coming through on regional, sectoral and end use basis. Helping us to weather the volatility across our markets and mitigate the financial impact of this unprecedented situation. Moving to Slide 6, and as the impact of the restrictions varied significantly across our markets, there was no one size fits all approach. Each of our businesses faced a unique set of challenges at different times, and this required a very specific case by case response. Our agile business model enables to react decisively to the rapidly changing environment, making decisions at the local level to take immediate and comprehensive steps to flex our cost base and preserve our cash.
There wasn't all about cutting back. In some of our less impacted markets, we actually accelerated investment to increase capacity and support growth in our businesses. And slide 7, you can see some examples of the measures we have taken in these areas. In the markets most impacted by restrictions, we took decisive action to flex our cost base to reflect lower levels of activity. We reduced our fixed costs by approximately $200,000,000, lowering our labor costs through salary reductions across all levels of the organization and further arrangements in our most affected markets.
We also carefully managed our repair and maintenance expenditure and restructured our operating footprint to adapt to lower levels of production. Another of our key priorities during this time was the protection of our cash. We reduced our capital expenditure by $200,000,000 and implemented strict measures to manage our working capital across all our businesses, which delivered $800,000,000 improvement compared to prior year. But we must also continue to support the growth of our business. The right hand side, you can see some of the actions that we've taken in this regard.
In the United States, we accelerated investments in our Architectural Products business, as it experienced record levels of demand. This allowed us to increase capacity and maintain service levels to customers, which played a crucial role in delivering a very strong performance for that business in the first half. In our Americas Materials business, with a number of key markets including Florida and New York, New Jersey, taking the opportunity to accelerate infrastructure projects, we were able to quickly reorganize and adapt our operational capabilities to service those increased levels of demand. We also saw growth in Eastern Europe, And here too, we invested in operational improvements in our plants to support demand in markets such as Poland and Romania. So as you can see, different approaches with different markets at different times, all executed swiftly across the group.
In summary and as outlined on slide 8, our robust first half performance with EBITDA margin and operating cash ahead of prior year, despite lower sales and an unprecedented level of volatility across our markets. All of this is as a result of the extraordinary effort of our teams on the ground across the group. The types of actions we took to respond to a rapidly changing environment and the strength and resilience of our business and management teams. I'll take you now through the trading performance of each of our businesses during the 1st 6 months of the year, and first to our Americas Materials division on Slide 9. In North America, the regional impact of the pandemic restrictions very significantly with the U.
S. Northeast, northwest, across of Canada, being most impacted, while the Central Southern And Western regions of the United States were less affected. After a strong start to the year, good volume growth in our Western markets during the second quarter was offset by pandemic restrictions in the north and somewhat disruption in the south. So for the first half of the whole, our Aggregates and Cement volumes were broadly stable, while volumes of asphalt and ready mix were behind the prior year. Despite the challenging and uncertain trading environment, disciplined commercial management across our businesses supported progress on pricing in aggregates, cement and ready mix during the first half of the year.
And while asphalt pricing was in line with prior year, we delivered good margin expansion in that business. But what really comes through in our first half performance is our operational agility. Leveraging our scale and vertically integrated business model to manage our cost base and restructure our operations, enabling us to adapt to volatile demand patterns across our markets. As a result, against a slight decline in like for like sales, Our business delivered a strong first half performance with EBITDA 20 percent ahead and underlying margin improvement of 260 basis points as well. Turning to the performance of our Europe Materials business on Slide 10, a very different picture where we faced a challenging environment in the first half for contrasting regional trends impacting our performance.
In the United Kingdom, we experienced unprecedented disruption across operations from a nationwide shutdown resulting in significant declines in all product areas. In Western Europe, the impact on construction activity was more of a mix and varied with government restrictions impacting on our volumes in France and Ireland, while our operations in Germany and Switzerland were less affected. In Eastern Europe, in the absence of nationwide restrictions on construction, we delivered a good first half performance with our businesses in Poland, Romania and Ukraine, performing particularly well. Notwithstanding the volatile trading environment, it was encouraging to see good pricing discipline continuing during the first half. Building on the progress we have made in recent years.
Our overall cement pricing was 3% ahead in Europe with improvements in all major markets. Here in Europe, we also took swift action on our cost base to protect our businesses from the worst effects of the crisis. The nature of our response varied from country to country and depending on the pace of recovery within each of our markets. These actions helped to mitigate some of the financial impact in the first half of the year and will continue to benefit our business going forward. So overall, a very challenging trading environment in Europe in the first half with our performance particularly impacted by the significant declines we experienced in the United Kingdom.
For example, excluding the UK performance, the 28% decline in like for like EBITDA would have been reduced to minus 9% whilst the 220 point basis point decline in margin would have been a minus 30 basis points. This just highlights the significant impact that the UK had on our otherwise relatively resilient performance by our European businesses. Turning to Building Products on Slide 11. And here is another example of varying demand levels across our various sectors in the end use exposures. Our Architectural Products business, with its significant exposure to residential RMI, delivered a strong first time performance across our business in both North America and Europe, benefiting from increased demand in the outdoor living segment as many people were confined to their homes due to the pandemic.
Our infrastructure products business, primarily serving new build construction in North America and Europe, delivered a resilient first half performance despite pandemic restrictions impacting activity levels in some of its markets. And finally, our Building envelope business, which is primarily exposed to U. S. Non residential construction and was therefore more heavily impacted by the restrictions experienced lower levels of demand during the first half of the year. But the real standard for me on this slide is that against a 2% improvement in like for like sales, we were able to deliver an 11% increase in like for like EBITDA a 130 basis point improvement in margins, a very strong performance reflecting a good cost discipline and positive pricing momentum right across the businesses.
So a very varied trading environment across the group, but good delivery from all of our teams in the first half of the year. At this point, I'll hand you over to Sena to take you through our financial performance in further detail.
Thank you, Roberts, and good morning, everyone. So turning to Slide 13. So Albers has given you a good overview of the trading trends across our markets during the first half of the year. As well as an outline of some of the actions taken to protect our profitability and preserve our cash during a very difficult time. But let me now take a moment to guide you through some of the key drivers of that profit and cash performance.
You've heard us talk about the benefits of our financial strength and flexibility many times before, and this year is no different. We came into 2020 with a very healthy balance sheet and a net debt to EBITDA ratio of one 0.7 times. As the global health crisis unfolded and with the financial markets in turmoil, we took steps to bolster our liquidity position and further underpin our investment grade rating. We took the precautionary decision to draw down on our 1,000,000,000 revolving credit facility, and we successfully issued 1,000,000,000 of funds and very attractive rates and duration. We also delivered very strong cash performance.
And despite all the challenges we faced during the first half, we generated $1,000,000,000 of operating cash inflow. That's a record 1st half performance for the group. And is further underpins our financial strength. We ended the first half of the year with available cash balances of just over $10,000,000,000, which is sufficient to cover all our maturing debt obligations over the next 5 years. This also provides us with significant optionality for future value creation whether that's through capital investments, whether that's through value accretive acquisitions or cash returns to our shareholders.
Turning now to Slide 14. And here, we've set out the key components of our financial performance for the 1st 6 months of the year. So working from left to right on this slide and starting with our organic performance, 2% ahead of the prior year, That's a good result in the context of the unprecedented adoption we experienced across parts of our business. Of course, this performance was delivered against the 3% decline in like for like sales, and that overall reflects a 70 basis points improvement in our underlying margin. So as you can see on this slide acquisitions, net of divestments contributed $18,000,000 of EBITDA in the 1st 6 months of the year.
And that comprises obviously a small number of bolt on acquisitions as well as the impact of some divestments, which were completed in the second half of twenty nineteen. With regards to currency translation, this year, it's a small headwind of $11,000,000. Reflecting significant reduced volatility in our earnings, following the group's change in reporting currency from euros into U. S. Dollars which is effective from 1st January of this year.
And finally, as you can see in our accounts this morning, The group recognized $65,000,000 of 1 off restructuring charges. They are, as a result of mitigating actions taken in response to the impact of the COVID-nineteen pandemic on our business in the first half of the year. Turning to Slide 15. And here, you can see the strong cash performance I mentioned earlier. $1,000,000,000 of operating cash inflow in the first half representing an improvement of over $700,000,000 compared to the prior year.
And given the season nature of our business, we would typically expect an operating outflow in the first half, which really just goes to highlight the strength of this performance. Was primarily driven by an $800,000,000 reduction in our working capital investments. As we implemented strict measures and tight controls, around inventory, receivable and payables. We also took significant steps to curtail our capital expenditure, That resulted in a reduction of $200,000,000 compared to the prior year, while we continue to support growth in our business. In addition, we continued to deliver further cash returns to our shareholders.
We returned approximately $800,000,000 through dividends buybacks during the 1st 6 months of the year. As Albert mentioned earlier, the board has decided to declare an interim dividend of $0.22 per share, reflecting the resilience of our first half performance and our financial position. And in light of the recent market volatility and as announced earlier this year, we've decided to pause our share buyback program and support our notice. So overall, a strong cash performance, strong cash operating cash inflow during the 1st 6 months of the year, partly reflecting an element of timing, but nonetheless, good performance in a challenging environment. Our relentless focus on cash generation and the financial discipline underpinned our strong balance sheet position.
And on Slide 16, you can see how this was delivered. And you can see how we delivered an almost $4,000,000,000 reduction in our net debt position over the last 12 months. We ended the first half of twenty nineteen with net debt of $11,600,000. And over the last year, our business generated a total of $4,600,000,000 of operating cash. That includes the $1,000,000,000 in the first half of twenty twenty.
We also generated significant proceeds from divestments, close to $2,000,000,000, which primarily reflects the sale of our European distribution business which completed in October of last year. And notwithstanding the curtailment of our capital expenditure in the first half of this year, we've invested a total of $4,200,000,000 to support growth in our business over the last 12 months. In addition, we've also returned $1,400,000,000 shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks. So taking all of this into account, our net debt position at the half year stage of $7,800,000,000, representing a net debt to EBITDA ratio of one 0.7 times on a trailing 12 month basis. And that's in line with what we reported at the end of 2019 and reflecting the strong natural position in Brazil.
Thanks, Hennan. Another great cash performance there and a real reflection of the financial strength and discipline of the group. Now before I turn to outlook, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the strength of our business and how it has enabled us to deliver even in difficult times, funding that was clearly demonstrated by our first half performance. As you can see on Slide 18, we have a wealth of experience across our group. Our management teams have been through periods of uncertainty and business disruption many times before, and we have proven track record performance in delivery through the cycle.
We have a clear strategy. With a robust and resilient business model benefiting from a balanced portfolio of businesses across geographies, sectors and end use markets. Through the active management of our portfolio in recent years, we've become a simpler and more focused business, and we will continue to refine and reshape our business to deliver superior growth returns and cash generation for our shareholders. We are relentlessly focused on continuous business improvement a deeply embedded practice of making our businesses better through incremental improvement initiatives to structurally improve our margins cash and returns year after year. Another core focus for us is the area of sustainability.
Which is deeply rooted in all aspects of our strategy. We're committed to reducing the impact of construction and construction materials on our environment. And we are proud to be recognized as an industry leader by the major ESG rating agencies. We are also a highly cash generative business, and our strong and flexible balance sheet provides significant optionality for further value creation, whether that's through CapEx, investments, acquisitions, or cash returns to shareholders. Turning to Slide 19 and our expectations for the remainder of the year.
Given the uncertainty coming backdrop, we have significantly less visibility than we would normally have at this point of the season. As a result, we're not in a position to provide full year guidance at this time. However, based on trading trends, during July August, today's, I'll give you an indication of our expectations for each of our businesses for the third quarter. In Americas Materials, with regional variances across our markets, and despite positive pricing momentum in our businesses, we expect 3rd quarter like for like sales to be slightly down against strong prior year comparatives. In Europe Materials.
We're seeing improving trends in our Western European markets in quarter 3. While there are also some trends of improvement in the UK, we expect the recovery in that market to continue at a slower pace. Our Eastern European businesses continue to hold up well, and there's good pricing discipline across all our markets. Overall, we expect third quarter sales for our Europe Materials businesses to be behind prior year. In our Building Products businesses.
We expect to continue strong residential OREMI demand to be offset by ongoing weaknesses in certain non residential segments. As a result, and notwithstanding an element of pull forward of demand into the first half of the year, we expect third quarter like for like sales to be broadly in line with 2019. Taking all of this into account for the group as a whole, we expect third quarter like for like sales to be slightly down on prior year. However, through strong cost actions, we will continue to adapt our businesses to a volume demand. And as a result, we expect 3rd quarter like for like group EBITDA to be aligned with the prior year.
Turning to Slide 20 and as we look further ahead to the fourth quarter of the year and indeed into 2021, visibility is extremely limited. The outlook for our markets is ultimately dependent on an improving health situation. And the reality is that society's success in reducing the spread and transmission rate of the virus will be more stimulating for the global economy and any fiscal or monetary policy could ever be. We expect this high level of uncertainty to continue for some time across our markets. And as we saw during the first half of the year, we expect the pace and shape of the recovery to vary significantly across our geographic and use markets.
Never before have we had such limited visibility looking forward? And it has to be said that as we sit here today, most of the risks are on the downside. There are concerns about the pace of which new projects are coming on stream. And although our current pipeline of work remains reasonably healthy, we are cautious regarding the pace at which these projects have been replaced as current ones finish out. But regardless, and as you saw in the first half of the year, However, the market evolves, we will take all necessary steps to protect our people, our profitability, our margins, and our cash.
We are well positioned to meet the challenges and the opportunities that lie ahead and looking beyond this global health crisis, we believe the long term fundamentals of our business remain positive. Our financial strength and resilience combined with our balanced portfolio of high quality assets in attractive markets leaves us well positioned for future recoveries. So that concludes our presentation this morning. And we're now happy to take your questions. May I ask you please state your name and the institution that you represent before posing your questions?
In consideration of all those online and to make the best use of the time, have available. Could I ask you to please limit your question to a maximum of 2 if possible? And I'm now going to hand you back to the moderator to coordinate the Q and A session of our call. Thank you very
Our first is from Robert Gardiner from Davy. Please go ahead.
Keeping well with all the numbers. I'll keep it to 2 and keep it brief. So one, I was wondering if you could give us a little bit more color on performance of the Americas Materials And Building Products businesses, which appeared to have a very strong half despite everything you had to face. And second then, I was wondering, could you give us some indication of exit sales rates across the business specifically in July? Thank you.
Good morning, Bob. And, yeah, I too hope that you and all of us are keeping well. Your hires include the 2 part of our business had very strong performance in the first half of the year and indeed, continuing on during quarter 3. And we both got I've got Randy and Keith on the line, this morning as well. So maybe what I will do is if I go to Randy first just to talk about the materials business and what was behind the delivery of those numbers for the first half of the year and perhaps Randy, what you might also do is just take us through what you're seeing so far through July August, indeed what your estimates in quarter 3 in terms of your senior marketplace.
And then, Meg, we might pass over to Keith to just take us through the delivery what was behind that building products delivery. So maybe if I go to 1st year, Randy, just take us through your materials numbers in the first half of the year, please.
First half of the year, you'll get complete credit to the impact they took with really unforeseen circumstances primarily in the Northeast to the west. A lot of work done terms of consolidating operating facilities, trying to maximize production at given facilities and really from that standpoint driving a very nice cost position. I think the underlying business that we have going into the first half of the year was really based upon the bidding activity that we had in the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. And we saw those levels roughly similar to what we saw in 2019. But it was really about the execution in the field and that margin management.
As you know, our positions, we have good positions commercially across the U. S. Construction activity was deemed essential by the states, in particular, the DOTs. And so we saw states throughout the country take advantage of lower traffic flows to give us access to projects and allow us to do paving work in relatively free zones there. So efficiencies were relatively high during the first half of the year.
Good pricing discipline across the business, whether that has to do with our cement business and aggregate and asphalt business. So we saw the teams really focus hard on delivering good value and maximizing the positions they have. As we look into Q3, as you know, the backlog is really our lens into the future and that tends to be call it 6 to 9 months of future work. Our typical project runs anywhere between 30 90 days primarily maintenance type activities. And we have a good visibility at least through the end of Q3 that not only is the bidding activity very similar to what we saw last year at this time, but our backlogs are very similar as well.
What is important in integrated model is really the use of our construction teams, and so bidding activity in states then pulling through aggregate asphalt and cement. But as we look at Q3, we would see a relatively confident in terms of the underlying volumes that we have and the margins associated with that.
Foot performance in the first half of the year. I'd say a lot of stuff done internally within our business as Randy was saying. And building upon the improving efficiency we see in our businesses, we continue to develop upon some of the projects we were doing to improve the margins in our business and great performance in the first half of the year and delivery with regard to that. Maybe Keith, you might just take us through the products half of the year. And again, also the quarter 3 run rates and what the outlook is for this quarter, please.
Yes, sure, Albert. I mean, if you look at building products, I think as you alluded to earlier in the presentation. It was really not a one size fits all direction there in terms of our business the positives would have been in the residential and primarily in the residential RMI, both in North America and in Europe, where people were sheltered in place or otherwise looking to improve their homes as it became more of a center of their lives. And we have very strong relationships with major retailers and DIY retailers in North America, which really fueled our growth there in architectural products division. They had a very robust Q2.
We had a very robust Q2 in architectural products as well. And in Europe, in the economies that remained open that you alluded to in performance in Poland and Germany, especially, which fueled our Architectural Products business in Europe. On the flip side, as you talked about non residential construction in the U. S. And indeed in Europe is under more pressure.
I think we saw a very tough set of circumstances when construction was locked down in many of the major metros in North America and New York, Boston. Seattle, San Francisco. So it adversely affected our non residentially focused businesses. So when you add it all together in the first half, we saw some like for like growth, but it was strong growth in some parts of the business and offset by strong challenges in other parts of the business. But I think what the real story of the first half for us was not much on the top line, but what we delivered for the bottom line in both in terms of cash and in margin improvement.
And I would just chalk that up to years of work on the Building Products portfolio. Of simplifying the portfolio, simplifying the structure of our businesses, concentrating on businesses where we have leading market positions and consolidating those positions and really putting together a set of products and services to serve our major customers well. And that continues to deliver for us in terms of improvements in our operating performance sort of this year, building on a track record over the last several years? If I look at the Q3 in July in particular, again, very similar trends to the overall, upturn that we had for the first half. So, again, very modest like for like growth, again, stronger and residential, offset by weakness in the non residential sector and very much in line with the guidance that you gave earlier for Q3.
Thanks, Keith. I mean, just around that, Bob, we hired both of those areas because clearly that areas are above the more resilient parts of the business this year, but they are relatively flat top line. But what stands out is that against that top line, they've managed to both grow bottom line and significantly grow margin. And that's not as a result of anything that we dreamt up our thought of during the last 6 months. As Keith and Mandy both said, it is as a result of the ongoing work that has been part and parcel of the reshaping and repositioning of our businesses and their businesses.
And also the plans to execute against those that strategy, which came to fruition during the first half of this year and will continue on in the periods ahead. That's great, sir.
Thank you.
Thanks, Bob. Thank you.
Question is from Gregor Kuglitsch from UBS.
Thanks for taking my questions. A couple of questions, please. So the first one is just, on cash. So don't think we've seen a cash inflow operating cash inflow in the first half. I think looking at my model, I think 9 was the only year where you kind of
managed that and obviously, top
line was down much, much more materially than now. So I guess the question is how was it achieved? How sustainable do you think some of the gains that you've made particularly working capital CapEx, were, are basically going forward when when we think about not only the next 6 months, but also sort of beyond that. And then the second question is a question on costs. So I suppose, maybe a cheeky 2 part question, but if you could give us a little bit of color on the sustainability of the 200,000,000 savings that you realized in the half?
And then if you could just maybe also put some numbers around the energy cost deflationary impact that we've seen in the various categories, please, that would be helpful. Thank you.
So, Gregor, I'll take those questions just in terms of kicking through them. Think first of all, in terms of the cash position, I think you're right. First half of the year, we had a $1,000,000,000 or just over $1,000,000,000 of cash inflow from our operating activities. And, yes, typically in the first half of the year, we would have an outflow. So obviously, we've turned the turns the tide very much there in terms of the performance of the first half of the year.
Rather than having a working capital outflow, which obviously improved our working capital by $800,000,000 year on year. And I think you heard a little bit of that from both Randy and Keith, which is it's across all of our operations. Everybody is really focused and really doubles down the efforts. Certainly from, you know, throughout the second quarter around making sure we manage the inventory levels we carried, but also making sure we stayed on top of our receivables and collected our monies. I think you that showed up in all parts of our business in terms of inventory and working capital management.
And that has led to an improvement year on year in terms of our working capital position of $800,000,000. I think some of that is timing. But there's I think we also believe some of that is permanent in terms of it's a part of the ongoing focus in terms of year on year improving our working capital positions. And reducing our outstandings. And as you look at the second half of the year, you'd expect obviously the second half of the year typically is a very strong cash inflow.
We will still have a cash flow in the second half of the year, but probably reduce somewhat in the sense that we've pulled some of that forward into the first half. I think on the CapEx side, obviously, again, Albert talked about kind of two paces of growth within the business, some parts of our business we've invested in heavily where we've had the opportunity. And some of the businesses where there's been growth and a demand increase, we've obviously invested to support that. And in other parts of our business where activity levels have reduced to scale back And you've seen that in the first half. We spent $500,000,000 on CapEx in the first half of the year.
That's down $200,000,000 over last year. So it's a reduction. And I would see that pace continuing on into the second half. So we'd be guiding somewhere in the region about $1,000,000,000 of CapEx this year, which will run at about 75% depreciation for the year? I think, coming back to you then, maybe to your cost question, just in terms of picking that up for a second.
There's the biggest standout for me in terms of the way I would describe our cost in the first half of this year is you're seeing really the fact that we've been working for decades now on variabilizing our cost So as you've seen some declines in activity, we've been pushing our cost out of the business and more and more of our cost has become variable. Which you've also seen in some of our fixed cost base, you know, unprecedented actions taken around salary reductions across the board where at senior levels of the organization and write down through the organization, you've seen people volunteer to take salary reductions. Albert mentioned it earlier in terms of maintenance areas where we've cut back on non industry maintenance, any discretionary cost has come out, obviously less travel and things like that going on around the business. So we've been looking at taking that out I think, the way I would look at it is that the first half, we've taken all the necessary actions we've had to do to protect our margins. And therefore, we will continue to do that as required.
But as you see activity levels coming back, you would see that some of the costs will come back with that as well going forward. I think lastly then your energy question, energy last year as a percentage of sales across the group, given us about 10% of sales. In the first half of this year, we've seen a 16%, 17% reduction in energy costs across the group. Half of that I would describe to less volume and less activity and the other half is price. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Our next question for today is from Ornald Law sorry, Arnold Lemmon from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
I hope you're well, Arnaud Lehman from Bank of America. So my first question, if I may come back on the UK, It's my calculations are correct. UK sales were down about 20% in H1. And I think the EBITDA was down maybe around $100,000,000. So the bulk of the decline in Europe materials comes from the UK.
Would you mind coming back on this market, give us a bit of color, especially as you seem to highlight also that the recovery recovery there is a bit slower. So what are your plans for the UK. That's my first question. And my second question is on your balance sheet, which as you highlighted, is very strong and gives you optionality. Could you give us a bit of color on the M and A market?
Is everything still frozen in terms of potential disposals and potential acquisitions, when do you start to see, potential to continue with the asset rotation? Thank you.
Good morning, Arnold. And I too hope that you and your family are keeping well. Nice to hear from you. I'll take both of those questions. Just with regard to the UK market, your figures are broadly correct.
You can back solve the numbers that we've we've come this morning. So they're broadly correct. And across Europe, 3 countries, which were most significantly impacted by the virus where Spain, Italy and indeed the United Kingdom. We have no exposure to Italy. We have very little exposure to Spain, but of course, the Kingdom is a very important market for us.
In fact, at the that the worst point in the cycle, the matter of the cycle in mid April we effectively had closed down 70% to 80% of all operations in the United Kingdom due to restrictions put in place by the government And as a result of that, clearly, we saw very significant declines in activity and indeed in sales. At the same time, in consultation with employer bodies and indeed the government, the government asked us to continue to support our employees by keeping them employed. Actually they also asked us to keep many of our operations open, because we have we supplied materials to essential services. Not only for medical and for hospitals, but also for security, military and essential infrastructure. Operations, we were probably more in a more normal have actually closed down because it wasn't quite commercially viable to keep them open.
But given the extraordinary circumstances that were there, we decided to maintain and keep people employed within our company and pay their full wages. Of course, we received some subsidy, but it's only a small part from the government. And we maintained essential operations as we were asked to do by the government because we felt it's the right thing to do as good corporate citizens. And of course, there were cost implications of doing that. I have to say that we're we've seen activity levels start to recover in the United Kingdom.
Europe has confident Europe has recovered quicker and sooner. UK is recovering at a store place and probably about 4 to 6 weeks behind everywhere else. So as we come from a situation where we had 70, 80% of operations close or shut down at the United Kingdom. It's probably trading back to about only about 20% and still remain closed at this stage. But with each passing week more and more activity activity has returned to normal.
And within the businesses and within the industry, we're seeing good strong demand level coming through our residential exposed business. You would have seen that the new cover of the U. K. Hospitals. So you would have covered our companies as well, and we would be supporting and be in line with that.
And happily, infrastructure, which is over 50% of our business in the United Kingdom is starting to now pick up bank again. And we're seeing some large take up in some of the big key projects, particularly high speed where we got some very significant awards starting to deliver against those projects. So we're in the recovery phase from the very deep shutdown in the United Kingdom, hence, the performance in the first half in a particular second quarter. We're seeing an improvement trend during the course of quarter 3, and we'll just see exactly how that pans out as you go through the remainder of the year. And with regards to the M and A market, you're right, it's quite at the moment there because actually it's very difficult to travel.
As you well know, there are significant restrictions. And although we've all become used to virtual working and virtual communications, it's not quite the same particularly where M and A is quite a highly personalized process. In saying that, we believe that a key part of the whole M and A process is ensuring that you have patients do deals, not just for the people, but also in terms of your balance sheets. And I know that given where we are at this moment in time, our job is to ensure that we we build and maintain and preserve the cash strength within our balance sheet because I look at our balance sheet as a future value creation potential for our shareholders. I also know that at this moment in time, there is very limited visibility about the next 6 to 9 to 12 months.
We just don't know where it's going. And in that environment, that does, of course, stay your hand with regards to M and A. But in saying that I also know having been around a long time is that when you do see a market to recover from recessions, opportunities will emerge because that is the time of greater stress for with regards to, cash and balance sheets of companies because as they rebuild back our working capital and rebuild back their business, that's when they're in most string. So our job at the moment now is to build capacity to keep on top of the opportunities that they're out there and to continue to follow them. And when the time is right to continue on with that game.
Time is our time is worked with us. This is a marathon. It's not a sprint and Our key job at the moment is to maintain performance and deliver within our business, continue to deliver profitability, continue to improve our performance, and continue to preserve and build our cash position and prepare for what will be inevitably be increased inorganic activity in the periods ahead.
Thanks a lot, Albert. I appreciate it.
Our next question is from Logan Laurel from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my questions and thanks everyone for the presentation. So, I'll come back to guidance, if I may, sorry about that, but just to understand guidance for Q3 to start with. We've seen a pickup in sales in June, but basically your guidance for Q3 implies softer sales. So are you actually seeing softer sales already in July August? And if not, why you saw conservatism?
And my as a follow-up to that in your Q3 guidance, do you already forecast some additional restructuring cost for Q3 and H2 following the EUR 65,000,000 of restructuring costs you took in H1. And then mid term, would you think that you will potentially reconsider your 300 basis 300 basis points margin improvement target following this pandemic?
Thanks, L. D. And good to hear from you. Hope you're all well. I'll take those three questions.
Just in the order, you asked them. With regard to quarter 3 and the run rates in terms of what June was and what July August was. Largely speaking, what you would have seen and we showed it there this morning in the month breakdown, the monthly breakdown. You saw a recovering position in May June. And really what happened in June in most markets, that was a period of time where you saw a reaction and a rebound markets started to normalize, people had flattened the curve and therefore had effectively started to see a pickup in activity.
So I think that we saw an uplift in sales in June for sure. The comments that we have with regards to quarter 3 is really a comment that's guided by performance we're seeing in July August where it settles back down to more, more normalized sustainable levels. And as Randy alluded to earlier on, like, we have visibility into the end of September with our order a lot of our businesses as well. So with regard to that, the comments we got to quarter 3 is reflected what we're seeing in July and August, which has been a steady state across the last 7 or 8 weeks. We think that's going to continue up the next 5 weeks of where we go.
And with regards to the so with regards to that, that's how we would see the particular guide with regard to that. And with regards to the, the once off costs that we have embedded in quarter 3 numbers, actually, we're more focused on supplying our markets, supplying our customers. These are busy times. This is the busiest quarter we have in CRH. July over September.
And we're quite busy across most of our markets. We are looking and watching to see if there are more permanent trends involving in which case, we will be taking further cost action, of course. But at this moment in time, the guidance that we give, we don't have any major significant restructuring costs in our business because actually we're out supplying our customers and pretty much in most markets close to where normalized capacity would be. And the final question with regard to the 300 basis points, As I said last year, look, we have a target for our 300 basis points improvement within our businesses. And of course, we are hugely dependent on the external environment in which we operate in because volumes and pricing and costs are usually impacted on that.
But what I what I can confirm to you is what I said last year, what we had said the year before that is that you should expect from CRH that year on year, you should see continued margin improvement in our business. And that continues on again in this year. The extent of that, delivering any 1 year, any 1 year period of time will be dictated in the influence by external factors. So I'm very pleased in the first half of the year. We have a 70 basis points increase, but that's only the first half of the year.
Let's see how the full year comes. We continue to work on projects that I mean, there are multi year projects, whether they form into 2019, 2020, or 2021, depends on when we can execute or deliver projects. We happen to accelerate some into the first half of the year because of the timing of the issue to do so. We're working on today. We continue working on margin improvement in the second half of the year.
It's something we look in the rearview mirror and comment on while we give any prospect, but you can expect that year on year CRH should be delivering continued margin improvements and cash performance in its businesses.
Okay. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Larry. Thank you.
Our next question for today is from Yashin Tahuri from On Field. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. I would have just one question. It seems that Congress in the U.
S. Has not yet managed to agree on any short term help for state highways. Could you give us an update on your discussion with department of operations in the U. S. Do you see project for Q4 next year being canceled or
postponed because of a cash flow constraints? Of, is everything okay?
Good morning, Yustine. Yes. So a specific question with regards to, ongoing funding with regard to U. S. Infrastructure and indeed also outlooks for the remainder of this year, any change to our outlook given the the challenges that all economies are being faced within the United States over there.
And also perhaps maybe I might ask Randy as well to come on the fact that they'll ask him to deal with this question maybe give a sense because the FAST Act, the current funding program finishes during the September of this year. And obviously, it will have to be renewed and reviewed into a new funding program, might ask Glendy also to comment on what is used and thoughts our discussions on Capitol Hill. With regard to where that is. So Randy, maybe you might just comment on those 2 specific areas, please.
Yes. But as you say, the FAST Act runs its course at the end of September. I guess, if you draw a positive is the historically infrastructure investment is a bipartisan issue. So no matter what side of the aisle you're on, you understand the economic impact of investing and improving underlying structure. The other kind of curve ball in today's environment is the election.
So in terms of what may happen in November, But I think what we're hearing would be at a minimum, a continuing type resolution on the existing FAST Act. So the current funding levels would be intact from a federal standpoint. But as you know, states, I
would say over the last 5
to 7 years played a much more active role as well as the municipalities and local governments in terms of raising funds. Certainly, those budgets have come under stress just due to the pandemic and boost traffic flows, although we are starting to see a return to the people at least in the U. S. Back on the road, so roughly about 85 percent of miles driven compared to pre pandemic levels. So we've seen improvements there.
That's translated into, I'd call it, a consistent or relatively flat outlook in terms of bidding. Typically our type of work, as I said earlier, is executed within 30 to 90 days. So the bid lead time tends to be just a couple of months And what we're seeing right now is depending on geography, and it does vary based upon where you are in North America. But overall, we're seeing bidding activity roughly in line with where we saw last year. States will have to make decisions and states are taking a variety of means address potential gaps.
If the federal government doesn't step in in some sort of backstop, you're seeing states take advantage of low interest rate environments and issuing bonds to ensure that they have a consistent flow of money to support investment. And that's just translating now into a relatively stable bidding environment. But that really just takes us through the end of the year. I think it becomes a little more cloudy as we look into 20 21. But at least what we're hearing currently is at a minimum kind of a continuing resolution of the existing FAST Act.
Thanks, Randy. And again, just to put some numbers around that, you've seen that the last 3 years, the funding has been around $30,000,000,000 for U. S. Infrastructure and that's been about $55,000,000,000 funded by the states, $45,000,000,000 funded by the federal government. In the next 3 years, if we even just continue with existing funding commitments, which is what Randy is saying, I like it.
And that's probably that's probably the baseline that should increase by a full 10%. So that's about $360,000,000,000. So that bodes well for a spend on the U. S. Infrastructure going forward.
I should see as well as that is looking back at the last global financial crisis when there appeared to be a little bit of uncertainty with regard to the term of funding of where it's coming through, we found more and more why the money was there. People were unwilling to commit to longer term projects. Actually, believe it. That's actually an advantage to us. But 80% of the work that we do is repair and maintenance improvement work actually.
So it pushes more dollars down the OMI work because that's short term work rather than building a new road. It's easier to commit to repaving a new an old road, which is more of Randy, we said earlier in the presentation a 1 to 3 month air type project. And lastly, of course, the U. S. Unemployment levels in
the U. S. Are north
of 10% at this moment in time. And given the need to address that issue, construction contracting is a very labor intensive enterprise. And we would have found certainly, again, at the last global financial crisis, we expect it again. That states will want to deal with that issue and one way to deal with that issue is to spend the dollars in areas that are our employment intensive. And again, we think they would push certainly more business our way.
So look, we feel reasonably optimistic and robust about the next 3 years as a baseline as Randy says, hopefully, when the new administration gets in place, there's simply good bipartisan support across the floor that will get some sort of increase in funding. But at the moment, seems solid enough that they are increasing from about $330,000,000,000 to $360,000,000,000 over the next 3 years, which underpins our businesses.
Our next question for today is from Will Jones from Redburn. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. Hope everyone's well. A couple from me please as well. First is just around pricing.
Is it relative to the the charts and the figures you give us in the appendix in the presentation. Is there anything different thus far in Q3 that you're pointed to either by country or by just to clear that up. And looking forward, probably more interesting, is there anything you're seeing amongst competitors in capacity, whatever it might be that might make you worry about any elements of pricing as you look into potentially next year. And then second one is more of a technical point. Is there anything we need to bear in mind around the profit effect from either furlough benefits in the first half in places like the UK, is there a number there you can help us with And then probably thinking more about the full year, is there any notable change in carbon costs that you expect in Europe given obviously the likely lower volumes?
Thanks, Will. And good to let me hope you're keeping well. Two specific questions there, one on pricing. Maybe I'll take the European part pricing in terms of European's demand. I'll ask maybe Randy and Keith to talk about their business in North America, just some of what their views are on pricing, any risks to evolve.
So just an aspirational this year as it goes forward. And then specifically, with regard to profitability and furlough and cost sale, asset management at the end of that, Actually, I think there's an interest in dynamic happening in Europe with regard to pricing. And I mean, pricing is ahead across all European markets, 14 of our 15 ahead this year, Spain has been the only one which is not a
big market for us actually. And I think
that to me, a test to the commitment that's there to try and recover pricing back across European heavy side materials by all the players that are there. I mean, this has been an ordinarily stressful period of time with regard to volumes collapsing. And yet pricing didn't shift. Pricing held solid and held firm. Will you been around a long time?
And if I can ask you to cast your mind back to 2010, 2011 of U. S. Materials, when the U. S. Business started to recover just after the global financial crisis.
We saw some very, very small price increases creeping back into a very weak market. But they held firm at that time. And that really was the precursor to a period of time, a strong pricing across all materials businesses in North America from aggregates, asphalt, and concrete. And I think that if we can hold the pricing increases at the level we have in this current year, I think it bodes well for when volume starts to recover back, I would say more normalized activity levels. So I'm very pleased.
It's the 3rd or 4th year where we've seen the majority of the countries can to deliver good pricing across Europe. I've said it before and I'll say it again. European Cement markets have had additional catered from U. S. Cement markets with regard to pricing and margins because of the fact that prices went negative real pricing for about 5 years.
And that needs to be rebuilt back over the next 5 or 6 years. So I actually do think from a European cement point of view, a European materials point of view, it actually bodes very well with regard to, pricing not only for this year, but also for the coming years. Maybe I might pass it to the U. S. Maybe Keith, you might just talk about pricing the products business, what you're seeing across your products business in North America.
And then maybe Randy, you might just come in to what you're seeing in pricing as and on the cost issue with regards to Furlough, etcetera.
Yes, sure, Albert. I think in our products businesses in North America, I would kind of characterize the environment as stable and supportive of pricing. Demand levels have remained relatively solid and robust in most of our businesses, and that's a good backdrop for for pricing. I think as well when we think about it internally, we've put a lot of work in terms of improving our business into investments in our capabilities to understand the pricing environment and what I would kind of call price to value. Such that we get paid fairly for the services and the products that we deliver and how to drive that sort of discipline through our teams.
Over time and that it's reflected in our results. So overall, we're making progress and continuing to make progress in that in that endeavor. And when you put that against the backdrop of relatively good and stable markets, I feel very confident about our ability to maintain the pricing discipline and the effects of that on our business going forward in the medium term.
Thank you. Yes, just building on that, Albert, in terms of the material space here in North America. I'll talk really about aggregate and cement. I won't really refer to pricing on in our ready mix, but line of business, more about margin management there. The input cost of liquid asphalt and cement and see margins expanding nicely in those But in terms of aggregate, what we saw during the financial crisis was stability in pricing.
Actually, prices increased 1% to 2% and during that period of time, there's a recognition of, kind of the non renewal nature of aggregate and an appreciation for the value that it has. And so markets, as Keith indicated, really support a stable environment. And so the expectation going forward is that we would see a continuation of what we, be to this point in the first half of the year and see that carrying through the second half of the year. When you look at Cement and again, that's probably in today's environment varies a little bit by but broadly underpinning strong support for prices to move forward in the markets that we serve. The pace of those might be a little different based upon underlying activity, but, there's a supportive environment and the teams focused on commercial excellence and making sure that our products are top quality.
We're logistically servicing our customer base and that relates then to our ability to achieve advancement in pricing and we would expect to see that continuing in cement for the balance of the year.
Thanks, Randy. Yeah, Will, just in terms of your cost questions, they're taking the carbon cost question first. I think as you know, the carbon cost for us is a roast small cost or a relatively small exposure in CRH. In last year, for example, it was just over $30,000,000 And that represents about 1% of our total energy bill. While it's still early days in 2020, I don't expect the number to be materially different in 2020.
As you rightly point out, there's some factors that play where production levels will vary, the mix of production will vary, and we'll see how that plays out in the second year, but overall, I don't expect it to be significantly different from previous year. I think in terms of your comment around furlough, is there any unusual first half of the year knows the answer. I think what we've done with our cost base, as we've said a couple of times here in the call, is that we've flexed our cost base to reflect activity levels and obviously back in April and to extend in May in some parts of our business where activity levels fell away to lower levels, we flex back our cost base quite a lot to reflect that activity level. And now obviously, activity levels ramp up again, where we obviously flex that cost base back up again to support the business. So I wouldn't call anything unusual out or staff performance, but you would, you should draw attention to.
We're running up against China. I think we have time for one more question, please.
Our last question today is from John Fraser Andrews from HSBC. Please go ahead.
The first one is, that tilts in the U. S. To the west with the Ash Grove acquisition seems to have have paid dividends in the first half. Could you provide an update please on how that's integrated and and perhaps a little bit more detail how that performed, in the first half. So that's question 1.
And then question 2, perhaps I could ask a little bit more granularity on what the U. S. States are doing. Obviously, there'll be different different, trends in different states. But are you seeing any of actually seeing any weakness already from the impact of COVID and perhaps a little bit more color on that, please.
Okay, John. Good to talk to you. I hope you're well. And two questions. I'll ask Randy to come in.
I'll even my thoughts on both of those and ask Ryan if he's coming after me and both of them, if you don't mind me, please. First question, let me talk about the Ash Grove and indeed probably our U. S. Cement business. In just Ashgrove.
Ashgrove was an acquisition, but of course, we had cement businesses in Canada and leading in Florida as well that we developed over that period of time as well. The delivery of the numbers that we've seen in the first half by CRH is, as a result of a well thought out plan over the last number of years, with regard to the strategic positioning of our businesses. And of course, moving to into U. S. Cement was a key part of that.
But as you crucially say, Sol was also moving down south and now West in the United States and makes perfect sense when you look back at it now because That's where the population of the United States is going. More people are moving to the south, more people are moving west. That's where people are going, and that's where construction is going to be. And, our big, big markets that weren't big markets where 10 years ago, such as Florida and Texas and lead the Midwest, which was a good marketplace, but now it was a much better market. Because we managed to integrate the Ash Grove business with our existing footprint.
So it's not just the delivery of Ash Grove, it's the fact that we're moving where the markets are going. Positioning ourselves for a longer term, more sustainable growth and integrating well with our business. But I'll ask and Randy talk about that in the second. With regards to the U. S.
States and what we have seen in the first half of the year, I'll ask Randy specifically to talk about the state funding initiatives. But just as we've said earlier this morning, Large speaking in North America, effectively, one of our shuttle based orders in across the United States, essential, essentially construction with deemed to be an essential activity. And the type of work that we do largely speaking is open there, largely dispersed construction type activities, which actually when you put it in safe working practices, allowed you to continue to go to work. And that's why we were able to continue working in advanced environments, we were, of course, impacted in density publication. So, so New York the Pacific Northwest, specifically on Seattle, where areas that were very badly impacted in the April, May period.
Now happily, they have pushed back there and now we return back to more normalized levels that are there. But largely speaking, the dispersed nature of construction that we do, which is large scale, holds on type construction tends to be done in open space, essentially major infrastructure, and it hasn't really impacted upon our ability to go to work With regard to the funding and some of the initiatives, I'll ask again, Randy, to talk about that. So maybe Randy, you might just develop all the thoughts in terms of how the cement business are coming together in the U. S. And how that's been helped to deliver.
Been going. And also just talk maybe about specific funding initiatives that you're seeing across states, or indeed any weaknesses that you're seeing across the businesses. Yes.
So on Cement, I would say, we don't use the term integrated anymore because the business fully integrated. It's a platform within one of our 4 divisions in North American America's material. I think bottom line geography matters in the cement business. So to Albert's point, the targeted investments, whether that was Ash Grove or Swannie America, complimented by our our Northeast or Canadian Eastern position. It's about having the right geography where population is growing.
Where there's an opportunity to coordinate and integrate with our existing downstream consumption. And the Gus don't think about the ready mix business, although that's a big consumer of cement, Keith's business in the product side, whether that's Oldcastle infrastructure or the Architectural Products Group, the platform that we now have allows us to really optimize vertical integration, which is important for not only stability and consumption, but also from a commercial standpoint. The teams in conjunction with our global technical services team across CRH are uncovering a lot of opportunities operationally as well and teams continue to deliver on those. And so we've refined the team We've consolidated the team and continue to execute it at a very high level, delivering, I'd say, a fantastic performance in an uncertain environment where there's a lot of variability in terms of COVID cases. And so therefore, underlying demand But from, I guess, the future standpoint, the portfolio is in a point to be able to continue to grow.
And I think we often under we don't talk a lot what other parts of Ash Grove came along with that, which was a significant aggregate business in the central part of the U. S. And that's performing very well. Everywhere from Nebraska down into Oklahoma. And so it complemented our existing footprint and really gave us a strategic position in the central part of the United States.
In terms of kind of funding at the state level, you're seeing a variety of different reactions to the pandemic and budget strains quite quite frankly, because governors and local officials have to make decisions between health care and education, infrastructure and other parts of investment. You're seeing, as I mentioned earlier, everything from increased use of bonding in Florida and Texas in particular, where you're seeing an uptick in underlying investment and then really the movement of funds in other states, to address shortfalls in infrastructure spend. And so I think you'll see as the year unfolds as we go into next year, states will continue to use probably innovative approaches to increase underlying investment because as Albert said before, construction can be won, be done safely. It's an outside activity. 2, it's a substantial employer within those local districts.
And so there's an understanding of the economic value of that investment. And so whether that's through gas tax increases, whether that's through registration fee increases, historically, no matter what kind of the demand environment is, states and municipalities have figured out a way to at least at a minimum have stable investment in infrastructure. And we would expect at least talking with boots on the ground to our folks to see that going into 2021.
Look, ladies and gentlemen, that's all we have time for this morning. I want to thank you for your attention. And I hope we've We've managed to answer all of your questions. But as always, if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to get in touch with our Investor Relations team. And we look forward to talking to you again in November when we provide you with the trading update for the 1st 9 months of the year.
Thank you again for this morning, and stay safe.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. That does conclude the call for today. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.