Imperial Brands PLC (IMB) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us for our half-year 26 results. Just a few housekeeping items before we kick off. For those of you in the room, there are no planned fire alarm tests today. So if it goes off, it is a real one. And you'll see the fire exit is just behind you there, lit up in green. And finally, I just wanted to draw your attention to the usual disclaimer in our R&S this morning and in the presentation, which we're just about to go through. So without further ado, I'll Hand over to Lucas. Thank you very much. And good morning and a very warm welcome to this results presentation. Thank you very much for joining us here in the room and a very warm welcome to those who join us online. Today I'm joined by Mary McGowan, our Chief Financial Officer, and John Cross, our Director for Investors Relations. Mary and myself really look forward to presenting the first six months of our fiscal year 26 and also the first six months of our Evolve 2030 strategy. I'll start off with a few highlights. Mary will then take the stage and talk us through the financial performance and our expectations for the full year. I will then come back on stage and discuss in more details how we are delivering strong operational performance, while at the same time delivering self-help efficiencies and transforming our business to deliver long-term sustainable growth. With that, let me start the presentation. There are four things, overarching points, which Mary and I want to make in today's presentation. First, our consistent financial performance continues to deliver growth in net revenue and adjusted operating profit, driving cash generation of 2.6 billion over the past 12 months. And this is underpinning consistent capital returns, which includes our evergreen share buybac...