Half Year 2026 Synectics PLC Earnings Call

August 24, 2026

Speaker #2: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the SYNNEX PRC Investor Presentation. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab.

Operator 2: Play the intro. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Synectics PLC Investor Presentation. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab that is just situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and will publish our responses where it is appropriate to do so on the Investor Meet Company platform. Before we begin, we would just like to submit the following poll, and if you could give that your kind attention, I am sure the company would be most grateful. I would now like to hand you over to the executive management team from Synectics PLC. Amanda, good morning.

Operator: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Synectics PLC Investor Presentation. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab that is just situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and will publish our responses where it is appropriate to do so on the Investor Meet Company platform. Before we begin, we would just like to submit the following poll, and if you could give that your kind attention, I am sure the company would be most grateful. I would now like to hand you over to the executive management team from Synectics PLC. Amanda, good morning.

Speaker #2: There's a chat box situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself; however, the company will review all questions submitted today and will publish our responses, where appropriate, on the Investor Meet Company platform.

Speaker #2: Before we begin, we have decided to submit the following poll, and if you could give that your kind attention, I am sure the company would be most grateful.

Speaker #2: And I would now like to hand you over to the executive management team from SYNNEX PRC—Amanda. Good morning.

Speaker #3: Good morning, and thank you all for joining us. With me today is Paul Williams, our CFO. Today, we'll talk you through our performance for the first half of the year through to May 2026 and the factors affecting it.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Good morning, and thank you all for joining us. With me today is Paul Williams, our CFO. Today we will talk you through our performance for the H1 of the year through to May 2026 and the factors affecting it. Then importantly, we will update you on our transformation strategy that we launched at the start of the year, the progress that we are making, and why we believe those changes can support stronger growth from FY27 onwards. I would just like to give a brief introduction for those less familiar with Synectics. We are a global provider of security, surveillance, and operational intelligence solutions operating in markets where security is critical. We have two businesses. Synectics develops our proprietary technology and provides advanced security, surveillance, and operational intelligence solutions for business-critical environments globally.

Amanda Larnder: Good morning, and thank you all for joining us. With me today is Paul Williams, our CFO. Today we will talk you through our performance for the H1 of the year through to May 2026 and the factors affecting it. Then importantly, we will update you on our transformation strategy that we launched at the start of the year, the progress that we are making, and why we believe those changes can support stronger growth from FY27 onwards. I would just like to give a brief introduction for those less familiar with Synectics. We are a global provider of security, surveillance, and operational intelligence solutions operating in markets where security is critical. We have two businesses. Synectics develops our proprietary technology and provides advanced security, surveillance, and operational intelligence solutions for business-critical environments globally.

Speaker #3: And then, importantly, we'll update you on our transformation strategy that we launched at the start of the year, the progress that we're making, and why we believe those changes can support stronger growth from FY27 onwards.

Speaker #3: I'd just like to give a brief introduction for those less familiar with SYNNEX. We're a global provider of security, surveillance, and operational intelligence solutions.

Speaker #3: Operating in markets where security is critical, we have two businesses: SYNNEX develops our proprietary technology and provides advanced security, surveillance, and operational intelligence solutions for business-critical environments globally.

Speaker #3: Ocular is an independent UK systems integration business, working directly with end customers, predominantly in the transport and security markets. You can see some of our customers here.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Ocular is an independent UK systems integrations business working directly with end customers, predominantly in transport and security markets. You can see some of our customers here. There are many others that we cannot show for confidentiality reasons, but I think the important point that we would like to note is the quality and the longevity of that customer base within those demanding markets listed there in which we are trusted to operate. We operate in some very attractive and growing markets, and at the end of 2024, we estimated that our serviceable market was more than GBP 2 billion. There are several structural trends that are strengthening that opportunity today that I would like to give you a brief overview of. Investment in critical infrastructure and energy resilience is increasing, so grid investment alone needs to rise materially through to 2030 to support the demand and resilience needed there.

Amanda Larnder: Ocular is an independent UK systems integrations business working directly with end customers, predominantly in transport and security markets. You can see some of our customers here. There are many others that we cannot show for confidentiality reasons, but I think the important point that we would like to note is the quality and the longevity of that customer base within those demanding markets listed there in which we are trusted to operate. We operate in some very attractive and growing markets, and at the end of 2024, we estimated that our serviceable market was more than GBP 2 billion. There are several structural trends that are strengthening that opportunity today that I would like to give you a brief overview of. Investment in critical infrastructure and energy resilience is increasing, so grid investment alone needs to rise materially through to 2030 to support the demand and resilience needed there.

Speaker #3: There are many others that we can't show for confidentiality reasons, but I think the important point that we'd like to know is the quality and the longevity of that customer base.

Speaker #3: Within those demanding markets listed there, in which we're trusted to operate, we operate in some very attractive and growing markets. At the end of 2024, we estimated that our serviceable market was more than £2 billion.

Speaker #3: And there are several structural trends that are strengthening that opportunity today that I'd like to give you a brief overview of. Investment in critical infrastructure and energy resilience is increasing, so grid infrastructure—grid investment alone—needs to rise materially through to 2030 to support the demand and resilience needed there.

Speaker #3: The threat environment is becoming more demanding, both physically and digitally. This is accelerating the shift in security from the more traditional monitoring towards resilience and rapid response, with customers increasingly needing systems that help them detect, understand, and respond to incidents quickly.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): The threat environment is becoming more demanding, both physically and digitally, which is accelerating the shift in security from the more traditional monitoring towards resilience and rapid response, with customers increasingly needing systems that help them detect, understand, and respond to incidents quickly. Regulation and cyber requirements continue to increase, particularly in the critical environments that we serve, which raises the importance of trusted and independently assured technology. The geopolitical environment is a significant factor shaping cyber risk strategies and increasing the importance of cyber resilience and security solutions. Finally, technology, including AI, is moving incredibly quickly. AI is creating opportunities to create genuine operational value by reducing manual work, improving the speed of response, and extracting intelligence from surveillance. In addition to this physical security, cyber security, data, and operational systems are increasingly converging onto integrated platforms.

Amanda Larnder: The threat environment is becoming more demanding, both physically and digitally, which is accelerating the shift in security from the more traditional monitoring towards resilience and rapid response, with customers increasingly needing systems that help them detect, understand, and respond to incidents quickly. Regulation and cyber requirements continue to increase, particularly in the critical environments that we serve, which raises the importance of trusted and independently assured technology. The geopolitical environment is a significant factor shaping cyber risk strategies and increasing the importance of cyber resilience and security solutions. Finally, technology, including AI, is moving incredibly quickly. AI is creating opportunities to create genuine operational value by reducing manual work, improving the speed of response, and extracting intelligence from surveillance. In addition to this physical security, cyber security, data, and operational systems are increasingly converging onto integrated platforms.

Speaker #3: Regulation and cyber requirements continue to increase, particularly in the critical environments that we serve, which raises the importance of trusted and independently assured technology.

Speaker #3: The geopolitical environment is a significant factor shaping cyber risk strategies and increasing the importance of cyber resilience and security solutions. And then, finally, technology—including AI—is moving incredibly quickly.

Speaker #3: AI is creating opportunities to generate genuine operational value by reducing manual work, improving the speed of response, and extracting intelligence from surveillance. In addition to this, physical security, cybersecurity, data, and operational systems are increasingly converging onto integrated platforms.

Speaker #3: Our 5P strategy is designed to align very closely with these market trends, to create an AI-enabled, cyber-secure operational intelligence platform focused on those critical markets where we already have deep expertise and trusted customer positions.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Our five P strategy is designed to align very closely with these market trends to create an AI-enabled, cyber secure operational intelligence platform focused on those critical markets where we already have deep expertise and trusted customer positions. Turning to the H1 now, performance was in line with our expectations before the impact of the delays to oil and gas orders and the related revenues following the conflict in the Middle East. FY26 was already expected to be more H2 weighted, and those oil and gas delays have made that weighting somewhat more pronounced. I will come back to what we are seeing in the Middle East in a minute. Gross margin increased by around 7 percentage points to 48%. We have continued to secure important new business and new customers across our priority markets. You can see a couple of examples of those here.

Amanda Larnder: Our five P strategy is designed to align very closely with these market trends to create an AI-enabled, cyber secure operational intelligence platform focused on those critical markets where we already have deep expertise and trusted customer positions. Turning to the H1 now, performance was in line with our expectations before the impact of the delays to oil and gas orders and the related revenues following the conflict in the Middle East. FY26 was already expected to be more H2 weighted, and those oil and gas delays have made that weighting somewhat more pronounced. I will come back to what we are seeing in the Middle East in a minute. Gross margin increased by around 7 percentage points to 48%. We have continued to secure important new business and new customers across our priority markets. You can see a couple of examples of those here.

Speaker #3: Turning to the first half now, performance was in line with our expectations before the impact of delays to oil and gas orders and the related revenues following the conflict in the Middle East.

Speaker #3: FY26 was already expected to be more second-half weighted, and those oil and gas delays have made that waiting somewhat more pronounced. I'll come back to what we're seeing in the Middle East in a minute.

Speaker #3: Gross margin increased by around 7 percentage points to 48%. We've continued to secure important new business and new customers across our priority markets, and you can see a couple of examples of those here.

Speaker #3: A 2.4 million dollar contract with a new with an iconic US casino customer, which is a brand new customer for us. And our first transport sector win in Southeast Asia, as we look to extend our sectors in that region outside of gaming and energy.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): A $2.4 million contract with an iconic US casino customer, which is a brand new customer for us, and our first transport sector win in Southeast Asia as we look to extend our sectors in that region outside of gaming and energy. Both are strategically important wins with the potential to develop into broader customer and partner relationships over time as well. Since the period end, oil and gas order intake has been positive, primarily from customers outside of the Middle East. Alongside that, we are making good progress against the strategy that is designed to transform Synectics into a scalable product and partner-led business. I will come back to that after Paul takes you through the numbers. Reflecting our confidence in the strategy and the group's strong financial position, we have maintained the interim dividend at 2.2 pence per share.

Amanda Larnder: A $2.4 million contract with an iconic US casino customer, which is a brand new customer for us, and our first transport sector win in Southeast Asia as we look to extend our sectors in that region outside of gaming and energy. Both are strategically important wins with the potential to develop into broader customer and partner relationships over time as well. Since the period end, oil and gas order intake has been positive, primarily from customers outside of the Middle East. Alongside that, we are making good progress against the strategy that is designed to transform Synectics into a scalable product and partner-led business. I will come back to that after Paul takes you through the numbers. Reflecting our confidence in the strategy and the group's strong financial position, we have maintained the interim dividend at 2.2 pence per share.

Speaker #3: Both are strategically important wins, with the potential to develop into broader customer and partner relationships over time as well. Since the period end, oil and gas order intake has been positive, primarily from customers outside of the Middle East.

Speaker #3: Alongside that, we're making good progress against the strategy that's designed to transform SYNNEX into a scalable, product- and partner-led business. I'll come back to that after Paul takes you through the numbers.

Speaker #3: And reflecting our confidence in the strategy and the group's strong financial position, we've maintained the interim dividend at 2.2 pence per share. I'd now just like to spend a minute explaining what we're seeing in the Middle East, because it's affected our performance in the half.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): I would now just like to spend a minute explaining what we are seeing in the Middle East, because it has affected our performance in the half. It is also important strategically as we are increasingly targeting that region for growth beyond our traditional oil and gas business. It is important to distinguish here between what we are seeing with current project timing and the underlying investment environment. The conflict has disrupted the timing of some oil and gas projects so far. Synectics is typically a small specialist part of a larger project, so the timing of our orders is dependent on the wider project schedules, some of which have moved to the right by staying very close to customers, by increasing our readiness to mobilize quickly as opportunities do convert, and in continuing to improve the competitiveness of COEX, which is our specialist energy camera range.

Amanda Larnder: I would now just like to spend a minute explaining what we are seeing in the Middle East, because it has affected our performance in the half. It is also important strategically as we are increasingly targeting that region for growth beyond our traditional oil and gas business. It is important to distinguish here between what we are seeing with current project timing and the underlying investment environment. The conflict has disrupted the timing of some oil and gas projects so far. Synectics is typically a small specialist part of a larger project, so the timing of our orders is dependent on the wider project schedules, some of which have moved to the right by staying very close to customers, by increasing our readiness to mobilize quickly as opportunities do convert, and in continuing to improve the competitiveness of COEX, which is our specialist energy camera range.

Speaker #3: But it's also important strategically, as we're increasingly targeting that region for growth beyond our traditional oil and gas business. It's important to distinguish here between what we're seeing with current project timing and the underlying investment environment.

Speaker #3: The conflict has disrupted the timing of some oil and gas projects so far. SYNNEX is typically a small, specialist part of a larger project, so the timing of our orders is dependent on the wider project schedules.

Speaker #3: Some of which have moved to this by staying very close to customers, by increasing our readiness to mobilise quickly as opportunities do convert, and then continuing to improve the competitiveness of COEX, which is our specialist energy camera range.

Speaker #3: Importantly, though, the underlying strategic investment requirement in oil and gas hasn't disappeared. So major regional oil and gas producers, such as ADNOC, Saudi Aramco, and Qatar Energy, to name a few, continue to commit to significant capex.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Importantly, though, the underlying strategic investment requirement in oil and gas hasn't disappeared. Major regional oil and gas producers such as ADNOC, Saudi Aramco, and QatarEnergy, to name a few, continue to commit to significant CapEx, and our own oil and gas pipeline continues to remain substantial. Our Middle East strategy is now broader than oil and gas, and actually the heightened security environment caused by the conflict is increasing investment in security in that region. We're seeing greater focus on resilience, on cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection, and integrated threat response. These requirements align well with Synergy, with our CAPSS cyber credentials, and our ability to bring different security systems together to give customers a clear review of threats and to help them respond more effectively. That's why for us, continuing to establish a local presence in the region and developing the right partners remains strategically important.

Amanda Larnder: Importantly, though, the underlying strategic investment requirement in oil and gas hasn't disappeared. Major regional oil and gas producers such as ADNOC, Saudi Aramco, and QatarEnergy, to name a few, continue to commit to significant CapEx, and our own oil and gas pipeline continues to remain substantial. Our Middle East strategy is now broader than oil and gas, and actually the heightened security environment caused by the conflict is increasing investment in security in that region. We're seeing greater focus on resilience, on cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection, and integrated threat response. These requirements align well with Synergy, with our CAPSS cyber credentials, and our ability to bring different security systems together to give customers a clear review of threats and to help them respond more effectively. That's why for us, continuing to establish a local presence in the region and developing the right partners remains strategically important.

Speaker #3: And our own oil and gas pipeline continues to remain substantial. Our Middle East strategy is now broader than oil and gas, and actually, the heightened security environment caused by the conflict is increasing investment in security in that region.

Speaker #3: We're seeing greater focus on resilience, on cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection, and integrated threat response. These requirements align well with the synergy of our CAP cyber credentials and our ability to bring different security systems together to give customers a clearer view of threats and to help them respond more effectively.

Speaker #3: That's why, for us, continuing to establish a local presence in the region and developing the right partners remains strategically important. In the near term, yes, there is some timing uncertainty in oil and gas, but longer term, in the Middle East, we continue to see substantial oil and gas opportunity alongside a broader security opportunity, which is increasingly aligned with our strategy.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): In the near term, yes, there is some timing uncertainty in oil and gas, but longer term in the Middle East, we continue to see substantial oil and gas opportunity alongside a broader security opportunity, which is increasingly aligned with our strategy. I'll now hand over to Paul, who will take you through H1 in more detail.

Amanda Larnder: In the near term, yes, there is some timing uncertainty in oil and gas, but longer term in the Middle East, we continue to see substantial oil and gas opportunity alongside a broader security opportunity, which is increasingly aligned with our strategy. I'll now hand over to Paul, who will take you through H1 in more detail.

Speaker #3: I'll now hand over to Paul, who'll take you through H1 in more detail.

Speaker #2: Thanks, Amanda. Yes, just talking to the H1 results then. As signaled at the year-end, we indicated that the 2026 results would really not be impacted by the new strategy that we are in the middle of now implementing.

Paul Williams: Thanks, Amanda. Yes, just talking to the H1 results then. As signaled at the year-end, we indicated that the 2026 results would really not be impacted by the new strategy that we are in the middle of now implementing. What we see here are a set of results that are very much the old Synectics project driven to some extent, so quite susceptible to project timing differences and not impacted by the new strategy yet as we see. That project driven variability in revenues is in large part what we are addressing with the new strategy to move the revenue flows more towards product led, more recurring, better in quality, and greater degree of predictability. In terms of the numbers themselves, we've seen a reduction in revenues from GBP 35 million in the first half of last year to GBP 22.2 million for the first half of 2026.

Speaker #2: So what we see here is a set of results that are very much, sort of, old SYNNEX—sort of project-driven to some extent. So, quite susceptible to project timing differences and not impacted by the new strategy yet, as we see.

Speaker #2: We are saying that project-driven variability in revenues is, in large part, what we are addressing with the new strategy—to move the revenue flows more towards product-led, more recurring, better in quality, and with a greater degree of predictability.

Speaker #2: In terms of the numbers themselves, we've seen a reduction in revenues from £35 million in the first half of last year to £22.2 million for the first half of '26.

Speaker #2: Gross margins were down from 14.5% to 10.6% in the half, but the margin itself was up from 41%, as Amanda had said, up 6.8 percentage points to 47.8%.

Paul Williams: Gross margins down from 14.5 to 10.6 in the half. But the margin itself up from 41%, as Amanda has said, up 6.8 percentage points to 47.8%. Revenue performance is, as we've said, reflective of the absence of that significant non-repeating casino project from 2025. And to some extent, a delayed order intake and revenues due to that ongoing disruption in the energy market. It's a switch back toward a more normalized revenue phasing between towards the second half of the year that we typically see in prior years with Synectics. Recurring revenues remain stable at just under GBP 4 million, as new subscription-based product features begin to launch in the second half of the year with Scene Check and Synergy SEARCH capabilities that Amanda will speak to later in the presentation.

Speaker #2: Revenue performance is, as we've said, reflective of the absence of that significant non-repeating casino project from 2025. And, to some extent, it delayed order intake and revenue due to that ongoing disruption in the energy market.

Speaker #2: It's a switch back towards a more normalized revenue phasing in the second half of the year, which we typically see in prior years with SYNNEX.

Speaker #2: Recurring revenues remained stable at just under $4 million. As new, sort of subscription-based product features begin to launch in the second half of the year, we've seen check and surge capabilities that Amanda will speak to later in the presentation.

Speaker #2: As expected, we would not expect these revenues to begin to sort of accumulate in the recurring revenues until full year '27, and they're a key part of the driver of growth going forward, but not expected to impact us in the first half of this year.

Paul Williams: As expected, we would not expect these revenues to begin to accumulate in the recurring revenues until FY27, a key part of the driver of growth going forward, but not expected to impact us in H1 of this year. Margin increase driven mainly due to change in product mix. Again, a project-led business such as Synectics at the moment would typically see a different blend of products going through different projects as they go through delivery phase. We have seen a mix of more higher margin products going through in H1 of the year compared to what we would have seen this time last year.

Speaker #2: The margin increase is driven mainly due to a sort of change in product mix. Again, a project-led business such as SYNNEX, at the moment, would typically see a different blend of products going through different projects.

Speaker #2: As they go through the delivery phase, we've seen a mix of more higher-margin products going through in the first half of the year, compared to what we would have seen at this time last year.

Speaker #2: And we would expect, typically, that that would sort of normalize a little bit in the second half of the year, as those projects sort of—again, that mix just changes a little bit across the second half of the year.

Paul Williams: We would expect typically that that will normalize a little bit in H2 of the year as those projects, again, that mix just changes a little bit across H2 of the year. So we wouldn't expect to extrapolate forward at the levels that we are seeing here in H1 of the year. Adjusted EBITDA dropped down to GBP 1 million. This is largely down to the decreased revenue flow in H1 of the year, but offset by those improved gross margins and some improvements to our operating expenses as well, just leading to a little bit of a reduction in operating costs from half to half. Looking at the systems business, what we are seeing here is revenues have dropped significantly as we would have expected, driven predominantly by that leisure and hospitality sector with that large contract running through last year.

Speaker #2: So we wouldn't expect to extrapolate forward at the levels that we're seeing here in the first half of the year. Adjusted EBITDA dropped down to $1 million.

Speaker #2: This is largely due to the decreased revenue flow in the first half of the year, but it was offset by those improved gross margins and some improvements to our operating expenses as well, just leading to a little bit of a reduction in operating costs from half to half.

Speaker #2: Looking at the Systems business, what we're seeing here is revenues have dropped significantly, as we would have expected, driven predominantly by that leisure and hospitality sector. With that large contract running through last year, there is a little bit of softness in APAC leisure and hospitality as they recover their pipeline on the back of that large contract delivered last year.

Paul Williams: A little bit of softness in APAC leisure and hospitality as they recover their pipeline on the back of that large contract delivered last year. However, we expect that H1 dip in APAC to be offset by an improvement in North America in leisure and hospitality on the back of a number of significant wins that we have announced and that Amanda spoke about at the top of the presentation, coming through in H2 of the year into revenues. As we have said that, we can also see a drop-off in the Middle East-driven oil and gas projects, has impacted H1 of the revenue for the systems business.

Speaker #2: However, we expect that sort of first-half dip in APAC to be offset by an improvement in North America in leisure and hospitality, on the back of a number of significant wins that we've announced and that Amanda spoke about at the top of the presentation.

Speaker #2: Coming through in the second half of the year into revenues. And as we said, we can also see a drop-off in the Middle East-driven oil and gas projects, which has impacted the first half of the revenue.

Speaker #2: For the systems business, in terms of gross margin improvement, we can see a significant improvement in gross margin driven, as I've mentioned, by that product mix—moving towards those higher-margin products and more of a maintenance blend in there, which is higher margin for us.

Paul Williams: In terms of gross margin improvement, we can see a significant improvement in gross margin driven, as I have mentioned, by that product mix, moving towards those higher margin products and more of a maintenance blend in there, which is higher margin for us. However, we are also seeing some operational efficiencies coming through to the business a little bit as we are starting to make some improvements to the way that we operate and the way that we deliver projects coming through some of those low-hanging efficiency fruits now starting to be dealt with in the business. Also we have maintained some strong pricing disciplines across the year in the face of global increases in hardware costs.

Speaker #2: However, we are also seeing some operational efficiencies coming through to the business, as we are starting to make some improvements to the way that we operate and the way that we deliver.

Speaker #2: Projects coming through some of those low hanging efficiency fruits now starting to be dealt with in the business. And also, we've maintained some strong pricing disciplines across the in the face of a sort of global increases in hardware costs and computer memory and storage is increasing.

Paul Williams: Computer memory and storage is increasing across the globe. We have, again, we have been working proactively within our supply chain to try to minimize the effect of that, but at the same time, maintaining that pricing discipline means we have not seen a degradation in margins as a consequence of those cost increases in our supply chain. However, as I mentioned earlier, we would expect to see that mix just moving around a little bit again across the H2 of the year. We would expect to see margin. Order book coverage entering H2 is where we would expect it to be at this stage, although there remains a little bit of uncertainty around that ongoing impact of the Middle East on the energy sector.

Speaker #2: Across the globe and we have sort of again, we've been working proactively within our supply chain to sort of try to minimise the effect of that, but at the same time sort of maintaining that pricing discipline that means we're not seeing a degradation in margins as a consequence of those cost increases in our supply chain.

Speaker #2: However, as I mentioned earlier, we would expect to see that mix just moving around a little bit again across the second half of the year, and we would expect to see margins.

Speaker #1: Order book coverage entering the second half is where we would expect it to be at this stage. Although there remains a little bit of uncertainty around the ongoing impact of the Middle East on the energy sector.

Speaker #1: However, where possible, we have keyed risks to as much of our outlook as we can from those particular— for those particular projects. And I'll come back to talk about that a little bit, but in the outlook section.

Paul Williams: However, where possible, we have de-risked as much of our outlook as we can for those particular projects. I will come back to talk about that a little bit in the outlook section. In terms of one of the advantages that we do have with the COEX camera configurations that we are building up in our operation center in Scunthorpe, is that we can lean into that supply chain a little bit. We can lean into that order book, and some of those orders that we are expecting to convert in the H2 of the year to pre-build, partially build those camera configurations, meaning that when we receive those orders, we can convert to revenue quite quickly. Again, it is just something that will impact us a little bit in the H2 of the year. We have that capability to take revenue quickly once those orders are received.

Speaker #1: One of the advantages that we do have with the COEX camera configurations that we're building up in our operations centre in Stone Corp is that we can lean into that supply chain a little bit.

Speaker #1: We can lean into that order book and some of those orders that we're expecting to convert in the second half of the year to sort of pre-build, partially build those camera configurations, meaning that when we receive those orders, we can convert to revenue quite quickly.

Speaker #1: So again, it’s just something that will impact us a little bit in the second half of the year and have that capability to sort of take revenue quickly once those orders are received.

Speaker #1: Although, noting again, I'll talk to this a little bit in the outlook section. Noting that there's a little risk that some of those oil and gas opportunities will just push out into next year, unless the orders are received within the next couple of months.

Paul Williams: Although noting, again, I will talk to this a little bit in the outlook section, noting that there is a little risk that some of those oil and gas opportunities will just push out into next year, unless the orders are received within the next couple of months. Moving on to talk about Ocular. Ocular's performance was a resilient performance in sort of relatively mixed market conditions, moving just slightly downward from 12.6 million of revenue to 11.8 million in the half. Significant order intake from SpaceBase during the year sort of highlights the benefit of that relationship and that long-term strategic partnership with that customer. We look forward to continuing to expand that relationship going forward. In terms of margin improvement, yes, 5.4 percentage points up to just over 32%, which is a good level of margin for a systems integration business.

Speaker #1: Moving on to talk about Ocula. Ocula's performance was a resilient performance in sort of relatively mixed market conditions. Moving just slightly downward from 12.6 million of revenue to 11.8 in the half, significant order intake from stage coach during the year sort of highlights the benefit of that relationship and that long-term strategic partnership with that customer.

Speaker #1: And we look forward to continuing to expand that relationship going forward. In terms of margin improvement, yes, 5.4 percentage points up to just over 32%, which is a good level of margin for a systems integration business.

Speaker #1: It moves around a little bit, due to the fact that we were delivering a number of critical infrastructure projects this time last year, which typically for us are at a lower margin.

Paul Williams: Moved around a little bit by the fact that we were delivering a number of critical infrastructure projects this time last year, specifically for us, they are at lower margin. As we see that product mix moving around a little bit, we have seen that improve and feeding through into the half for this year. Again, strong pricing discipline and proactive supply chain management are just helping us along the way with our profit margins or the margins on that part of the business. A little bit of a feed through then into EBITDA growth, up to 1.2 million from 1 million last year. Looking forward, Ocular remains focused on disciplined execution and converting its pipeline across its core transport and regulated markets. Moving on just to talk a little bit about the balance sheet and the capital allocation policy.

Speaker #1: And so, as we see that product mix moving around a little bit, we've seen that improve by feeding through into the half for this year.

Speaker #1: But again, strong pricing discipline and proactive supply chain management are just helping us along the way with our profit margins, or the margins on that part of the business.

Speaker #1: A little bit of feed-through, then into EBITDA growth, up to $1.2 million from $1 million last year. Looking forward, Ocula remains focused on disciplined execution and converting its pipeline across its core transport and regulated markets.

Speaker #1: Moving on, just to talk a little bit about the balance sheet and the capital allocation policy. We have a strong, debt-free balance sheet with healthy net cash of £10.5 million at the half year.

Paul Williams: We have a strong debt-free balance sheet with healthy net cash of GBP 10.5 million at the half year. Core movements there from the year-end where we reported GBP 14.1 million of cash have a positive impact from, or a small positive impact from our operating activities. We do have a reduction in working capital, particularly around supply chain during the half as we have sort of leaned into our supply chain to pre-purchase for inventory a number of those hardware items that we need to fulfill our order book across the second half of the year. Perhaps a little more than we would normally do because of those rising prices, making sure that we can secure the equipment that we need at the right time with that sort of typically sort of 13 to 14 week lead time at the moment.

Speaker #1: Core movements there from the year-end, where we reported $14.1 million of cash, have a positive impact, or a small positive impact, from our operating activities.

Speaker #1: We do have a reduction in working capital particularly around supply chain during the half as we have sort of leaned into our supply chain to sort of pre to pre-purchase for inventory a number of those hardware items that we need to fulfill our order book across the second half of the year.

Speaker #1: Perhaps a little more than we would normally do because of those rising prices. It's making sure that we can secure the equipment that we need at the right time, with that sort of typically 13- to 14-week lead time at the moment.

Speaker #1: And also, just making sure that we can get that at the right price as prices continue to increase around us. So we're working proactively there.

Paul Williams: Also just making sure that we can get that at the right price as the prices continue to increase around us. So we are working proactively there. A little bit more cash tied up in inventory than we normally see. Then we sort of, again, a little bit more CapEx gone through as we continue to invest in the products and our internal systems investments that we discussed at the year-end and set out at the year-end. A little bit of dividend going through and a little bit more cash just on tags of the non-recurrents and FX going through the business. So cash where we expected it to be at the half year. The key point here is that we have continued optionality within our capital and within our balance sheet to support growth and our shareholder returns going forward.

Speaker #1: A little bit more cash tied up in inventory than we normally see. And then we sort of again a little bit more capex gone through as we continue to invest in the products and our internal systems investment that we discussed at the year end and set out at the year end.

Speaker #1: A little bit of dividend going through, and a little bit more cash, just on the back of the non-recurrings and FX going through the business.

Speaker #1: So, cash is where we expected it to be at the half year. The key point here is that we have continued optionality within our capital and within our balance sheet to support growth and our shareholder returns going forward.

Speaker #1: We retain our dividend policy and announce an interim dividend of 2.2 pence per share payable later in early in September. In terms of our share purchase plan we announced we continue to fund up to 1.5 million pounds for our employee benefit trust to continue to purchase shares in the market for the fulfilment of our share incentive plans.

Paul Williams: We retain our dividend policy and announce an interim dividend of 2.2 pence per share and payable later in, early in September. In terms of our share purchase finally announced, we continue to fund up to GBP 1.5 million for our employee benefit trust to continue to purchase shares in the market for the fulfillment of our share incentive plans. Half a million spent to date and the timing of any further purchases on that just being considered alongside our wider strategic investment and capital allocation priorities. There is a little bit further information in the additional information slide parts of the presentation that will not be presented today, but are certainly available for people to look at after this meeting if needed. With that, I will turn back over to Amanda to walk through the strategy, please.

Speaker #1: Half a million spent to date, and the timing of any further purchases on that is just being considered alongside our wider strategic investment and capital allocation.

Speaker #1: Priorities. There is a little bit further information in the additional information slide parts of the presentation that I'll be presenting today that are certainly available for people to look at after this meeting, if needed.

Speaker #1: And with that, I'll turn it back over to Amanda to walk through the strategy piece.

Speaker #2: Great, thanks, Paul. So what I'd like to do now is come back to our transformation strategy and show you what it is that we're changing and the progress we've made so far.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Great. Thanks, Paul. So what I would like to do now is come back to our transformation strategy and to show you what it is that we are changing and the progress that we have made so far. When we developed the strategy, our focus point was the fact that Synectics, for many years has had strong technology, good customers, attractive markets. What we have not done consistently enough is translate those strengths into scalable growth. So being able to grow revenue without the need to keep increasing costs at such high levels. The five P strategy that I set out earlier in the year is designed to specifically address that, to deliver a sustainable business with higher revenues, with margin resilience, improved quality of revenue, and accelerated growth by ensuring that we build the right business model to be able to create opportunity from those growing markets.

Amanda Larnder: Great. Thanks, Paul. So what I would like to do now is come back to our transformation strategy and to show you what it is that we are changing and the progress that we have made so far. When we developed the strategy, our focus point was the fact that Synectics, for many years has had strong technology, good customers, attractive markets. What we have not done consistently enough is translate those strengths into scalable growth. So being able to grow revenue without the need to keep increasing costs at such high levels. The five P strategy that I set out earlier in the year is designed to specifically address that, to deliver a sustainable business with higher revenues, with margin resilience, improved quality of revenue, and accelerated growth by ensuring that we build the right business model to be able to create opportunity from those growing markets.

Speaker #2: When we developed the strategy, our focus point was the fact that Synectics, for many years, has had strong technology, good customers, and attractive markets. What we haven't done consistently enough is translate those strengths into scalable growth.

Speaker #2: So, being able to grow revenue without the need to keep increasing costs at such high levels. The five P strategy that I set out earlier in the year is designed to specifically address that—to deliver a sustainable business with higher revenues, improved margin resilience, improved quality of revenue, and accelerated growth by ensuring that we build the right business model to be able to create opportunity from those growing markets.

Speaker #2: During H1, we established the delivery framework that sits behind the five Ps. We've put measurable delivery targets against each of these so we can measure our progress against them.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): During H1, we established the delivery framework that sits behind the five P's. We've put measurable delivery targets against each of these so we can measure our progress against them. Overall, we're making good progress as highlighted on the slide with most of the priorities on track, and partners making solid progress, and I'll explain a bit more about those over the next few slides. The fundamental objective is simply to make Synergy easier to deploy, easier for partners to deliver, more repeatable and capable of generating more recurring revenue. We've reduced average Synergy deployment. Making Synergy simpler and quicker to deploy is critical to enabling our partners to sell and to deliver it more independently and ultimately to scaling the business. We've recently launched Scene Check and Synergy SEARCH with further subscription offerings planned with infrastructure as a service and hybrid storage options to be launched later this year.

Amanda Larnder: During H1, we established the delivery framework that sits behind the five P's. We've put measurable delivery targets against each of these so we can measure our progress against them. Overall, we're making good progress as highlighted on the slide with most of the priorities on track, and partners making solid progress, and I'll explain a bit more about those over the next few slides. The fundamental objective is simply to make Synergy easier to deploy, easier for partners to deliver, more repeatable and capable of generating more recurring revenue. We've reduced average Synergy deployment. Making Synergy simpler and quicker to deploy is critical to enabling our partners to sell and to deliver it more independently and ultimately to scaling the business. We've recently launched Scene Check and Synergy SEARCH with further subscription offerings planned with infrastructure as a service and hybrid storage options to be launched later this year.

Speaker #2: Overall, we're making good progress, as highlighted on the slide, with most of the priorities on track and partners making solid progress. I'll explain a bit more about those over the next few slides.

Speaker #2: The fundamental objective is simply to make Synergy easier to deploy, easier for partners to deliver, more repeatable, and capable of generating more recurring revenue.

Speaker #2: We've reduced average Synergy deployment. Making Synergy simpler and quicker to deploy is critical to enabling our partners to sell and to deliver it more independently.

Speaker #2: And ultimately, to scaling the business. We've recently launched SceneCheck and Synergy Search, with further subscription offerings planned, including infrastructure as a service and hybrid storage options to be launched later this year.

Speaker #2: These products solve very practical and important customer problems. When an incident happens in one of our critical environments, speed of response really does matter.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): These products solve very practical and important customer problems. When an incident happens in one of our critical environments, speed of response really does matter, and SEARCH can turn hours of manually reviewing video into minutes, helping operators to find the information that they need and to be able to respond much faster. Across an estate of hundreds or thousands of cameras, Scene Check automatically detects that each camera is still providing the view that it should, identifying cameras that may have been moved, blocked, or obscured without someone having to manually inspect every single one of those feeds. This gives customers much greater confidence in the integrity of their surveillance estate while significantly reducing the time and resource required to check it all.

Amanda Larnder: These products solve very practical and important customer problems. When an incident happens in one of our critical environments, speed of response really does matter, and SEARCH can turn hours of manually reviewing video into minutes, helping operators to find the information that they need and to be able to respond much faster. Across an estate of hundreds or thousands of cameras, Scene Check automatically detects that each camera is still providing the view that it should, identifying cameras that may have been moved, blocked, or obscured without someone having to manually inspect every single one of those feeds. This gives customers much greater confidence in the integrity of their surveillance estate while significantly reducing the time and resource required to check it all.

Speaker #2: And Search can turn hours of manually reviewing video into minutes, helping operators find the information they need and enabling them to respond much faster.

Speaker #2: And across an estate of hundreds or thousands of cameras, SceneCheck automatically detects that each camera is still providing the view that it should, identifying cameras that may have been moved, blocked, or obscured without someone having to manually inspect every single one of those feeds.

Speaker #2: This gives customers much greater confidence in the integrity of their surveillance estate, while significantly reducing the time and resources required to check it all.

Speaker #2: The final area is product innovation and competitiveness. We've delivered a number of our key developments for the year, and we're on track with the longer-term roadmap.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): The final area is product innovation and competitiveness, and we've delivered a number of our key developments for the year, and we're on track with the longer-term roadmap. We've also achieved CAPSS certification for Synergy, which is an independent UK government-backed cyber assurance standard for physical security systems. CAPSS significantly strengthens our position in critical infrastructure and other high-security environments where cyber resilience is increasingly important. The next part of the strategy, the two P's of partners and market presence, is about how we take those products to market more effectively, and there are three things here. Firstly, partners allow us to reach significantly more customers without having to increase our own sales and delivery resource at the same time. Progress here has been slightly slower than we'd originally planned because we identified that we needed to develop stronger strategic account management capability internally.

Amanda Larnder: The final area is product innovation and competitiveness, and we've delivered a number of our key developments for the year, and we're on track with the longer-term roadmap. We've also achieved CAPSS certification for Synergy, which is an independent UK government-backed cyber assurance standard for physical security systems. CAPSS significantly strengthens our position in critical infrastructure and other high-security environments where cyber resilience is increasingly important. The next part of the strategy, the two P's of partners and market presence, is about how we take those products to market more effectively, and there are three things here. Firstly, partners allow us to reach significantly more customers without having to increase our own sales and delivery resource at the same time. Progress here has been slightly slower than we'd originally planned because we identified that we needed to develop stronger strategic account management capability internally.

Speaker #2: We've also achieved CAPS modification for Synergy, which is an independent UK government-backed cyber assurance standard for physical security systems. CAPS significantly strengthens our position in critical infrastructure and other high-security environments where cyber resilience is increasingly important.

Speaker #2: The next part of the strategy are the five P's of partners, and the two P's of partners and market presence is about how we take those products to market more effectively.

Speaker #2: And there are three things here. Firstly, partners allow us to reach significantly more customers without having to increase our own sales and delivery resources at the same time.

Speaker #2: Progress here has been slightly slower than we had originally planned, because we identified that we needed to develop stronger strategic account management capability internally.

Speaker #2: So, we've been strengthening that capability before accelerating the new partner acquisition, so we can ensure that we achieve strong growth from our new partners.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): We've been strengthening that capability before accelerating the new partner acquisition so we can ensure that we achieve strong growth from our new partners. Outside of that, good progress has been made. Around 30% of our priority partner account plans are now complete. Our new certification program has been fully designed and is now live with the first 15 partner representatives progressing through it. The second part here is creating and converting demand. Historically, we haven't really been systematic enough about where we deploy our commercial resource or how we create demand. We've now developed clear strategies for our priority markets. We're refreshing how we position and communicate the Synectics brand, and we've launched our first coordinated global digital demand generation campaigns, which are already producing early engagement.

Amanda Larnder: We've been strengthening that capability before accelerating the new partner acquisition so we can ensure that we achieve strong growth from our new partners. Outside of that, good progress has been made. Around 30% of our priority partner account plans are now complete. Our new certification program has been fully designed and is now live with the first 15 partner representatives progressing through it. The second part here is creating and converting demand. Historically, we haven't really been systematic enough about where we deploy our commercial resource or how we create demand. We've now developed clear strategies for our priority markets. We're refreshing how we position and communicate the Synectics brand, and we've launched our first coordinated global digital demand generation campaigns, which are already producing early engagement.

Speaker #2: Outside of that, good progress has been made. Around 30% of our priority partner account plans are now complete. Our new certification program has been fully designed and is now live, with the first 15 partner representatives progressing through it.

Speaker #2: The second part here is creating and converting demand. So, historically, we haven't really been systematic enough about where we deploy our commercial resources or how we create demand.

Speaker #2: We've now developed clear strategies for our priority markets. We're refreshing how we position and communicate the Synectix brand. And we've launched our first coordinated, global, digital demand generation early engagement.

Speaker #2: The aim is to make sure that we're targeting the right customers with a much clearer proposition, generating more qualified opportunities and, ultimately, improving conversion.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): The aim is to make sure that we are targeting the right customers with a much clearer proposition, generating more qualified opportunities, and ultimately improving conversion. The third area here is building our recurring revenue. We are looking at all the ways we will increase the recurring element of our revenues. That includes the new subscription propositions that we have started launching. Also, our existing software support agreements that we sell alongside Synergy, where we have already developed a new framework, and we are reviewing the commercial model and pricing that goes alongside that. We will also be developing our hybrid cloud transition plan, including what that could mean for the way we deliver and charge for Synergy over time. I have mentioned our infrastructure as a service and hybrid storage stacks are parts of that.

Amanda Larnder: The aim is to make sure that we are targeting the right customers with a much clearer proposition, generating more qualified opportunities, and ultimately improving conversion. The third area here is building our recurring revenue. We are looking at all the ways we will increase the recurring element of our revenues. That includes the new subscription propositions that we have started launching. Also, our existing software support agreements that we sell alongside Synergy, where we have already developed a new framework, and we are reviewing the commercial model and pricing that goes alongside that. We will also be developing our hybrid cloud transition plan, including what that could mean for the way we deliver and charge for Synergy over time. I have mentioned our infrastructure as a service and hybrid storage stacks are parts of that.

Speaker #2: And then the third area here is building our recurring revenue. So we're looking at all the ways we will increase the recurring element of our revenues. That includes the new subscription propositions that we've started launching, also our existing software support agreements that we sell alongside Synergy, where we've already developed a new framework, and we are reviewing the commercial model and pricing that goes alongside that.

Speaker #2: We'll also be developing our hybrid cloud transition plan, including what that could mean for the way we deliver and charge for synergy over time.

Speaker #2: And I've mentioned our infrastructure as a service and hybrid storage that are parts of that. We'll bring all of these elements together into a recurring revenue growth plan with targets during Q4.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): We will bring all of these elements together into a recurring revenue growth plan with targets during Q4. We want to be able to grow revenue without our costs and organizational complexity increasing at the same rate. Firstly, we are simplifying the way that the business operates. We have established our value streams within the business and the overarching future design of the business model. We are now redesigning the underlying processes, and we deliberately want to simplify those processes before automating them as there is little value in us just automating the current inefficient processes. The second area here is systems data and automation. Our ERP implementation is now progressing well with a go-live date expected by the end of the year. We have established a dedicated data capability for the first time.

Amanda Larnder: We will bring all of these elements together into a recurring revenue growth plan with targets during Q4. We want to be able to grow revenue without our costs and organizational complexity increasing at the same rate. Firstly, we are simplifying the way that the business operates. We have established our value streams within the business and the overarching future design of the business model. We are now redesigning the underlying processes, and we deliberately want to simplify those processes before automating them as there is little value in us just automating the current inefficient processes. The second area here is systems data and automation. Our ERP implementation is now progressing well with a go-live date expected by the end of the year. We have established a dedicated data capability for the first time.

Speaker #2: We want to be able to grow revenue without our costs and organizational complexity increasing at the same rate. So, firstly, we are simplifying the way that the business operates.

Speaker #2: We've established our value streams within the business and the overarching future design of the business model. We're now redesigning the underlying processes, and we deliberately want to simplify those processes before automating them, as there's little value in us just sort of automating the current inefficient processes.

Speaker #2: The second area here is systems, data, and automation. Our ERP implementation is now progressing well, with a go-live date expected by the end of the year.

Speaker #2: We've established a dedicated data capability for the first time, and AI is already delivering productivity benefits in those areas where we don't need to wait for the wider process work to be completed.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): AI is already delivering productivity benefits in those areas where we do not need to wait for the wider process work to be completed. So that is areas such as software development, testing, and documentation as well as bid preparation. Finally here, capability and accountability. We have strengthened the leadership team. We have our full SLT complement now in place. We have strengthened areas such as marketing and data. All of our employees now have objectives aligned to the strategy and formal performance reviews. All of this is building the capability and the operating discipline that we need to be able to deliver the strategy and support the future growth. So everything that we have talked about so far is activity and progress against those strategic initiatives.

Amanda Larnder: AI is already delivering productivity benefits in those areas where we do not need to wait for the wider process work to be completed. So that is areas such as software development, testing, and documentation as well as bid preparation. Finally here, capability and accountability. We have strengthened the leadership team. We have our full SLT complement now in place. We have strengthened areas such as marketing and data. All of our employees now have objectives aligned to the strategy and formal performance reviews. All of this is building the capability and the operating discipline that we need to be able to deliver the strategy and support the future growth. So everything that we have talked about so far is activity and progress against those strategic initiatives.

Speaker #2: So that's areas such as software development, testing, and documentation, as well as bid preparation. And then finally here, capability and accountability. We've strengthened the leadership team—we have our full SLT complement now in place.

Speaker #2: We've strengthened areas such as marketing and data, and all of our employees now have objectives aligned to the strategy and formal performance reviews. All of this is building the capability and operating discipline that we need to be able to deliver the strategy and support future growth.

Speaker #2: So, everything that we've talked about so far is activity and progress against those strategic initiatives. What I wanted to give you here was a very early example of how some of those initiatives are beginning to work together in a real market.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): What I wanted to give you here was a very early example of how some of those initiatives are beginning to work together in a real market. This slide is a case study about our North American gaming team. All of these indicators have emerged for that team within the last few weeks. On the product front, as I have mentioned, we launched Scene Check as a subscription proposition. Our first coordinated digital campaign supported that launch and generated six inbound casino inquiries within a matter of days, which are now progressing into demonstrations. On partners, a newly engaged strategic partner identified more than six opportunities within its first few weeks with us, individually ranging from around $0.7 million to $1.8 million. We are also seeing a strong increase in opportunities through an existing partner following much more structured account management with that partner.

Amanda Larnder: What I wanted to give you here was a very early example of how some of those initiatives are beginning to work together in a real market. This slide is a case study about our North American gaming team. All of these indicators have emerged for that team within the last few weeks. On the product front, as I have mentioned, we launched Scene Check as a subscription proposition. Our first coordinated digital campaign supported that launch and generated six inbound casino inquiries within a matter of days, which are now progressing into demonstrations. On partners, a newly engaged strategic partner identified more than six opportunities within its first few weeks with us, individually ranging from around $0.7 million to $1.8 million. We are also seeing a strong increase in opportunities through an existing partner following much more structured account management with that partner.

Speaker #2: So, this slide is a case study about our North American gaming team. All of these indicators have emerged for that team within the last few weeks.

Speaker #2: So, on the product front, as I've mentioned, we launched Team Check as a subscription proposition. Our first coordinated digital campaign supported that launch and generated six inbound casino inquiries within a matter of days, which are now progressing into demonstration.

Speaker #2: On partners, a newly engaged strategic partner identified more than six opportunities within its first two weeks with us, each individually ranging from around $700,000 to $1.8 million.

Speaker #2: We're also seeing a strong increase in opportunities through an existing partner, following a much more structured account management with that partner. And we're seeing the product work as well.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): And we are seeing the product work as well. Required around 3 days of our engineering effort were both completed in a day using the new upgrade tools. These are very early indicators in one sector and in one region. As Paul said, we are not expecting the financial benefits of this broader strategy to start impacting the current year. But what they do do is give us early confidence in the direction that we are taking with our new strategy, and they show the sort of progress that we expect to see more broadly across the entire business as these capabilities begin to mature. With that, I will hand back over to Paul as we turn to the outlook and summary.

Amanda Larnder: And we are seeing the product work as well. Required around 3 days of our engineering effort were both completed in a day using the new upgrade tools. These are very early indicators in one sector and in one region. As Paul said, we are not expecting the financial benefits of this broader strategy to start impacting the current year. But what they do do is give us early confidence in the direction that we are taking with our new strategy, and they show the sort of progress that we expect to see more broadly across the entire business as these capabilities begin to mature. With that, I will hand back over to Paul as we turn to the outlook and summary.

Speaker #2: Required around three days of our engineering effort for both completed in a day using the new upgrade tools. These are very early indicators in one sector and in one region.

Speaker #2: And as Paul said, we're not expecting the financial benefits of this broader strategy to start impacting the current year. But what they do do is give us early confidence in the direction that we're taking with our new strategy, and they show the sort of progress that we expect to see more broadly across the entire business as these capabilities begin to mature.

Speaker #2: So with that, I'll hand back over to Paul as we turn to the outlook and summary.

Speaker #1: Thanks, Amanda. So in terms of our outlook, for the we have a the outlook as the headline says, there remains achievable. With some uncertainty around those energy projects and the timing, particularly those sort of driven out of the out of the Middle East.

Paul Williams: Thanks, Amanda. In terms of our outlook for the year, we have the outlook, as the headline says there, remains achievable, with some uncertainty around those energy projects and the timing, particularly those driven out of the Middle East. We have had a positive start to the second half with strong order intake and revenue conversion post period, certainly consistent with that H2 weighting. So a significant improvement entering the second half of the year with period 7 and period 8. We have a stable order book with a mix of sectors and regions, certainly reducing that reliance on the Middle East oil and gas projects in our forecast, and I will talk about that in a moment. Certainly more prudent on oil and gas in the near term, but still some dependency for the guidance itself.

Speaker #1: We have had a positive start to the second half, with strong order intake and revenue conversion post-period. Certainly, this is consistent with that second half weighting.

Speaker #1: So, a significant improvement entering the second half of the year with period seven and period eight. We have a stable order book with a mix of sectors and regions, certainly reducing that reliance on the Middle East oil and gas projects in our forecast, and I'll talk about that in a moment.

Speaker #1: Certainly more prudent on oil and gas in the near term, but still some dependency for the guidance itself. But the pipeline for oil and gas, as Amanda mentioned, remains strong overall.

Paul Williams: But the pipeline for oil and gas, as Amanda mentioned, remains strong overall. That high breakeven point that we have in the business that we talked about before, whilst this strategy was part of the underlying reason for the strategy that we are implementing, is to take out some of that inefficiency that we have embedded within the business, and as that in a period of lower revenue in the H1 of the year, as we have seen, we would typically see that breakeven point impacting through to our EBITDA generation. In the H2 of the year, as we expect that revenue to shift through to more delivery in the H2 of the year, as we are starting to see through period 7 and period 8.

Speaker #1: That high break-even point that we have in the business, that we've talked about before, remains. Sort of, whilst this strategy—this is part of the underlying reason for the strategy that we're implementing—is to take out some of that inefficiency that we have, sort of, embedded within the business. And as that, in a period of lower revenue in the first half of the year, as we've seen, we would typically see that high break-even point impacting through to our EBITDA generation.

Speaker #1: The second half of the year, as we expect that revenue to shift through to more delivery in the second half of the year, as we're starting to see through period seven and period eight.

Speaker #1: That high break-even point will sort of mean that revenue clearance, therefore, will sort of fall through into EBITDA more significantly than it would in the first half of the year.

Paul Williams: That high breakeven point will, that revenue clearance, therefore, will fall through into EBITDA more significantly than it would in the H1 of the year. So again, consistent with how we expect the revenues and the profitability to fall weighted into the H2 of the year as a consequence of that high breakeven point. We continue to see strong energy pipeline, as I mentioned. And we are taking steps within our operations teams to make sure that we can mobilize and deliver those projects at pace as and when those customer orders feed through and start to convert into the H2 of the year. So that is, again, rapid revenue recognition on those once the orders are received to, again, underpin that H2 outlook.

Speaker #1: So again, consistent with how we expect the revenues and the profitability to fall, weighted into the second half of the year, as a consequence of that high break-even point.

Speaker #1: We continue to see a strong energy pipeline, as I mentioned. We are taking steps within our operations teams to make sure that we can mobilize and deliver those projects at pace, as and when those customer orders feed through and start to convert into the second half of the year.

Speaker #1: So that's, again, rapid revenue recognition on those once the orders are received for them, to again underpin that second-half outlook. We remain of the view, of course, that our underlying strategic investment requirement remains, and we continue to be confident in the scale and the opportunity of that opportunity, and scale, and size of that opportunity pipeline, and the nature of that, and the quality of it as well.

Paul Williams: And we remain of the view, of course, that our underlying strategic investment requirement remains, and we continue to be confident in the scale and the opportunity of that opportunity and scale and size of that opportunity pipeline and the nature of that and the quality of it as well. In terms of the full-year outlook, we have introduced a little bit of a range around the expected EBITDA for the year, GBP 4.1 million at the original guidance. We still have a pathway to achieve that. However, we introduced a slight reduction to that to GBP 3.7 million to accommodate the potential for some of those Middle East oil and gas opportunities to be delayed.

Speaker #1: In terms of the full-year outlook, we've sort of introduced a little bit of a range around the expected EBITDA for the year—£4.1 million at the original guidance.

Speaker #1: We still have a pathway to achieve that. However, we introduced a slight reduction to that—to $3.7 billion—to accommodate the potential for some of those Middle East oil and gas opportunities to be delayed.

Speaker #1: So our outlook is effectively 4.1 internally, subject to a number of those oil and gas opportunities being ordered through in sort of in the next sort of couple of months certainly before October, November timeframe before they start to fall over into the following year.

Paul Williams: Our outlook is effectively GBP 4.1 million internally, subject to a number of those oil and gas opportunities being ordered through in the next couple of months, certainly before October, November timeframe, before they start to fall over into the following year. To the extent that those are received, and we expect to be at the upper end of that range, to the extent that those oil and gas orders continue to be delayed, we will be at the lower end of that range. With that, I will turn back to Amanda.

Speaker #1: So, to the extent that those are received, we expect to be at the upper end of that range. To the extent that those oil and gas orders continue to be delayed, we'll be at the lower end of that range.

Speaker #1: And with that, I'll turn back to Amanda.

Speaker #2: Thank you. So, to summarize then, at the year end, I described FY26 as a transition year, and hopefully what we've shown you today gives you a clearer picture of what we mean by that.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Thank you. To summarize then, at the year-end, I described FY26 as a transition year, and hopefully what we have shown you today gives you a clearer picture of what we mean by that. We are building and embedding those capabilities to change our underlying business model, making our products easier to deploy, developing stronger partner and commercial channels, increasing recurring revenue, and simplifying the way that we operate so that we can grow without our costs increasing at the same rate. From FY27 onwards, we expect the financial benefits of those changes to become increasingly visible. What we are looking for is faster revenue growth, a greater proportion of higher quality and recurring revenues, and ultimately better profitability as the business grows. Some of those benefits are already starting to emerge.

Amanda Larnder: Thank you. To summarize then, at the year-end, I described FY26 as a transition year, and hopefully what we have shown you today gives you a clearer picture of what we mean by that. We are building and embedding those capabilities to change our underlying business model, making our products easier to deploy, developing stronger partner and commercial channels, increasing recurring revenue, and simplifying the way that we operate so that we can grow without our costs increasing at the same rate. From FY27 onwards, we expect the financial benefits of those changes to become increasingly visible. What we are looking for is faster revenue growth, a greater proportion of higher quality and recurring revenues, and ultimately better profitability as the business grows. Some of those benefits are already starting to emerge.

Speaker #2: We are building and embedding those capabilities to change our underlying business model—making our products easier, strengthening partner and commercial channels, increasing recurring revenue, and simplifying the way that we operate so that we can grow without our costs increasing at the same rate.

Speaker #2: From FY27 onwards, we expect the financial benefits of those changes to become increasingly visible. What we're looking for is faster revenue growth, a greater proportion of higher-quality and recurring revenues, and ultimately better profitability as the business grows.

Speaker #2: Some of those benefits are already starting to emerge. The North American case study that I highlighted—none of those opportunities and activity would have been present without the new 5P strategy that we're now executing against.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): The North American case study that I highlighted, none of those opportunities and activity would have been present without the new five P strategy that we are now executing against. As those capabilities start to mature, we expect the contribution to build progressively and significantly as we progress into FY27 and beyond. That brings me back to our overall investment proposition. We believe that Synectics starts from very strong foundations. We operate in attractive and growing markets. We have differentiated proprietary technology, long-standing relationships with blue-chip customers, trusted positions in markets where security is critical, and a strong balance sheet from which to invest in growth. These markets are not easy for new competitors to establish themselves. Customers need proven technology, specialist expertise, and increasingly, cyber and other certifications.

Amanda Larnder: The North American case study that I highlighted, none of those opportunities and activity would have been present without the new five P strategy that we are now executing against. As those capabilities start to mature, we expect the contribution to build progressively and significantly as we progress into FY27 and beyond. That brings me back to our overall investment proposition. We believe that Synectics starts from very strong foundations. We operate in attractive and growing markets. We have differentiated proprietary technology, long-standing relationships with blue-chip customers, trusted positions in markets where security is critical, and a strong balance sheet from which to invest in growth. These markets are not easy for new competitors to establish themselves. Customers need proven technology, specialist expertise, and increasingly, cyber and other certifications.

Speaker #2: And as those capabilities start to mature, we expect the contribution to build progressively and significantly as we progress into FY27 and beyond. So then, that brings me back to our overall investment proposition.

Speaker #2: We believe that Synectics starts from very strong foundations. We operate in attractive and growing markets. We have differentiated proprietary technology, longstanding relationships with blue chip customers, trusted positions in markets where security is critical, and a strong balance sheet from which to invest in growth.

Speaker #2: And these markets aren't easy for new competitors to establish themselves. Customers need proven technology, specialist expertise, and increasingly, cyber and other certifications. And once our technology is embedded across these large, critical security estates, replacing it can involve significant costs, complexity, and operational risk.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Once our technology is embedded across these large critical security estates, replacing it can involve significant cost, complexity, and operational risk. What we haven't historically done well enough is to translate those strengths into sustained scalable growth, that's really what we're doing now. It's still obviously early. We've still got a lot to focus on for the rest of the year, but I hope we've shown you today, demonstrates that we're making tangible progress against what we had planned to do, both in building those capabilities and obviously with early visibility of some of those. With the view to translating into stronger financial performance from FY27 onwards. Well, thank you for listening. That's the end of the main presentation, Paul and I will be happy to take questions.

Amanda Larnder: Once our technology is embedded across these large critical security estates, replacing it can involve significant cost, complexity, and operational risk. What we haven't historically done well enough is to translate those strengths into sustained scalable growth, that's really what we're doing now. It's still obviously early. We've still got a lot to focus on for the rest of the year, but I hope we've shown you today, demonstrates that we're making tangible progress against what we had planned to do, both in building those capabilities and obviously with early visibility of some of those. With the view to translating into stronger financial performance from FY27 onwards. Well, thank you for listening. That's the end of the main presentation, Paul and I will be happy to take questions.

Speaker #2: What we haven't historically done well enough is translate those strengths into sustained, scalable growth. And that's really what we're doing now. So it's still, obviously, early.

Speaker #2: We've still got a lot to focus on for the rest of the year, but I hope what we've shown you today demonstrates that we're making tangible progress against what we had planned to do, both in building those capabilities and, obviously, with early visibility of some of those, with a view to translating that into stronger financial performance from FY27 onwards.

Speaker #2: Thank you for listening. That concludes the main presentation. Paul and I will be happy to take questions.

Speaker #3: Perfect. Amanda, Paul, if I may just jump back in there. And thank you very much indeed for your presentation this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions by using the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen.

Operator 2: Perfect. Amanda, Paul, if I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the Q&A tab that's situated on the right-hand corner of the screen. Just while the team take a few moments to review those questions that have been submitted already, just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can all be accessed by your investor dashboard. Guys, as you can see there, we have received a number of questions, thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions.

Operator: Perfect. Amanda, Paul, if I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the Q&A tab that's situated on the right-hand corner of the screen. Just while the team take a few moments to review those questions that have been submitted already, just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can all be accessed by your investor dashboard. Guys, as you can see there, we have received a number of questions, thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions.

Speaker #3: Therefore, just while the team take a few moments to review those questions that have been submitted already, I'd just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can all be accessed via your investor dashboard.

Speaker #3: Guys, as you can see there, we have received a number of questions. And thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions.

Speaker #3: But, guys, at this point, if I may, I'll hand back to you to address those where appropriate. And if I pick up from you at the end, that would be great.

Operator 2: Guys, at this point, if I may just hand back to you to address those where appropriate, if I pick up from you at the end, that'd be great. Thank you.

Operator: Guys, at this point, if I may just hand back to you to address those where appropriate, if I pick up from you at the end, that'd be great. Thank you.

Speaker #3: Thank you.

Speaker #2: Yes, great. Thank you. Okay, I'll start with the first question. With all the casinos in America, and noting your recent contract win there, how do you go about attracting and indeed winning contracts there?

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Yes. Great. Thank you. Okay, I'll start with the first question. With all the casinos in America, and in noting your recent contract win there, how do you go about attracting and indeed winning contracts there? Is there a sales team based there? Would you have good old-fashioned salespeople on the ground visiting casinos, et cetera? Yes. We have a dedicated North American sales team. We use a combination of direct customer relationships where we go and visit casinos, and we've got very good relationships with a lot of those casinos. We use channel partners as well to develop those opportunities. Partners are particularly important because they also already have relationships with the casino operators, and they may be delivering the wider security project as well.

Amanda Larnder: Yes. Great. Thank you. Okay, I'll start with the first question. With all the casinos in America, and in noting your recent contract win there, how do you go about attracting and indeed winning contracts there? Is there a sales team based there? Would you have good old-fashioned salespeople on the ground visiting casinos, et cetera? Yes. We have a dedicated North American sales team. We use a combination of direct customer relationships where we go and visit casinos, and we've got very good relationships with a lot of those casinos. We use channel partners as well to develop those opportunities. Partners are particularly important because they also already have relationships with the casino operators, and they may be delivering the wider security project as well.

Speaker #2: Is there a sales team based there? Would you have good old-fashioned salespeople on the ground visiting casinos, etc.? Yeah, so we have a dedicated North American sales team.

Speaker #2: We use a combination of direct customer relationships, where we go and visit casinos, and we've got very good relationships with a lot of those casinos.

Speaker #2: And we use channel partners as well to develop those opportunities. Partners are particularly important because they already have relationships with the casino operators.

Speaker #2: And they may be delivering the wider security project as well. So our objective is to make Synectix the preferred surveillance platform, which then significantly extends the reach of our own sales team as well.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Our objective is to make Synectics the preferred surveillance platform, which then significantly extends the reach of our own sales team as well. Particularly in America, it is also quite a close-knit industry, so our track record there and existing customer references are very valuable, and that very much contributed to that recent contract win. Casino operators need to have a high degree of trust in the technology and the supplier. Successful installations do frequently lead to introductions and opportunities elsewhere. Next question. What do investors misunderstand about your business? Why is the value of the business not reflected in the share price? I think the thing that is probably least visible to investors, or has been historically at least, is what sits underneath the financial performance of the business, probably both in terms of strengths and what has historically held it back.

Amanda Larnder: Our objective is to make Synectics the preferred surveillance platform, which then significantly extends the reach of our own sales team as well. Particularly in America, it is also quite a close-knit industry, so our track record there and existing customer references are very valuable, and that very much contributed to that recent contract win. Casino operators need to have a high degree of trust in the technology and the supplier. Successful installations do frequently lead to introductions and opportunities elsewhere. Next question. What do investors misunderstand about your business? Why is the value of the business not reflected in the share price? I think the thing that is probably least visible to investors, or has been historically at least, is what sits underneath the financial performance of the business, probably both in terms of strengths and what has historically held it back.

Speaker #2: And particularly in America, it's also quite a close-knit industry. So our track record there and existing customer references are very valuable, and that very much contributed to that recent contract win.

Speaker #2: Custom casino operators need to have a high degree of trust in the technology and the supplier. And so, successful installations do frequently lead to introductions and opportunities.

Speaker #2: Elsewhere. Next question. What do people misunderstand about your business? Why is the value of the business not reflected in the share price? I think the thing that's probably least visible to investors—or has been historically, at least—is what sits underneath the financial performance of the business, probably both in terms of strengths and what has historically held it back.

Speaker #2: Synectix has always relied on individual projects. So, from the outside, you see quite lumpy financial performance and relatively limited growth, without necessarily having understood why the business hasn't been able to grow.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Synectics has always relied on individual projects, so from the outside you see quite lumpy financial performance and relatively limited growth without necessarily having understood why the business has not been able to grow. Hopefully we have began to articulate that so you can understand what we are doing now. Underneath that as well, as we have shared today, we have long-standing blue-chip customers, proprietary technology, and established positions in attractive markets where barriers to entry are high. I think that partly answers the valuation question as well. As we continue to demonstrate the progress against the strategy and continue to show you the changes that we are making are beginning to work, I would expect that the underlying value and then the potential of the business to become much clearer to investors. Okay. Have you personally invested in shares of the company?

Amanda Larnder: Synectics has always relied on individual projects, so from the outside you see quite lumpy financial performance and relatively limited growth without necessarily having understood why the business has not been able to grow. Hopefully we have began to articulate that so you can understand what we are doing now. Underneath that as well, as we have shared today, we have long-standing blue-chip customers, proprietary technology, and established positions in attractive markets where barriers to entry are high. I think that partly answers the valuation question as well. As we continue to demonstrate the progress against the strategy and continue to show you the changes that we are making are beginning to work, I would expect that the underlying value and then the potential of the business to become much clearer to investors. Okay. Have you personally invested in shares of the company?

Speaker #2: Hopefully, we've begun to articulate that so you can understand what we're doing now. Underneath that as well, as we shared today, we have longstanding blue-chip customers, proprietary technology, and established positions in attractive markets where barriers to entry are high.

Speaker #2: So I think that partly answers the valuation question as well. As we continue to demonstrate the progress against the strategy and continue to show the changes that we are making are beginning to work, I would expect that the underlying value, and then the potential of the business, will become much clearer to investors.

Speaker #2: Okay. Have you personally invested in shares of the company? When can investors expect to see more management and board share purchases? Both Paul and I have personally invested in Synectics, including buying shares since taking our current roles.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): When can investors expect to see more management and board share purchases? Both Paul and I have personally invested in Synectics, including buying shares since taking our current roles. I guess I cannot really make commitments about future personal purchases on behalf of the board or the management team. Everybody's personal circumstances are different. There is also quite a lot of restrictions on when, as directors, we are able to deal. Speaking personally, I am very invested in the success of the business, and very focused on making sure we build the long-term shareholder value that I believe this business can create. Next question: What is your competitive advantage, and why is it defensible? I think I have touched on the competitive advantage a couple of times, as well as in the investment proposition slide there.

Amanda Larnder: When can investors expect to see more management and board share purchases? Both Paul and I have personally invested in Synectics, including buying shares since taking our current roles. I guess I cannot really make commitments about future personal purchases on behalf of the board or the management team. Everybody's personal circumstances are different. There is also quite a lot of restrictions on when, as directors, we are able to deal. Speaking personally, I am very invested in the success of the business, and very focused on making sure we build the long-term shareholder value that I believe this business can create. Next question: What is your competitive advantage, and why is it defensible? I think I have touched on the competitive advantage a couple of times, as well as in the investment proposition slide there.

Speaker #2: Vanessa, I can't really make commitments about future personal purchases on behalf of the board or the management team. Everybody's personal circumstances are different. There's also quite a lot of restrictions on when, as directors, we are able to deal.

Speaker #2: Speaking personally, I'm very invested in the success of the business and very focused on making sure we build the long-term shareholder value that I believe this business can create.

Speaker #2: Next question: What is your competitive advantage, and why is it defensible? So I think I've touched on the competitive advantage a couple of times, as well as in the investment proposition slide there.

Speaker #2: But I guess to summarize, our competitive advantage really comes from the specialist nature of the markets we choose to operate in. We don't compete in the commoditized CCTV markets.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): I guess to summarize, our competitive advantage really comes from the specialist nature of the markets we choose to operate in. We do not compete in the commoditized CCTV markets. We focus on those critical environments with demanding requirements. The things like cyber assurance, strict certifications including hazardous area certifications, very large camera estates with thousands of cameras, proven resilience, domain specific integrations, et cetera. I guess our advantage is not necessarily that competitors cannot replicate very specific individual features, it is that meeting all of those requirements and establishing credibility in these markets is extremely difficult and takes years of proven performance, as well as compliance with very strict certifications, and that significantly narrows the number of suppliers that can credibly compete. How is AI changing the game for you? What are the opportunities?

Amanda Larnder: I guess to summarize, our competitive advantage really comes from the specialist nature of the markets we choose to operate in. We do not compete in the commoditized CCTV markets. We focus on those critical environments with demanding requirements. The things like cyber assurance, strict certifications including hazardous area certifications, very large camera estates with thousands of cameras, proven resilience, domain specific integrations, et cetera. I guess our advantage is not necessarily that competitors cannot replicate very specific individual features, it is that meeting all of those requirements and establishing credibility in these markets is extremely difficult and takes years of proven performance, as well as compliance with very strict certifications, and that significantly narrows the number of suppliers that can credibly compete. How is AI changing the game for you? What are the opportunities?

Speaker #2: We focus on those critical environments with demanding requirements, so things like cyber assurance, strict certifications—including hazardous area certifications—very large camera estates with thousands of cameras, proven resilience, domain-specific integrations, etc.

Speaker #2: So, I mean, I guess our advantage isn't necessarily that competitors can't replicate very specific individual features. It's that meeting all of those requirements and establishing credibility in these markets is extremely difficult and takes years of proven performance.

Speaker #2: As well as compliance with very strict certifications, and that significantly narrows the number of suppliers that can credibly compete. How is AI changing the game for you?

Speaker #2: What are the opportunities? Again, we've briefly touched on AI, but it would create opportunities for us in two main areas. Firstly, in our products, it allows us to turn surveillance into much more useful operational intelligence.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Again, we've briefly touched on AI, but it would create opportunity for us in two main areas. Firstly, in our products, it allows us to turn surveillance into much more useful operational intelligence. For example, helping customers find information faster, automating manual tasks, making better decisions, ultimately driving more value from surveillance systems. Internally, I've mentioned some of the benefits where we're seeing AI in place already. The larger opportunity will come for us as we progress through our operating model work. Once we've redesigned and simplified our processes, we'll then be in a position to then identify where not just AI, but AI and further automation can really improve productivity across the business. With shares at the current levels, do you think the company is vulnerable to a takeover bid? What do you plan to do to raise the share price?

Amanda Larnder: Again, we've briefly touched on AI, but it would create opportunity for us in two main areas. Firstly, in our products, it allows us to turn surveillance into much more useful operational intelligence. For example, helping customers find information faster, automating manual tasks, making better decisions, ultimately driving more value from surveillance systems. Internally, I've mentioned some of the benefits where we're seeing AI in place already. The larger opportunity will come for us as we progress through our operating model work. Once we've redesigned and simplified our processes, we'll then be in a position to then identify where not just AI, but AI and further automation can really improve productivity across the business. With shares at the current levels, do you think the company is vulnerable to a takeover bid? What do you plan to do to raise the share price?

Speaker #2: For example, helping customers find information faster, automating manual tasks, making better decisions, and ultimately driving more value from surveillance systems. Internally, I've mentioned some of the benefits where we're seeing AI in place already.

Speaker #2: But the larger opportunity will come for us as we progress through our operating model work. Once we've redesigned and simplified our processes, we'll then be in a position to identify where not just AI, but AI and further automation, can really improve productivity across the business.

Speaker #2: With shares at the current levels, do you think the company is vulnerable to a takeover bid? What do you plan to do to raise the share price?

Speaker #2: I mean, we can't really speculate about potential takeover activity. But in terms of the share price, I think—to reiterate here—we've got a clear strategy designed to address the things that we know have historically held Synectics back from growing.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): We can't really speculate about potential takeover activity. In terms of the share price, I think, to reiterate here, we've got a clear strategy designed to address the things that we know have historically held Synectics back from growing. What we've tried to do at the year end and today is to give investors greater visibility into what we're doing and why the progress that we're making against it. As we continue to deliver the strategy, demonstrate those changes, I would expect that the underlying value then becomes reflected in the business. When you look to the future of Synectics, what is it that gives you the most excitement? I think for me, it's the opportunity to build a very different Synectics from the one that we have today.

Amanda Larnder: We can't really speculate about potential takeover activity. In terms of the share price, I think, to reiterate here, we've got a clear strategy designed to address the things that we know have historically held Synectics back from growing. What we've tried to do at the year end and today is to give investors greater visibility into what we're doing and why the progress that we're making against it. As we continue to deliver the strategy, demonstrate those changes, I would expect that the underlying value then becomes reflected in the business. When you look to the future of Synectics, what is it that gives you the most excitement? I think for me, it's the opportunity to build a very different Synectics from the one that we have today.

Speaker #2: What we've tried to do at the year end and today is to give investors greater visibility into what we're doing, why we're doing it, and the progress that we're making against it.

Speaker #2: So as we continue to deliver the strategy and demonstrate those changes, I would expect that the underlying value then becomes reflected in the business. When you look to the future of Synectics, what is it that gives you the most excitement?

Speaker #2: I think for me, it's the opportunity to build a very different Synectics from the one that we have today—a much stronger and more resilient business that's recognized for innovation in those critical markets, has a much broader global presence, and consistently delivers the financial performance that I know this business is capable of.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): A much stronger and more resilient business that's recognized for innovation in those critical markets, has a much broader global presence, and consistently delivers the financial performance that I know this business is capable. The great thing is we have a lot of those ingredients all together already, and so that's what makes that opportunity so exciting because we can see how we can get to achieving that. Paul, anything extra that excites you about the future of Synectics?

Amanda Larnder: A much stronger and more resilient business that's recognized for innovation in those critical markets, has a much broader global presence, and consistently delivers the financial performance that I know this business is capable. The great thing is we have a lot of those ingredients all together already, and so that's what makes that opportunity so exciting because we can see how we can get to achieving that. Paul, anything extra that excites you about the future of Synectics?

Speaker #2: And the great thing is, we have a lot of those ingredients already together. And so, that's what makes the opportunity so exciting, because we can see how we can get to achieving that.

Speaker #2: Paul, is there anything else that excites you about the future of Synectics?

Speaker #3: Well, I think, like you, it's the ability to transform the revenue flows for myself to make them more predictable, more recurring in nature, which is kind of where my background is.

Paul Williams: I think like you, it's the ability to transform the revenue flows for myself to make them more predictable, more recurring in nature, which is a lot of where my background is. I recognize the value of that.

Speaker #3: And I can see the value of that in these businesses. So, yeah, no, it's that ability to just transform the shape of the business. And the market itself is never going to go away.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Finance

Amanda Larnder: Finance

Paul Williams: these businesses. So it's that ability to just transform the shape of the business. The market itself is never going to go away. It's only going to get more exciting from a technology perspective and being able to offer a product that really plays into that and supports that and ultimately makes people safer, I think going forward as well is something to be proud of as well. That's where I'm coming from. The project, I think overall is what excites me.

Speaker #3: And it's only going to get more exciting from a technology perspective and being able to offer a product that really sort of that really plays into that and supports that and ultimately makes people safer, I think, going forward as well.

Speaker #3: It's something to be proud of as well, so that's where I'm coming from. It's that the project, I think, overall is what excites me.

Speaker #2: Okay. How is your competitive landscape evolving? How are you? At the beginning, I think this summarizes that quite well. We're seeing increasing security threats, much greater focus on cyber resilience, regulation, rapid technology development, and the convergence of those technologies onto one platform.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Okay. How is your competitive landscape evolving? How are you At the beginning, I think this summarizes that quite well. We're seeing increasing security threats, much greater focus on cyber resilience, regulation, rapid technology development, and the convergence of those technologies onto one platform. We've ensured that our strategy is aligned with those market requirements. What and where is your focus right now? I think we've probably covered most of that. Obviously, our immediate focus is continuing to deliver the strategy, delivering H2 result, and then putting ourselves in the strongest possible position as we enter FY27. What features on Synergy AI Suite? We need to keep adding features and innovating. I know you added what, three words, that's quite a minor feature update. Please give us an update and tell us more ideas for features that you have in mind, including Synergy SEARCH.

Amanda Larnder: Okay. How is your competitive landscape evolving? How are you At the beginning, I think this summarizes that quite well. We're seeing increasing security threats, much greater focus on cyber resilience, regulation, rapid technology development, and the convergence of those technologies onto one platform. We've ensured that our strategy is aligned with those market requirements. What and where is your focus right now? I think we've probably covered most of that. Obviously, our immediate focus is continuing to deliver the strategy, delivering H2 result, and then putting ourselves in the strongest possible position as we enter FY27. What features on Synergy AI Suite? We need to keep adding features and innovating. I know you added what, three words, that's quite a minor feature update. Please give us an update and tell us more ideas for features that you have in mind, including Synergy SEARCH.

Speaker #2: So we've ensured that our strategy is aligned with those market requirements. What and where is your focus right now? I think we've probably covered most of that.

Speaker #2: Obviously, our immediate focus is continuing to deliver the strategy, delivering H2 results, and then putting ourselves in the strongest possible position as we enter FY27.

Speaker #2: What features on Synergy and AI suites do we need to keep adding and innovating? I know you added what3words—that's quite a minor feature update.

Speaker #2: Please give us an update and tell us more ideas for features that you have in mind, including Synergy Search. The Synergy Search, as I mentioned, has obviously now gone live.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): The Synergy SEARCH, as I mentioned, has obviously now gone live. More broadly, one of the things that we've deliberately done this last year is to get the overall product strategy and roadmap right. We didn't want to launch a series, if you like, of disconnected AI features that customers won't necessarily pay for just because AI is moving quite quickly. We wanted to be very clear about customer problems that we're solving and how each development supports the longer-term direction of Synergy and the business. Obviously, that is increasingly towards an AI-enabled secure operational intelligence platform. Now we have a much clearer view of that roadmap. I won't go into individual future features for now for competitive reasons, but AI innovation will remain an important part of the evolution of Synergy.

Amanda Larnder: The Synergy SEARCH, as I mentioned, has obviously now gone live. More broadly, one of the things that we've deliberately done this last year is to get the overall product strategy and roadmap right. We didn't want to launch a series, if you like, of disconnected AI features that customers won't necessarily pay for just because AI is moving quite quickly. We wanted to be very clear about customer problems that we're solving and how each development supports the longer-term direction of Synergy and the business. Obviously, that is increasingly towards an AI-enabled secure operational intelligence platform. Now we have a much clearer view of that roadmap. I won't go into individual future features for now for competitive reasons, but AI innovation will remain an important part of the evolution of Synergy.

Speaker #2: More broadly, one of the things that we've deliberately done this last year is to get the overall product strategy and roadmap right. We didn't want to simply launch a series of, if you like, disconnected AI features that customers won't necessarily pay for just because AI is moving quite quickly.

Speaker #2: We wanted to be very clear about the customer problems that we're solving and how each development supports the longer-term direction of synergy and the business.

Speaker #2: And obviously, that is increasingly toward an AI-enabled side of secure operational intelligence platforms. Now, we have a much clearer view of that roadmap. So I won't go into individual future features for now, for competitive reasons.

Speaker #2: But AI innovation will remain an important part of the evolution of Synectics. Can you provide an indication of your main competition in each of Systems and Ocula, and what percentage win rate on tenders in each segment?

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Can you provide an indication of your main competition in each of Systems and Ocular and what percentage win rate on tenders in each segment?" The competitive landscape is quite different across the two businesses. In Synectics, competition varies by market. We compete with global security platform providers across the sectors, as well as more specialist competitors in areas such as energy and those hazards cameras. Ocular is an integrator, so its competitors are primarily other UK security systems integrators. On the win rates, historically, we haven't measured the conversion consistently or accurately enough across all of our markets and the different routes to market to give what I'd call a meaningful comparison number for each of the businesses today.

Amanda Larnder: Can you provide an indication of your main competition in each of Systems and Ocular and what percentage win rate on tenders in each segment?" The competitive landscape is quite different across the two businesses. In Synectics, competition varies by market. We compete with global security platform providers across the sectors, as well as more specialist competitors in areas such as energy and those hazards cameras. Ocular is an integrator, so its competitors are primarily other UK security systems integrators. On the win rates, historically, we haven't measured the conversion consistently or accurately enough across all of our markets and the different routes to market to give what I'd call a meaningful comparison number for each of the businesses today.

Speaker #2: So, the competitive landscape is quite different across the two businesses. In Synectics, competition varies by market. We compete with global security and insurance platform providers.

Speaker #2: Across the sectors, as well as more specialist competitors in areas such as energy and those hazardous cameras. Ocula is an integrator, so its competitors are primarily other UK security systems integrators.

Speaker #2: On the win rates: historically, we haven't measured the conversion consistently or accurately enough across all of our markets and the different routes to market to give what I call a meaningful comparator number for each of the businesses today.

Speaker #2: And that's one of the things that we've already changed as part of the strategy. Generally, we're becoming much more disciplined about what opportunities we're pursuing, how they're qualified, and how we measure conversion.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): That is one of the things that we have already changed as part of the strategy, generally becoming much more disciplined about what opportunities we are pursuing, how they are qualified, how we measure conversion. We set a target of 25% win rate by the end of FY27. Although I think there the important point as well for us is not that it is just a bit more, it is to really focus on the markets and the opportunities where we have the strongest ability to win. Next question, I will hand that one over to you, Paul.

Amanda Larnder: That is one of the things that we have already changed as part of the strategy, generally becoming much more disciplined about what opportunities we are pursuing, how they are qualified, how we measure conversion. We set a target of 25% win rate by the end of FY27. Although I think there the important point as well for us is not that it is just a bit more, it is to really focus on the markets and the opportunities where we have the strongest ability to win. Next question, I will hand that one over to you, Paul.

Speaker #2: We've set a target of a 25% win rate by the end of FY27. Although, I think the important point for us isn't just to bid for more.

Speaker #2: It's to really focus on the markets and the opportunities where we have the strongest ability to win. Next question—I'll hand that one over to you, Paul.

Speaker #3: So this is with $10 million in cash. Is this being invested short-term effectively? Sure, you should be getting circa 3% plus on this, but based on last year's interest figure in the accounts, it appears to be less than half of that.

Paul Williams: Well, this is, "With $10 million in cash, is this being invested short term effectively? Surely you should be getting circa 3% plus on this, but based on last year's interest figure in the accounts, it appears to be less than half of that. Surely this is an easy gain." Well, we do obviously have a well-established and active treasury management system within the business that is designed to make sure that our capital is available to support our operational and strategic needs wherever it happens to be needed. I do not think necessarily that you could just take the balance sheet figure of $10 million and assume that that is all available to put on deposit. We have working capital requirements across the business as well. That cash resides across different countries.

Speaker #3: Should it be an easy gain? Well, I mean, we do obviously have a well-established and active treasury management system within the business that's designed to make sure that our capital is available to support our operational and strategic needs wherever it happens to be needed.

Speaker #3: I don't think, necessarily, that you could just take the balance sheet figure of $10 million and assume that that's all available to put on deposit.

Speaker #3: We have working capital requirements across the business as well. That cash resides across different countries. We do operate pooling and, yes, we do put cash on overnight deposit and we achieve competitive rates on that.

Paul Williams: We do operate pooling, and yes, we do put cash on overnight deposit, and we achieve competitive rates on that. I think that we are doing everything we can on that. There is no more easy gains around it. We are already on it. I think it has just been Do you want to pick up the next one, Amanda?

Speaker #3: So, I think that we're doing everything that we can on that, so there's no more easy gains around it. We're already on it. I think it's just been—would you like to pick up the next one?

Speaker #3: Amanda?

Speaker #2: Yeah, I think you could pull there.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Yeah, I think you cut couple there.

Amanda Larnder: Yeah, I think you cut couple there.

Speaker #3: So, is H1 trading and the adjusted down EBITDA essentially a soft profit warning for 2026? The answer to that is no. We're being very transparent with our expectations and our outlook for the second half of the year.

Paul Williams: Is H1 trading and the adjusted down EBITDA essentially a soft profit warning for 2026?" The answer to that is no. We are being very transparent with our expectations and our outlook for the second half of the year. We have a pathway to deliver the market guidance that is out there at 4.1. However, we have also indicated clearly that there is a little bit of a downside risk on that relating to some specific oil and gas Middle East related opportunities that are still sort of delayed at the bottom end of our pipeline or within our order book for delivery. Subject to us being able to push those forward and translate them into revenue within the next couple of months, then we would expect to be at the upper end of that range to the extent that we can.

Speaker #3: We have a pathway to deliver the market guidance that's out there at 4.1. However, we have also indicated clearly that there is a little bit of a downside risk on that, related to some specific oil and gas, Middle East-related opportunities that are still sort of delayed at the bottom end of our pipeline, or within our order book for delivery.

Speaker #3: Subject to us being able to push those forward and translate them into revenue within the next couple of months, then we would expect to be at the upper end of that range. To the extent that we can't,

Speaker #3: And those continue to be delayed a little bit. We expect to be at the bottom end of that range, and that's as clear as we can really be on that.

Paul Williams: And those continue to be delayed a little bit, and we expect to be at the bottom end of that range. And that is as clear as we can really be on that. "Do we have a potential pipeline revenue figure? This would be contracts tended for but not yet won, or with a percentage factored in based on the likelihood of winning the bid. If so, why is this never published?" The answer to that is yes. The answer to that is that I can say that consistent with the messaging around the strength of our order book, the strength of our pipeline is robust and a bit ahead of where it was this time last year.

Speaker #3: Do we have a potential pipeline revenue figure? This would be contracts tendered for, but not yet won, or with a percentage factored in based on the likelihood of winning the bid.

Speaker #3: If so, why is this never published? The answer to that is yes. The answer to that is that I can say, consistent with the messaging around the strength of our order book and the strength of our pipeline, that it is robust and a little bit ahead of where it was this time last year.

Speaker #3: We don't publish that figure. I think because of the sort of some of the larger projects that are in there and those timing effects on them and to some extent we're less in control of when that order book, when those pipeline opportunities convert, then to some extent we're there's an element of movement around that that doesn't serve anybody to necessarily publish those figures and for them to sort of be relatively mobile in terms of timing on them.

Paul Williams: We do not publish that figure, I think because of some of the larger projects that are in there and those timing effects on them, and to some extent, we are less in control of when that order book and when those pipeline opportunities convert. Then to some extent, there is an element of movement around that that does not serve anybody to necessarily publish those figures and for them to be relatively mobile in terms of timing. So that is around those larger projects. So that is typically why we do not tend to publish that number.

Speaker #3: So that's around those larger projects, so that's typically why we don't tend to publish that number.

Speaker #2: Okay. How big is the Synectix sales force? How are the new contracts materializing? So our direct sales team is quite small—it's about 25 people globally across both businesses.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Okay. "How big is the Synectics sales force? How do new contracts materialize?" Our direct sales team is quite small. It is about 25 people globally across both businesses. And that is one of the reasons partners and market presence are such important parts of our strategy, so that we do not depend on simply adding more and more salespeople for future growth. New business, I think we have briefly touched on this with the America question, but it comes through a combination of routes. We have longstanding customers who come back to us for upgrades, expansions, new sites. Our own teams proactively develop new customers and relationships and projects, and then partners and integrators also introduce us into new opportunities. And obviously this is the area we have spoken about that we would like to significantly improve.

Amanda Larnder: Okay. "How big is the Synectics sales force? How do new contracts materialize?" Our direct sales team is quite small. It is about 25 people globally across both businesses. And that is one of the reasons partners and market presence are such important parts of our strategy, so that we do not depend on simply adding more and more salespeople for future growth. New business, I think we have briefly touched on this with the America question, but it comes through a combination of routes. We have longstanding customers who come back to us for upgrades, expansions, new sites. Our own teams proactively develop new customers and relationships and projects, and then partners and integrators also introduce us into new opportunities. And obviously this is the area we have spoken about that we would like to significantly improve.

Speaker #2: And that's one of the reasons partners and market presence are such important parts of our strategy—so that we don't depend on simply adding more and more salespeople for future growth.

Speaker #2: New business— I think we've briefly touched on this with the America question, but it comes through a combination of routes. We have longstanding customers who come back to us for upgrades, expansions, and new sites.

Speaker #2: Our own teams proactively develop new customers, relationships, and projects. Partners and integrators also introduce us to new opportunities. Obviously, this is the area we've spoken about that we'd like to significantly improve.

Speaker #2: Increasingly, and as we've mentioned, we're also now starting to use digital marketing to create new demand, rather than relying purely on relationship-led selling. So, the model that we're building around the sales team is about making that relatively small team much more effective by giving it significantly greater reach through some of those other areas that we've spoken about.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Increasingly, as we have mentioned, we are also now starting to use digital marketing to create new demand rather than relying purely on relationship-led selling. The model that we are building around the sales team is about making that relatively small team much more effective by giving it significantly greater reach through some of those other areas that we have spoken about. "The recently announced AI features sound very impressive. How does this compare with other competitor offerings? Can any of it be patented?" AI functionality is developing very quickly across the industry, so I wouldn't suggest that capabilities that we are developing are completely unique to Synectics. That being said, those where there are overlapping and similar things that competitors have, each have their own strengths individually. What I am pleased about particularly is that we are developing relevant AI capabilities, alongside our planned roadmap and alongside much larger competitors in the market.

Amanda Larnder: Increasingly, as we have mentioned, we are also now starting to use digital marketing to create new demand rather than relying purely on relationship-led selling. The model that we are building around the sales team is about making that relatively small team much more effective by giving it significantly greater reach through some of those other areas that we have spoken about. "The recently announced AI features sound very impressive. How does this compare with other competitor offerings? Can any of it be patented?" AI functionality is developing very quickly across the industry, so I wouldn't suggest that capabilities that we are developing are completely unique to Synectics. That being said, those where there are overlapping and similar things that competitors have, each have their own strengths individually. What I am pleased about particularly is that we are developing relevant AI capabilities, alongside our planned roadmap and alongside much larger competitors in the market.

Speaker #2: The recently announced AI features sound very impressive. How does this compare with other competitor offerings? Can any of it be patented? I mean, AI functionality is developing very quickly across the industry.

Speaker #2: So, I wouldn't suggest that the capabilities we're developing are completely unique to Synectix. That being said, where there are overlapping or similar offerings that competitors have, each has its own strengths individually.

Speaker #2: What I'm pleased about particularly is that we're developing relevant AI capabilities alongside our planned roadmap, and alongside much larger competitors in the market. And we're applying ours specifically to the critical environments that we know extremely well.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): We are applying ours specifically to the critical environments that we know extremely well, so we can make them much more specific to our end customers. Both Synergy SEARCH and Scene Check are good examples of that. On patents, some AI innovations can be patented. But obviously, they are only one way of protecting the IP, and patents aren't necessarily appropriate for every development. We consider the appropriate protection as part of our product development process.

Amanda Larnder: We are applying ours specifically to the critical environments that we know extremely well, so we can make them much more specific to our end customers. Both Synergy SEARCH and Scene Check are good examples of that. On patents, some AI innovations can be patented. But obviously, they are only one way of protecting the IP, and patents aren't necessarily appropriate for every development. We consider the appropriate protection as part of our product development process.

Speaker #2: So we can make them much more specific to our end customers. And both Search and Scene Check are good examples of that. On patents, some AI innovations can be patented.

Speaker #2: But obviously, there is only one way of protecting the IP. And it's—IP isn't necessarily—and patents aren't necessarily appropriate for every development.

Speaker #2: So we consider the appropriate protection as part of our product development process.

Speaker #3: The next break, if I can move?

Paul Williams: The next three, if I can move.

Speaker #2: Yep.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Yep.

Amanda Larnder: Yep.

Speaker #3: What's the $3.7 million lower end, assuming any meaningful resumption of delayed Middle East projects? I think I've dealt with that early on, just talking about that outlook.

Paul Williams: Will the GBP 3.7 million lower end assume any meaningful resumption of delayed Middle East projects?" I think I have dealt with that earlier on, just talking about that outlook range on EBITDA. There are a specific number of oil and gas Middle Eastern contracts and opportunities that we are just tracking, that would give us that range of GBP 400K around the EBITDA. It's not a general resumption, it's a specific number of opportunities that if they fall one side of the order book, in the second half of the year, then they will be at the upper end of the range. On the other side, then we will be at the lower end of the range. It's as simple as that. It's a linear thing. "How sustainable is the gross margin improvement and the sustainable level?" Historically, the business has operated around 41%, 42% gross margin.

Speaker #3: Range on EBITDA, there are a specific number of oil and gas Middle Eastern contracts and/or opportunities that we're just tracking that would give us that range of $400,000 around the EBITDA level.

Speaker #3: So, it's not a general resumption—it's a specific number of opportunities that, if they fall on one side of the order book in the second half of the year, then they will be on the upper end of the range on the other side.

Speaker #3: Then we'll be at the lower end of the range. It's as simple as that. So it's a linear thing. As for the sustainability of the gross margin improvement and the sustainable level historically, the business has operated around sort of 41 to 42 percent gross margin.

Paul Williams: We will see that number, I think, in the outlook. I think it is a little bit higher than that. H1 of the year is obviously around about 47.8, and I indicated earlier that will sort of settle back towards a more normalized level in the H2 of the year. But for the full year overall, I think we will be running slightly ahead of historical averages on gross margin. I think going forward, as we look to embed more recurring revenue flow into the business, we will see that longer term trend increasing above those historical sort of averages. But at this stage, that will be related to the recurring revenue growth that we see into the full year, 2027, 2028 onwards. Can you quantify how much recurring revenue Synectics has? Yes, I think we were doing the numbers earlier of exact.

Speaker #3: We will see that number, I think, in the outlook a little— I think it's a little bit higher than that, as we sort of— well, the first half of the year is obviously around about 47.8.

Speaker #3: And I indicated earlier that that will sort of settle back toward a more normalized level in the second half of the year. But for the full year overall, I think we'll be running slightly ahead of historical averages on gross margin.

Speaker #3: I think, going forward, as we look to embed more recurring revenue flow into the business, we'll see that longer-term trend increasing—above those historical sort of averages. But, at this stage, in terms of that, it will be related to the recurring revenue growth that we see into the full year '27, '28 onwards.

Speaker #3: Can you quantify how much recurring revenue Synectics has? Yes, I think it was in the numbers earlier in the deck. We were at just under $4 million, $3.8 million at the half year.

Paul Williams: We were at just under 4 million, 3.8 million at the half year. We will be around about sort of 7.8, I guess, just under 8, at the full year. And we do not expect much development of the recurring revenue business across 2026, as we indicated, until those recurring revenue, subscription-based products start to generate growth within 2027, 2028 and beyond. So roughly around about 15% of our revenue is recurring in nature. Okay. And I think that was the last of those.

Speaker #3: We'll be around about sort of 7.8. I guess just under 8 at the full year. We don't expect much development of the recurring revenue business across '26, as we indicated, until those recurring revenue subscription-based products start to generate growth within '27, '28, and beyond.

Speaker #3: So, roughly around 15% of our revenue is recurring in nature. Okay. That was the last of those.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Okay. Shall I pick up this one then? Was the contract announced today one of the delayed ones? No, the one today is not Middle East related. So that is completely separate to those, but was a really good win for that team. So very pleased with that one today. Can you disclose what the average contract order size is, and how much of the business is large or one-off contracts versus smaller contracts? Across both businesses, your average contract is in the range of 200,000 to about half a million. That would be the sort of typical size that we would generally see. It is not unusual to have contracts ranging in the 1 to 3 million mark. They are quite typical as well.

Amanda Larnder: Okay. Shall I pick up this one then? Was the contract announced today one of the delayed ones? No, the one today is not Middle East related. So that is completely separate to those, but was a really good win for that team. So very pleased with that one today. Can you disclose what the average contract order size is, and how much of the business is large or one-off contracts versus smaller contracts? Across both businesses, your average contract is in the range of 200,000 to about half a million. That would be the sort of typical size that we would generally see. It is not unusual to have contracts ranging in the 1 to 3 million mark. They are quite typical as well.

Speaker #2: Okay, should I pick up this one then? Was the contract announced today one of the delayed ones? No, the one today is not Middle East related.

Speaker #2: So that's completely separate from those. But it was a really good win for that team, so we're very pleased with that one today. Can you disclose what the average contract order size is, and how much of the business is large or one-off contracts versus smaller contracts?

Speaker #2: I mean, across both businesses, the average contract is in the range of $200,000 to about half a million. That would be the sort of typical size that we would generally see.

Speaker #2: It's not unusual to have contracts ranging in the $1 to $3 million mark. They're quite typical as well. In terms of those large one-off contracts like we saw last year, obviously, they're quite infrequent and tend to be based on something like a significant new build or something like that happening.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): In terms of those large one-off contracts like we saw last year, obviously they are quite infrequent and tend to be based on something like a significant new build or something like that happening. Anything you would add to that, Paul?

Amanda Larnder: In terms of those large one-off contracts like we saw last year, obviously they are quite infrequent and tend to be based on something like a significant new build or something like that happening. Anything you would add to that, Paul?

Speaker #2: Anything you'd add to that, Paul?

Speaker #3: But no, no, I think the—

Paul Williams: No. I think you covered that one.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Amanda, do you want to take the last one?

Amanda Larnder: Amanda, do you want to take the last one?

Speaker #2: And then, do you want to take the last one?

Speaker #3: Yeah. Apologies if I missed it, but was there a projected ARR for full year '27? And what is the associated opex with that recurring revenue?

Paul Williams: Yeah. "Apologies if I missed it, but was there a projected ARR for FY27, and what is the associated OpEx with that recurring revenue?" The answer to that question is no, there isn't a projected ARR specifically for FY27 yet. As Amanda mentioned a little further up the deck, that plan for recurring revenue will be the intended timing for that, and we should be in a position to say a little bit more around that at the year end going forward.

Speaker #3: The answer to that question is no, there isn't a projected ARR specifically for the full year '27 yet. I think, as Amanda mentioned a little further up the deck, that plan for recurring revenue would be.

Speaker #3: The intended timing for that, and we should be in a position to say a little bit more around that at the year-end.

Speaker #1: Perfect, guys. If I may just jump back in at this point—thank you very much indeed for addressing all of those questions that came in from investors this morning.

Operator 2: Perfect. Guys, if I may just jump back in at this point. Thank you very much indeed for addressing all of those questions that came in from investors this morning. If there are any further questions that do come through, we'll make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended. Amanda, perhaps before really now just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company. If I could please just ask you for a few closing comments just to wrap up with, that'd be great.

Operator: Perfect. Guys, if I may just jump back in at this point. Thank you very much indeed for addressing all of those questions that came in from investors this morning. If there are any further questions that do come through, we'll make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended. Amanda, perhaps before really now just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company. If I could please just ask you for a few closing comments just to wrap up with, that'd be great.

Speaker #1: And, of course, if there are any further questions that do come through, we'll make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended.

Speaker #1: But Amanda, perhaps before we're ready now, I just want to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to you and the company.

Speaker #1: If I could please just ask you for a few closing comments to wrap up, that would be great.

Speaker #2: Yeah, thank you. I mean, obviously, I'd like to thank everybody today for joining us and for all of the good questions that were submitted.

[Company Representative] (Synectics): Yeah. Thank you. I would like to thank everybody today for joining us and for all of the good questions that were submitted. Hopefully today has given you a clearer picture of what it is that we are changing and why we are becoming confident in that opportunity ahead. We are making good progress in line with the timetable that we had set out, and we are starting to see some early signs that those changes that we are making are working. Our focus now is simply to keep delivering that and to build the stronger, more sustainable business that we know Synectics can become. Thank you to everybody again for their continued support.

Amanda Larnder: Yeah. Thank you. I would like to thank everybody today for joining us and for all of the good questions that were submitted. Hopefully today has given you a clearer picture of what it is that we are changing and why we are becoming confident in that opportunity ahead. We are making good progress in line with the timetable that we had set out, and we are starting to see some early signs that those changes that we are making are working. Our focus now is simply to keep delivering that and to build the stronger, more sustainable business that we know Synectics can become. Thank you to everybody again for their continued support.

Speaker #2: Hopefully, today has given you a clearer picture of what it is that we're changing and why we're becoming confident in the opportunity ahead. We're making good progress in line with the timetable that we had set out, and we're starting to see some early signs that those changes we're making are working.

Speaker #2: So our focus now is simply to keep delivering that, and to build the stronger, more sustainable business that we know Synectics can become. So thank you to everybody again for their continued support.

Speaker #3: Thanks, Rosalie.

Paul Williams: Thanks, everybody.

Speaker #1: That's great. Amanda, Paul, thank you once again for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback?

Operator 2: That is great. Amanda, Paul, thank you once again for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you will now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback. On behalf of the management team and-

Operator: That is great. Amanda, Paul, thank you once again for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you will now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback. On behalf of the management team and-