Anthony J. Habgood
Management
So good morning, everyone, and welcome to our interim results. And thank you for coming. And for those of you who are on our webcast, thank you for listening in. Once again, I am pleased to say that we've made good progress across the company and are on track to deliver our strategic and financial priorities. With underlying sales up 3%, that's of course, excluding the cycling out this year in Exhibitions, and underlying profits up 6%, we are recommending an increase in the interim dividend of 11% for PLC and 2% for NV, which is just about in line with the growth in adjusted earnings per share for the 2 parent companies at constant exchange rates. Our business profile is continuing to improve, primarily through organic development, combined with a small number of targeted acquisitions to support this organic growth. We also disposed of several businesses that no longer fit our strategy and have bought back shares for an amount, which is just about the same as the gross disposal proceeds during the first half. Furthermore, we announced today that we're going to increase this year's buybacks to a total of GBP 600 million, which is about GBP 200 million more than our expected gross year -- full year gross disposal proceeds because our cash flow remains strong and our balance sheet is, if anything, continuing to strengthen. Duncan will now take you through the results in more detail, and Erik will describe the progress of the company more generally. Thank you.