Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to Sonae's First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. The call will be structured in two parts. First, a presentation by Sonae's CFO, Mr. Joao Dolores. And afterwards, there will be a Q&A session where you will be able to put your questions. [Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the call over to Mr. Joao Dolores, CFO. Sir, please go ahead.

João Pedro Magalhaes Da Silva Dolores
CFO & Executive Director

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call where we will cover Sonae's Q1 results for 2026. Besides myself and the Investor Relations team, we have with us Cristina Novais from Bright Pixel, Fernando Van Zeller from MC and Miguel Moreira from Sierra. Let's now begin with the highlights of the quarter, starting with MC.

In the first quarter of 2026, MC once again reinforced its leadership positions across grocery in Portugal and Health and beauty in Iberia. In grocery, turnover increased by 8% year-on-year, supported by high single-digit like-for-like growth across all store formats. The sales performance was underpinned by a solid growth in volumes having resulted in yet another increase in market share and a wider gap to the second player in the market.

At the same time, profitability continued to improve. The underlying EBITDA margin increased from 9% to 9.5% benefiting from higher operating leverage and continued efficiency gains across the business. In Health and Beauty, turnover increased by