Welcome to everyone connected. Our apologies, my personal apologies for the delay in the start of this conference call due to some technical glitches that we are hopefully worked over.

Now let me give the floor to our CEO and General Manager, Saverio Perissinotto, for his comment and illustration of the first quarter results. Go ahead, Saverio.

Yes, good afternoon to everyone. Very welcome to this conference on the first quarter results of Anima Group.

You all should have received a short presentation, and the title is Keeping Up the Pace. Let's make a very short agenda.

We are going to give you a short overview of where we are, we are going to zoom further on the breakdown of AUM and the main distribution channels, we will zoom later on revenues, costs, and financial position, and we will consequently draw some conclusion. On the first slide, which is page number 2 of your presentation, we have summed up the main highlights of this quarter.

Useless to say that market conditions have been quite challenging, and we have been facing especially during the month of March and the end of February some headwinds. At the end of the quarter, we have a situation which remain still quite comfortable.

As I was mentioning before, we have faced, let's say, some challenging numbers as far as net inflows are concerned, because we were recording the outflow of the mandate of Etica SGR. That this is something which is completely foreseen and announced since more than one year ago, because the first announcement was made in January 2025, but of course we recorded this outflows during the month of March.

The total revenues are up 5% compared to last quarter '25 at the level of €140 million and 600,000. We were having a total EBITDA adjusted which is in the range of 100 and €101 million.

Of course, we are having a net profit which is €69.9 million adjusted to the extraordinary item that we were cashing in the last quarter of 2025, which of course this year unfortunately was not present. These are, let's say, the main activities that we are going to further zoom after in the presentation.

The other important thing probably worth mentioning, the fact that since we are historically having a net asset allocation which is less tilted to the equity portion of the portfolio, our results have been a little bit better than the average of the market, which is something which is satisfactory even if the number is of course in the negative territory since market condition. Let me remind you on page 3 who we are and where we are exactly in our structure.

Anima Holding, which is the listed company, is controlling four major SGR companies. The major part of the assets, of course, is in Anima SGR, which includes the main distribution contracts with distributors and of course with the major number of products available to distribution.

We are now fully consolidating Kairos SGR. You probably remember that Kairos was acquired quite recently by Anima.

Kairos is active in asset management activity and also offers a wealth management practice to a limited numbers of high net worth individual in Italy. What we consider having, let's say, an alternative investment unit is the sum of what we do in Anima Alternative, which is mainly active into private credit fields, plus what we do in Castello SGR, that Castello SGR is mainly active into the real estate asset management space.

Of course, as I was mentioning at the beginning, we have less than €6 billion in the unit of alternative investment, a little bit more than €10 billion on Kairos, and of course the largest part of the pie is in Anima SGR, which is something below €188 billion of assets. The total sum of all those assets bring us to the €203.3 billion of total assets, and of course we have also €800 million of assets under advisory, which are included in this slide.

I remind at your attention, but you probably know, that we have 80% equity stake for Castello and is still active a put and call option between Castello and Oaktree, which was the original owner of Castello from which we bought the company 2 years ago, if my memory is correct. On slide number 4, which we give you a very clear representation on how our total assets are split at the end of March.

The biggest part of the pie is, as you already know, between the retail, which is waiting for more or less 1/3 of the total assets, 46% are on the institutional, and the channel B2B2C, which is mainly the unit-linked related to Poste and to Banco BPM, is accounting for 30%. Let's zoom the retail side.

Retail side means for us the main distributors, what we consider being the strategic partners, which of course are Banco BPM, which is now having 89% of our company, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which is accounting for another 28% of this total €65 billion, Crédit Agricole Italy, which is the result of the acquisition of Crédit Agricole of Credito Valtellinese, with whom we were having a strong distribution agreement, and the balance is between the financial advisors network present in Italy, Banca Popolare Pugliese e Basilicata less than 1%, and some private bankers and others. The total amount of this first retail channel is €65 billion.

€27 billion is Poste activity, funds, exception of the with-profit insurance contract, and the unit-linked, which is for 2/3, and 1/3 is insurance unit-linked related to Banco BPM for 90%, and 10% is related to the distribution of the same product unit-linked to Monte dei Paschi di Siena with AXA. The institutional side is €93.6 billion, is mainly with-profit insurance contract.

The biggest part is of course with Poste Italiane, which is having 70%, a bit less than 70% of this €93.6 billion, other 12% of with-profit contracts, pension funds and FondiInps is another 12%, and alternative investment we put it in this bracket because this is pure institutional. Of course, we have to add 9% of the total assets, which is accounting for €17.5 billion, which is what we call duplication.

Duplication, as are the products which invest in retail and institutional classes of Anima products. Of course, the sum of all these channels goes back to the €203.3 billion that we were mentioning before.

Slide number 5 is giving you a bigger clear picture on what I was mentioning at the beginning in the highlights. You see the Assogestioni breakdown by category.

This, of course, is an average, is having an exposure of a bit more than 1/3 into equity portfolios. Of course, we have to add flexible and balanced portfolio for another quarter, 25% more or less.

If we look at the same numbers compared to our average asset allocation of our products, you see that we are 21% in a pure equity, a bit less on the flexible, and a bit more on the balanced funds. This probably is the major reason which explain the difference of better performance compared to the average Italian industry.

Page 6 is let's say a slide which of course I do not like very much because is showing you the breakdown in the quarter on the mutual funds. Of course, you can see that bond funds, flexible, and equity all recorded negative net asset gathering since the beginning of the year.

Of course, we consider that this, let's say, tepid and not very hot attitude in investing into asset class is very much related to the geopolitical situation and what's going on in the Middle East, and of course this is the main reason that principally is, let's say, cutting confidence into the mind of the retail investors, and this is the first things that we witness in this case. Slide number 7 is quite interesting because at the end of the day probably this is the reason, because even if we are facing negative numbers in as far as asset gathering is concerned, fortunately the withdrawal of funds are concentrated on the less profitable bracket of products that we manage.

We face a bit less than €1 billion of outflows coming from a with-profit products, which is called insurance with-profit. We are facing of course the Etica SGR that we already have mentioned, and the wrapping side, as in Italy we are cashing in only the excess fee compared to the mother fund respectful of the underlying funds when there is the possibility.

At the end of the day, also the wrapping is having a very small impact as far as our profitability is concerned. I imagine that you could ask me eventually what will be the impact on the profitability of the well-known outflows related to Etica to give you a number.

We expect to have the full impact for the months to come for the totality of the 2026 year probably having less than €6 million of total impact of the revenues related to this withdrawal of Etica mandate. The other numbers, the few numbers of inflows that we have them, we have them fortunately on the retail clients B2C, FondiInps, and the part of the institutional mandate with the exception of Etica.

I think that page number 8 does not add too much information to what I have already told you in the former slide, I will not comment it. I will now go to the elements of the P&L, which are quite interesting in this, as I was telling you at the beginning, still challenging environment.

As you can see, total revenues are up 5% compared to the first quarter of 2025, reaching the level of €140 million and €600,000. We are being able to cash in more or less the same level of performance fee of last year, which is in the range of €29 million, and the net revenues, with the exclusion of the performance fee, are up 6% compared to last year, which is quite good because we were capitalizing of the positive market effect which was at the end of last year and during the months of March.

Total cost are 1% less of the same amount of last year in the range of €39.5 million, which is quite good. Our cost-income is in the range of 35%, 35 basis points before performance fees.

Of course, if we are able to cash in some performance fees, we are in the range of 28%, which is quite a good number and is worth mentioning. The EBITDA is following the same let's say direction than our revenues, more or less they are up 7%, and of course the big difference between last year and that is the fact that we do not have this year the one-off price adjustment for one of our distributor, which was able to give us a result before financial income and taxation of €109 million compared to the €88.6 million that we are realizing this year.

Income taxation is in the range of 31% for the quarter, we have to cut down €27.2 million, and we arrive at a net income, that of course is the number that we consolidate in our quarter, of €61.4 million, which is less 14% of the number of last year, which was staying at €71.8 million. Of course, if we consider it adjusted for the non-recurring item, we are up 13% at €69.9 million compared to €61.9 million of last year, which is a quite substantial and positive number, especially according to what we have been living in the first quarter of 2026.

Rapidly going to the split of the revenues by quarter at page number 10, not too much to be told to be honest. Net recurring fees are having the biggest part of the pie, of course, €86.4 million.

Net placement fee, which I remind to everyone is the portion of the fees that we are able to keep inside the SGR perimeter which are distributed by the networks, and other income is mainly related to what we are able to negotiate with the depositary banks and all this chain related to this activity. Personnel expenses are a bit higher than last year.

You can see the colors is related by company. The big difference in the €2 million that you can see, the €2 million more compared to last quarter, is essentially related to the pale red that are the bonus provision related to the portion of the performance fees our team were able to cash in in the first quarter.

The €6.6 million have to be compared to the €4.6 million of last quarter, which is mainly related to the fact that in this quarter the performance fees were let's say a bit more relevant compared to last year. Not too much to be add as far as Kairos is concerned, which is more or less at the same level, and Castello SGR, which is a inch smaller than last year on the variable component.

If we move to page 12 is a very clear zoom on our consolidated financial position. That we still are paying interest on the two bonds: one which is maturing in this October and the one which is maturing in '28; €283 million the first one and the €299 million something the second one.

Of course, we have interest expense for €6 million, IFRS 16 for €20 million, we have the put and call option cost related to the activity of Castello and the Kairos activity, which is accounting for €20 million, and this give us a position of €630.6 million of debt, which is faced on the other side of the balance sheet with cash and equivalent for €744.7 million, and we have a large portion of securities, which are of course the MPS Monte dei Paschi stake at market value, which is a bit less than what it was at year-end of 2025, plus of course time deposits that we have. This give us a total cash which is close to €1 billion and €189 million, and we have a net financial position, net cash in hands, which is in the €558.3 million compared to last year.

Last year the difference is related to the fact that the value of Monte dei Paschi was a bit more important than it is today as far as market is concerned. Total net return on liquidity by quarter is probably less relevant, but is of course an information that we give you.

At the end of the day, in the first quarter we have nothing particularly to announce you because the total sum between the pluses and the minuses is close to zero between interest expenses and own portfolio results, I will not stay too long on this slide. Trying to draw some conclusions, of course, I think that the most relevant things that I can tell you is that we do not have particular changes in the business model, in the strategy, and in the commercial activity to announce you today.

We try to keep let's say our roadmap in a very clear way. As we told you, P&L has been very satisfactory, performance of the products are okay in a challenging environment.

Of course, we expect the next quarters to come to have some rebound in the net asset gathering activity. What we do with Banco BPM, we will start a new commercial activity into the managed accounts, which are let's say instructed by Anima, but powered by Kairos, that we consider having a good attraction as brand in front of the retail customer of Banco BPM.

Of course, we try to propose, according to market condition, products that allow the customer gradually to have an exposure into equity market, and this is something which is generally very much appreciated by distributors. Of course, we consider that our priority stay into the commercial space of trying to revitalize the negative numbers we have seen with Monte dei Paschi di Siena in the first quarter, with Crédit Agricole, and with the different additional distributors that we have.

At the day that we are speaking today, as markets, especially equity markets, are back to almost record high, and this is something which is going to help us to factor the high-watermark effect. Hopefully, and keep our finger crossed, if the situation is going to see let's say a better market condition in the months to come, this could be also an opportunity for us.

As I was telling you, we do not expect that the outflows of Etica mandate is not going to have substantial impact on our P&L. We try to remain focused on the pricing that we are able to put on our products with satisfaction with our distributors.

Of course, we also will witness in the next quarter a strong dividend which is going to strengthen our net financial position coming from the 1.7% equity stake we still have into Monte dei Paschi di Siena. I will stay here.

I hope to have been able to give you a clear view what has been our first quarter of 2026. As we told you at the beginning, we entitled this presentation Keeping Up the Pace because I think we have all the elements to be able to deliver substantial results in our business model and in our business, which of course is very much related on what's happening on financial markets and as we were mentioning shortly ago.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Saverio. Now I would open the line to any questions from the audience.

Operator, please help us.

Hello, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions.

I was wondering if you can provide us some detail of the trend of flows in April and what are you expecting in the current market environment, how is the macro uncertainty affecting the inflows? Second question is clearly quite tough to say, but which trend of performance fee should we expect going on?

Very last one, should we expect some new institutional mandate tenders in the coming months to positively impact the flows? Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much for your question, and I will answer this question very clearly.

The net inflows of April, the number will be published later this week, because we still wait some last numbers to come in. What I can anticipate you is that we do not see yet a change of the trend, to be very clear and very transparent with you.

As far as performance fees are concerned, your question is very good, is very sharp. No one has the crystal ball to imagine how markets are going to behave in the months to come.

What is relevant for us is the fact that we have to be over our high-watermark, and this is something which of course one of the precondition we are not very far from that. This is something which makes me let's say have a positive and constructive attitude.

Now, of course, I have no idea what's going to happen in financial markets in the months to come, but let's see what is important is that should we have the opportunity related to the financial markets, we are going to take this opportunity, and we have to ride it strongly and very firmly and try to deliver the best performance on the sake of our customer and consequently being able to cash in some possible, let's say, performance fee. As far as institutional mandates tenders is concerned, you ask me a question that I have to confess I do not know by heart how is the calendar of the tenders to come, but we have an institutional mandates team which is following this very closely and very let's say carefully, I expect that we are going to tender as much as we can, and of course if our condition will be competitive and according to market standard, I do not see any reason because we are not being positively considered by the institutional investors.

Thank you.

We cannot hear Alberto Villa.

I'm not sure to have listened correctly to the question. The question is regarding private credit, I'm correct?

Okay. No, definitely we can reassure Elena Perini that we do not face any critical point as far as our private credit exposure is concerned.

That we do not have huge numbers on that, but except that we have 100% of this private credit is Italian lenders related, we definitely do not consider to face critical point on our private credit exposure. By the way, since is 100% into the hands of institutional customers, we do not face any request of withdrawal at all.

Okay. As a reminder to Alberto Villa who might or might not be trying to reconnect and to anyone else who might have questions after the call, the IR contacts are, of course, always at your disposal.

I'm just trying to buy some more time, but if we don't have any sign of life from Alberto, we might close the call here as far as we are concerned.

Okay. At this point, we would like to thank everybody who attended and will speak to you on the half-year results call in early August.

Thank you very much to everyone, and I look forward welcoming you on the next conference call. Thank you very much.

Bye-bye.