Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Poste Italiane's First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. In a few moments, the CEO, Matteo Del Fante, will take you through some opening remarks as well as a short update on the TIM offer.

Then our CFO, Camillo Greco, will cover the financials. As usual, the presentation will be followed by a Q&A session where you can ask questions either via phone or through our webcast platform.

For any topics we won't be able to cover today, please do contact the Investor Relations team, who will be happy to follow up. With that, over to you, Matteo.

Good morning, everyone. Our Q1 2026 results highlight a very strong start of the year and confirm the strength of our platform model.

We delivered a record first quarter with revenues of €3.5 billion and a healthy 8% year-on-year growth, supported by all business units. On profitability, we achieved a record adjusted EBIT of €905 million, up 14% year-on-year, reflecting continued cost discipline in the current inflationary environment.

Net profit reached €617 million, up 3% year-on-year. Commercial trends remain solid, with €1.7 billion investment inflows coupled with strong momentum in postal savings and stable retail deposits.

We continue to operate from a position of strength. The group balance sheet remained robust, with our solvency ratio at 294% and a €341 million improvement in our net financial position generated in the quarter, which is €43 million more than in the first quarter of last year.

Finally, digital payments once again grew above the market, underlining the strength of our platform and its ability to generate sustainable growth. On the back of this strong start of the year and a better-than-expected interest rate environment, we have raised our full-year '26 adjusted EBIT guidance to €3.4 billion.

We'll present our stand-alone 2026-2030 plan together with Q2 results on July 24th. Let me move for a second on TIM and give you an update on the tender offer.

Over the past few months, we have further strengthened our conviction on the strategic rationale of the transaction and its perfect fit with Poste Italiane platform business model. With our solid balance sheet and strong cash generation, we are uniquely positioned to support digital investment and accelerate strategic initiatives that will deliver growth.

The merger of Poste's telco and TIM consumer businesses will create the number one mobile operator in Italy, kick-starting the next leg of domestic telco consolidation. Importantly, financial and insurance services will remain the dominant profit contributor within the combined entity, representing around 82% of domestic EBIT and approximately 64% of the overall EBIT including Brazil.

The financial profile of the proposed transaction is extremely strong, with positive EPS impact from 2027, rising to double-digit accretion from 2028. Our guidance-implied '26 DPS is confirmed, and the dividend policy going forward will be accretive compared to the stand-alone scenario.

Pro forma leverage is expected at 1.4 times by the end of 2026 and steadily decreasing going forward, thanks to the strong cash flow generation of Poste Italiane and TIM Brasil. The offer terms are compelling for TIM shareholders, implying a 17% true premium to the pre-announcement price and up to over 50% premium on unencumbered average prices, with 40% value sharing from expected synergies and an attractive, stable dividend outlook.

The combined entity will have pro forma free float of around €20 billion, enhancing stock liquidity with a highly diversified shareholder base. We are on track to close the deal by Q3 2026.

Let's go back to Poste and group financials from slide 5. We have posted for the fourth consecutive time a record first quarter, with revenues at €3.5 billion.

Top-line growth translated very effectively into profitability, as adjusted EBIT for the quarter reached €905 million, up 14% year-on-year. Net profit, excluding the TIM stake contribution, was €617 million, up 3%.

On slide 6, the healthy underlying revenue momentum across all our business segments continues into the new year. In Mail, Parcel & Distribution, revenue growth was driven by increasing parcel volumes.

The anticipated decline in mail volume is effectively mitigated through ongoing repricing actions. In Financial Services, revenue increased by 11% year-on-year to €1.6 billion, supported by investment portfolio strength and a solid commercial performance.

Insurance Services delivered strong results across both life and protection. Revenue rose 6% in the quarter, reflecting stable CSM stock coupled with higher release percentage.

Postepay Services delivered solid growth across payment and energy ahead of integration into the new financial hub. The telco customer base remained stable, with the number of energy clients now reached around 1.1 million clients.

Let's go to slide 7 and look at EBIT evolution by segment. Mail, Parcel & Distribution reported an adjusted EBIT of €43 million for the quarter, in line with our full-year guidance.

Financial Services operating profitability is up 22% to €318 million, driven by overall strong revenue trend. Insurance Services EBIT is up 4%, supported by both life investment and protection.

Finally, Postepay Services double-digit EBIT growth to €153 million is driven by resilient top-line performance and effective cost management. Let's now look at some examples of how our platform business model is delivering tangible results.

We operate a scalable, digitally enabled infrastructure supported by in-house product capabilities and a unique combination of physical and digital distribution. The platform allows us to add clients and revenues at near-zero marginal cost, while addressing structural everyday needs, such as digital payments, secure digital identities, energy, and everyday services.

You can see here a few examples highlighting the strength of the platform. We have become in fact Italy's largest payment ecosystem, reaching €1.6 billion revenues in 2025 from €0.4 billion in 2017, with transaction values growing at a 16% CAGR from 2018 to '25, increasing our market share.

Energy is another clear example of how we leverage the platform. Built on an in-house cloud-native backbone, we're scaling the customer base at near-zero acquisition cost, reaching 1 million clients in three years since launch and becoming an increasingly meaningful contributor to group EBIT.

Finally, digital identities address a systemic national need. SPID has rapidly scaled to around 30 million users, with monetization now accelerating as adoption deepens and upselling opportunities materialize.

This is the foundation on which we continue to build the new Poste Italiane as the leading integrated platform company in Italy. I would like now to move to a more detailed update on the TIM offer.

The slide illustrates why Poste Italiane and TIM represent the perfect strategic fit enabling future growth. Poste Italiane already operates the largest platform in Italy, combining financial and insurance services, logistics and distribution, energy, and digital identities, supported by an unmatched physical and digital network.

TIM adds connectivity and tech infrastructure leadership, completing the platform with an iconic upmarket brand, a large retail telco client base, sovereign digital capabilities, enterprise commercial excellence, and a market-leading mobile operator in Brazil. The industrial logic is very strong.

Together, we serve the largest Italian client base, leveraging a unique distribution footprint made of post offices, digital channels, third-party networks, and TIM outlets, underpinned by critical physical and digital infrastructure, supporting the country digitalization, connectivity, and data plans. From an earnings standpoint, the combined entity remains firmly anchored to Poste Italiane core strength, with financial and insurance services accounting for around 82% of domestic EBIT and continue to represent the bulk of the group cash generation.

At the same time, connectivity and digital services to public administration and enterprises represent a powerful growth opportunity. Let me spend now a moment on our super-app and why integrating the TIM consumer offer is so powerful.

With 17 million users and over 4 million daily active users, we already operate an unmatched national scale platform. The super-app is designed around everyday services, from payment and banking to connectivity, energy, driving higher frequency and greater stickiness than traditional e-commerce models.

Today, close to 80% of our app users own more than one product, double the percentage of non-app users. Integrating TIM premium offering and broad customer base into the super-app accelerates engagement, unlocks cross-selling, and strengthens the flywheel effect.

Importantly, this is built on own, proprietary infrastructure, not loosely assembled partnerships. The result is a unique, trusted marketplace for daily essential services and long-term needs, enhanced by AI-driven orchestration and personalization across key life events, supporting sustainable growth and multiple monetization levers over time.

To summarize, it is much easier to sell one more product to an existing client than winning a new client, and this is thanks to our digital plus physical, seamless assistance to our clients. Let me now hand over to Camillo for the financial aspects of the proposed transaction as well as a detailed overview of our Q1 '26 financial results.

Over to you, Camillo. Thank you.

Thank you, Matteo. Let's briefly focus on the shareholder value creation, which is a key pillar of the transaction.

Our ongoing analysis confirms initial assessment of circa €700 million synergies, with €500 million coming from cost efficiencies and a further €200 million EBIT from incremental revenues. From an earnings perspective, the transaction is EPS accretive from 2027, with double-digit accretion in 2028, implying compelling pro forma 2028 P/E multiple of 8 to 9 times.

On dividends, we confirm the 2026 guidance-implied DPS, with dividends paid also to the new shares issued as a result of the TIM offer, with an accretive dividend policy going forward. Leverage remains low, at around 1.4 times net debt to EBITDA after lease by year-end 2026 and declining thereafter, with current credit ratings as of today confirmed by all three rating agencies.

Let's move to a more detailed overview of expected synergies. On the revenue side, with TIM, we will add a premium connectivity offer to our platform and unlock powerful cross- and upselling opportunities through Italy's largest distribution network and our 4.2 million super-app daily active users.

We will also accelerate growth across enterprise and public administrations as we expand the tech services offer of cloud, cybersecurity, IoT, and agentic AI, as well as integrated one-stop shop for financial, insurance, cloud sovereign solutions, and other services. Overall, we confirm more than €200 million of EBIT from incremental revenues.

On the cost side, the in-depth analysis confirms around €500 million efficiencies. The merger of Poste's telco and TIM consumer enables opex and workforce rationalization.

The deal will generate efficiencies from digital and technology integration, optimization of the distribution networks and real estate footprint, as well as economies of scale on advertising and procurement costs. Additionally, the relaunch of our insourcing program will provide further structural cost benefits.

Poste's investment-grade rating will allow for an optimization of the combined entity's funding cost. We expect one-off integration cost of around €700 million pretax, mainly over 2026-2027.

Moving to slide 14. This page illustrates how we see the true premium offered to TIM shareholders and why we believe our value proposition is compelling.

Considering both the cash component of the deal as well as the expected value of TIM shareholders' share of the combined entity, including synergies, the true premium embedded in our offer is 17%, calculated on a pre-deal spot basis. The embedded premium rises up to 50% if calculated on an unencumbered average price, as TIM shares have risen by around 110% since our first investment in February 2025.

Importantly, our offer to TIM minority shareholders embeds a 40% sharing of the value of the synergies, in line with the market standard 50/50 split when considering Poste Italiane already owns 20% of TIM share capital. Overall, this transaction structure delivers an attractive premium, transparent value sharing, and long-term upside to all shareholders.

Let's move to slide 15 for an update on the transaction timeline. We announced the deal on March 22nd, followed by the filing of the exchange and cash offer documentation and regulatory submissions on April 10th, both completed as planned.

On June 18th, we will hold an EGM for the capital increase proposal. On July 24th, we will present Poste Italiane's stand-alone 2026-2030 plan alongside with Q2 and H1 2026 results, providing full transparency and enabling a more informed assessment of the value of the equity component of the consideration.

By the end of July, we expect Bank of Italy and Consob approvals, allowing the offer period to start, with closing targeted for the end of Q3 2026. Overall, execution is progressing smoothly and in line with our stated timeline.

Let's now move to our Q1 financial results from page number 17. In Mail, Parcel & Distribution, revenues totaled just over €1 billion, up 6% year-on-year.

Mail revenues of €505 million are down by 3%, in line with the trend that we anticipate for full-year 2026. Parcel revenues accelerated at a remarkable 15% to €453 million, driven by market share gains across a diversified customer base and constant logistics development.

On the logistics front, we announced a JV with Benetton logistics, leveraging our logistics and e-commerce leadership to create a scalable platform capable of attracting new customers and supporting profitable growth for the group. Distribution revenues from other business units are up 7% in the quarter, driven by strong commercial momentum and active portfolio management concentration in Q1 '26.

Adjusted EBIT at €43 million in Q1 '26 is well in line with the full-year guidance. Let's look at volumes and tariffs on slide number 18.

Parcel volumes were up 15%, supported by continuing market share gains across customer segments. 43% of items are now delivered via the postal network, up 3 percentage points versus last year.

Looking at parcel pricing, the average tariff remains broadly stable as volume growth is spread across customer segments and growth in lower-priced items comes with a lower unit cost to deliver. Moving to mail, the volume trend is in line with expectations, down 8%, whilst the higher mail average tariff reflects ongoing repricing actions across both regulated and market products.

Moving to Financial Services, with gross revenues for the quarter at €1.8 billion, up 8%. Net interest income came at €658 million in Q1 '26, reflecting lower rates on variable portfolio versus Q1 '25, while marginally ahead of 2026 guidance as a result of an improved interest rate environment towards the end of the quarter.

We expect this will provide more meaningful support to NII in the coming quarters. The €166 million active portfolio management revenues realized in the quarter represent most of the capital gains expected for the year.

Postal savings distribution fees are stable at €440 million and supported by improving net inflows. Consumer loan fees reached €66 million.

Asset management revenues are up 27% to €55 million in Q1, benefiting from higher assets under management. Finally, adjusted EBIT came in at €318 million, up 22%, reflecting the positive revenue trend.

Moving to slide 20, TFAs reached €606 billion, up €5.3 billion in the three months from the end of 2025. Looking briefly at each component, we reported strong €1.7 billion net inflows in investment products, confirming the positive trend in life insurance, with significant contribution from multiclass products as well as in asset management.

Deposits were up, benefiting from higher balancing from PA clients and resilient retail deposits at €59 billion, confirming the stickiness and loyalty of our customer base. Improved postal savings net outflows were driven by higher flows in postal bonds.

Moving to slide 21, Insurance Services revenues amounted to €469 million in Q1 '26, up 6% year-on-year. We continue to have positive net flows in Q1 '26, with significant contribution from multiclass products.

Our improving lapse rate, down to 7%, is driven by normalizing market environment and lower client portfolio rebalancing activity. In Q1 '26, around 35% of our lapses have been reinvested into new life products.

Life investment and pension revenues are up 6% to €423 million in Q1, driven by a growing CSM and higher release. Protection revenues are up 9% in the quarter, supported by higher gross written premium, up 6% to €392 million in Q1, and a market-leading combined ratio.

Adjusted EBIT of €392 million is up 4% compared to Q1 '25, supported by both life investment and protection. Net profit at €265 million reflects the lower free capital yield due to the additional remittance to the parent company and the temporarily higher IRAP tax rate.

On slide 22, we show the CSM evolution in the quarter. Normalized CSM growth is positive at 2.9% annualized, with a strong increase in new business value and expected return more than compensating the quarterly release.

Group CSM at the end of the quarter is at €13.8 billion, providing strong visibility on the division sustainable profitability going forward. Importantly, both the CSM and the equity of our insurance business have grown in the quarter.

Poste Vita's group solvency II ratio was 294% at the end of March 2026, well above the managerial ambition of around 200% through the cycle. This ratio already embeds the accrual of the 100% net profit remittance to the parent company.

The ratio remains solid, with the movement mainly driven by negative impact from economic variances due to higher risk-free rates and spreads, while the internal capital generation of the business fully covers the foreseeable dividend impact. Moving to Postepay Services on slide number 24, where solid revenue and EBIT progression continues ahead of integration into the financial hub.

Revenues rose by 7% year-on-year to €425 million in Q1, as our unique everyday ecosystem continues to drive top-line and profitability growth. Strong payment revenues at €297 million, up 5% in the quarter, supported by higher transaction value, up 10% year-on-year, and growth in total number of ecosystem transactions, up 14%.

Telco revenues are stable in Q1 at €82 million, thanks to solid client acquisition dynamics. The migration to the TIM network infrastructure has been completed in April.

Energy revenues reached €46 million in the quarter, driven by the expansion of the customer base, now 1.1 million clients. Top-line performance and effective cost management drove a strong 15% adjusted EBIT growth to €153 million in Q1.

Let me now give you a brief overview of Poste Italiane's telco business. Launched as an MVNO in 2007, the telco business is now the fifth player in Italy, with a total 3 million customers, with a 6% market share in mobile.

Our telco client base is extremely loyal, with a 6% to 7% churn rate, well below market levels. 2025 revenues were €328 million, while in Q1 '26, they reached €82 million.

Profitability is meaningful and improving, contribution to group's EBIT implying a 25% margin. The business operates with a very lean structure, leveraging our nationwide physical distribution network and digital channels, including the super-app.

Against this backdrop, the envisaged possible combination of Poste's telco business with TIM consumer creates the number one mobile operator in Italy and effectively kick-starts the next leg of domestic telco consolidation. Since end of 2025, the average headcount has fallen to just over 119,000.

Importantly, the value added per FTE continues to improve by 7%, at €93,000 per FTE. HR costs per FTE are up 2%, to €48,800 per FTE, as a result of higher variable compensation and labor agreement salary increase.

Moving to slide 27, HR costs increased marginally by 1%, to over €1.4 billion, mainly driven by €23 million of additional costs from higher variable compensation and labor agreement salary increase. In this quarter, ordinary HR costs on revenues are down to 39%.

Non-HR costs increased by €116 million year-on-year. Fixed costs were up due to the concentration of marketing and advertising costs in the quarter.

Variable costs are up €66 million, reflecting business growth dynamics. D&A are up by €18 million, in line with the increasing investments driving our continued transformation.

In general, our focus on cost and capex discipline across all divisions remains razor-sharp, and protecting the bottom-line profitability is a priority. Thank you for your time.

Let me hand over to Matteo for the wrap-up.

Thank you, Camillo. To conclude, Poste Italiane is delivering record results, with healthy growth, rising profitability, and a very solid balance sheet, validating the strength of our platform business model.

Looking ahead, in light of our strong Q1 results and an improved interest rate environment, we have raised our adjusted EBIT guidance to €3.4 billion for the year. Against this backdrop, we're even more convinced that the TIM transaction is the natural step in our platform evolution.

TIM adds connectivity and technological leadership, completes our offering with an iconic premium brand, and enables us to fully unlock the value of our phygital ecosystem. The deal is financially disciplined, EPS and DPS accretive, also thanks to material expected synergies, and is fully consistent with our capital and dividend framework.

Execution is on track, and the closing is expected by Q3 2026. We're entering a new chapter of our journey, shaped by the progress we achieve and driven by a clear long-term ambition.

On July 24, we will be unveiling our strategic 2026-2030 stand-alone plan alongside our Q2 '26 results. I look forward to seeing you there or even before in our roadshow.

Thank you, and over to Giuseppe, please.

Thank you, Matteo. We are now ready to start the Q&A session.

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one, and to remove yourself from the question queue, please press star two. Please try to limit yourself to two questions.

The first question we have today is from Antonio Reale, Bank of America. Please go ahead, Antonio.

Thank you. Good afternoon.

It's Antonio from Bank of America. I've got a couple of questions and one clarification, if I may.

The first one is you've upgraded your EBIT guidance for the year up to €3.4 billion, and I understand you'll be presenting your stand-alone plan targets in Q2, but if you could give us a bit more color around sort of the moving parts driving this and where you think you see better commercial momentum within the group. That would be my first question.

My second one is a follow-up, clarification on, I think, on your dividend remarks. I think if I remember back in February, you guided for a net profit of €2.3 billion, with a payout that was at least 70%, which on your existing share count, it implies something like €1.3 dividend per share or so, which would still be up year-on-year, and I think this is broadly in line with consensus expectations.

Now, I also think you've said that you expect this number to be growing consistently with the accretion that would derive from the deal. I just want to make sure I've understood this right and you're sticking to a growing DPS even after accounting for the new share count, which you'd need to issue to fund the Telecom Italia acquisition.

Did I understand that right? If you could elaborate, I think it's an important point.

The last question is really on your synergies on the Telecom Italia deal. You've talked about €700 million pretax, of which €500 million cost synergies from year two and €200 million in higher revenues from year three, if I look at your slide 13 correctly.

You've given us good details on this slide. Maybe you can sort of walk us through and tell us where you would see any relevant upside that is not included in these numbers.

Thank you.

Thank you, Antonio. I'll take the first question and then hand it over to the CFO.

I think we have a strong momentum in our core business, the financial business. We have posted a first quarter with strong retail investment flows, and I think this is there to stay for this year, and obviously, it will be a target for the plan.

I would say that, over the plan up to 2030, the also energy business will also finally give a very meaningful contribution to the EBIT base of Poste. Then I think the other very important direction we're taking is with the consolidation of our payment business into Bancoposta and the ambition to present to the market a unified financial services segment, including insurance.

We started more than a year ago a journey giving, on the three segments, a unified leadership that will break some of the normal internal segment dynamics and will allow us to present a real client-centered offering for financial services. Finally, before I hand over to Camillo, we will keep the evolution of our logistic presence.

We reached almost 50% of our parcels delivered by lettermen. The '28 plan was targeting two-thirds.

I'm curious to see where we will be able to commit for 2030. That's another big transformation step, allowing our lettermen that day by day has less mail to deliver to be busier and busier with parcel.

This quarter, 15% growth on parcel give us a lot of confidence that we are in the right direction. We're gaining market share in B2C.

For the first couple of years, we started gaining market share in B2B. Finally, we've never seen it in Poste, we start to see a meaningful growth on outbound products since we did our strategic agreement with DHL.

Since two years, we have a product. We have put together commercial focus on this, and finally, we start to see numbers coming through.

Please, Camillo, on dividend and...

Yes. I'll start with 2026, and then I'll comment on the second part.

With regards to 2026, yes, we had given guidance of €2.3 billion for 2026, and we also said at the time that the expected dividend was going to be within the range of €1.25 to €1.30. I think that the guidance that we gave, the increased guidance we gave at operating profit level gives us space to be very confident to be at least at the top end of that range.

With regards instead to the second question, which is dividend policy going forward if the transaction goes ahead, the CEO did guide towards single-digit accretion for EPS and double-digit accretion EPS for 2027 and 2028, respectively, and we expect the dividend to follow that same direction.

Then there is the third question on synergies.

Yes. Now we talk about synergies.

With respect to synergies, the number that we gave on the 22nd of March was €700 million. That was the result of some outside-in work that we did within Poste with a very small group of individuals involved.

I think that since then, we have done a massive amount of work internally with different work streams, involving both the revenue side and the cost side and involving every corporate function of the group. At this point, we can say that we feel very comfortable about our ability to deliver that level of synergies.

Obviously, there is a marginally different mix compared to what we expected initially, but the total is confirmed at least as a base.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from Alberto Villa at Intermonte.

Go ahead, Alberto.

Hi. Good afternoon.

Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is again on the guidance, just to understand correctly if the upward revision was only related to the, let's say, financial segment, and if you can provide us with your now underlying assumption in terms of guidance for 2026 from investment portfolio.

You also had a target of around €200 million of active portfolio management. You basically did the most of capital gains in the first quarter.

Can we assume that you are basically done there, and for the rest of the year is mostly coming from the better environment in term of interest rates that is boosting the investment portfolio and the guidance? The second question is on the announced agreement with the Benetton Group in logistics, if you can expand a little bit on that and let us understand better what are the implications and potential positive coming from this agreement, that would be helpful.

Finally, a curiosity, since you launched the offer on TIM, I was wondering if you can give us some color on what was the reaction by the different stakeholders on the offer, the, let's say, positive and pushback comments you have been gathering from the different side, let's say investors and also inside of the company, and so on. That would be interesting to hear.

Thank you very much.

We'll follow the order, and so you, Camillo, start, and then I...

Yes. With regards to the guidance upgrade, I think that the key point which has led us to increase the guidance is the evolution of the NII.

I think we said that in the speech, in the script, and the presentation. The backdrop to this is that we had guided in February to €2.7 billion of total portfolio return, which was in line with the year before, 2025, whereas in 2025, we had no capital gains, and we were planning to do something between €100 million and €200 million in 2026.

We have reached that level, first of all, there should be not much more in terms of capital gain compared to what we have already done, but overall, we are increasing our guidance to total portfolio return to €2.8 billion as we are going to have €100 million more of NII compared to the initial guidance of €2.7 billion.

Yeah. Just to top up just one word on the answer.

The capital gain we recorded on the first quarter, we had already anticipated, and I think the market was aware of it. Please remember, as you see on our appendix, that we still have, if you look at page 34 of our appendix, we still have €1.5 billion of gross unrealized gains, so that's our historical buffer that we use if and when need be.

The agreement with Benetton is basically a very important step. We're creating a new company starting from their warehousing facilities in Castrette, in northeastern Italy.

They basically spin off their premises into Logistic 360, that's the name of the company. We will own 51% of this company, we will consolidate the business.

We will start serving obviously the Benetton Group, but the strategy behind the transaction is that the warehousing system is unsaturated, and therefore, we have already started offering that platform for warehousing to other prospect clients, and that obviously has a very interesting marginality because the warehousing is already amortized in the NewCo. It will give us additional revenues, some EBIT contribution.

We'll have to do some capex to upgrade premises. More importantly, it will allow us to go up the value chain.

Whoever follow us for the last nine years, we started at the end of the line, and today we are at the top of the logistic space in Italy, mainly driven by B2C. We started already three to four years ago a journey achieving more value-added services, that's obviously the B2B space, which will be coming also out of this JV, and it will be the warehousing.

The third question is TIM offering of March, reaction, and pushback. The reaction overall, even though we're clearly pushing the envelope from some standpoint, because obviously, we are asking a different client base to learn the ropes of the financial institution domain, which is where we belong, is overall positive.

Clearly, there is always, as in any transaction, some price objectives and tensions on you could have offered more. Our page today on what we call the true premium, I think, is a good answer to that pushback.

I'm referring to page 14 where we show that on a true premium basis, looking at the value that the TIM shareholders had the Friday before the tender and comparing that value with the value that they will have after the transaction is completed and synergies are brought home, there is a 17% to the TIM shareholders, but we didn't mention in the presentation there is a 10% for the Poste shareholders. I think we have made an effort to be on the TIM side of investors.

As Camillo reminded on the call, these numbers are assuming an unencumbered asset. The reality is that obviously we were with TIM for more than a year now, and so if you look at it on a longer timeframe, and I think we can debate as long as we want whether on the 22nd of March when we launched the offer on the Sunday, TIM was encumbered or unencumbered, but certainly, it was not a totally unencumbered asset.

If you look at it on a longer timeframe, you reach as much as a 50% true premium. I think the most interesting trend we're seeing, the more time we spend on the road mainly with obviously Poste investors, is that our strategy, the more we detail it, becomes clearer to investors.

It's clearly a long journey. We have three months more to go before there is the final launch of the offer, and this is a time that we will spend explaining the opportunity to all investors.

At the end of this period, you will have also the opportunity, like the first question of Antonio pointed out, of our catalyst strategic plan stand-alone on the 24th of July. Let me add, and I finish, that that plan will be a stand-alone plan, plus obviously we'll have, as we did today, the optionality that we will show and update to investors of the TIM transaction.

Thank you, Alberto. I hope I answered your question.

Yeah. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Alberto.

Next question is from Tommaso Nieddu at Kepler. Go ahead, Tommaso.

Hello and thank you a lot for taking my questions. The first one is on Postepay revenues, given we are ahead of its consolidation in the financial hub.

In the quarter, they grew 5%, but the underlying KPIs were materially stronger because if you look at transaction volume, values plus 10%, total transaction plus 14%, and that's like a 6% to 10% percentage point gap. We shouldn't have anymore the headwind from the instant payments.

My question would be if you can help us decompose what is happening on the take rate. I understand it shouldn't follow closely, but still, your view would be highly appreciated.

The second one, on guidance, sorry, is a follow-up, you have raised the adjusted EBIT guidance, but not the net profit guidance. Should we read this as a flagging some offsetting headwinds below the line, or it is just a matter of rounding when it goes down and you expect as well a positive, even if smaller, upgrade on net income?

Thank you a lot.

Thank you, Tommaso. I will let Camillo dig a little bit on payments, as you required, and remind everybody that on page 48 of the 47 and 48 of the appendix, we have some very strong data on our payment growth since 2018 when we created our payment division.

Yes. Thank you, Matteo.

We are indeed pleased with the performance of the Postepay Services division. Within what we call payments, there are a number of subset of revenue contributors, which are grossly divided in two categories.

One are the card payments, and card payments has enjoyed strong performance. Then we have another group of contributors, which are called other payments, and within other payments, there are also things that have been, as we planned, performing a bit less strong, as an example, payment slips that historically have been going down.

If you average out the two, this is what you get. Overall, the transaction metrics and the underlying trends in payments are indeed very strong, as also you can look at in the appendix of our presentation.

With respect to the second question, we have indeed upgraded our guidance at the operating profit level. We have not done the same at net profit, was implicit in what I said to Antonio, as we had €2.3 billion and €2.3 billion is €100 million, let's say, corridor.

With the EBIT upgrade, we are now in the upper end of that €2.3 billion compared to where we were at the presentation in February.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Next question is from Andrea Lisi at Equita.

Go ahead, Andrea.

Hello, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions.

The first one is on the parcel segment, where we saw a strong acceleration in volumes and that transmitted also to revenues, and that is even stronger than the past quarter. What should we expect going on?

Also on this point, what are the action you are putting in place to see in some way a transmission of the higher revenues also to higher EBIT level on the division? The second question is more a curiosity.

We have seen a small decline in the card stock quarter-on-quarter, if there is any reason or something you have observed on that. Really last one on the GVP in life business, a 7% year-on-year decline.

Can you provide some more color on that and which trends are you experiencing and expecting going on? Thank you.

I'll start with parcel and then let Camillo on the second question. Yes, we'll keep our focus on parcel that is clearly the future of logistics space.

The game nine years ago was to be able to go on the field and play, because to be entirely honest, nine years ago, we were not even in the top five players at home, forget about the international or the outbound. Now we're clearly at the lead of that game, the market share game has worked.

Andrea, you're totally right saying when will you be able to extract margins out of this position? To be entirely honest, I think it's still a bit premature because the market is extremely competitive.

From what we hear, nobody is really smiling out of our competitors, and our competitors are all foreign-owned giants, the likes of the FedEx, UPS, DHL, GLS, and Bartolini, owned by La Poste. I think there is still a very strong competitive environment that at least on the B2C and to some extent on the B2B doesn't leave a lot of value for increasing pricing and margins.

The way we're trying to address this, as I mentioned, is going up the value chain. We did the Plurima acquisition four years ago to move into healthcare logistics, where we took a leadership, and we keep growing there.

We launched a contract logistics company that has started making some meaningful inroads in contract logistics. That's the first time in history that Poste enter the warehousing business in logistics, and clearly Benetton is an evolution of that model.

The way we think we can extract margins out of the logistics space in the next two to three years, in summary, is more out of moving up the value chain than the pure B2C or B2B. Let's not forget, that's one very important item that is paying off very, very, very well, the PUDO market, the delivery in fixed locations, everything which is not home delivery, we have an absolute leadership there, and today almost a quarter of all our B2C volumes going into a PUDO place.

That's a staggering number, and that applies to our network because other than our post offices, which are 12,000 enabled to do parcels, we are adding to those the puntoPoste, which is our third-party network, which is another 20,000 points. Then we launched three years ago the locker Italia JV with DHL, which is also going very well.

We have an intermediate target of 3,000 lockers, but the objective is 10,000. That space, which is extremely important in terms of covering the ground, because if you look at developed market, when a retail finds convenient to be delivered in a PUDO, that habit becomes relatively sticky.

If you gain that space, you gain that client, and you gain the fact that you have efficiency, because obviously every time we stop and refill a locker or give our parcels to a third-party agent, we can do a multiples of 10, 15 items, as opposed to the home delivery item, which is obviously a one-trip, one-drop, as opposed to one-trip, 10-drops. Okay.

I'll take the other questions. The first question is around evolution of the stock of cards.

I think that on this point, we are where we want to be. I think you're comparing the stock of cards to fiscal year 2025, we are up on Postepay Evolution, the ones which we have been investing more in terms of capabilities.

We are also up on debit cards. We are down on Postepay standard, but only the portion of cards which was associated to government grants or government payments.

That stock of cards has been going down as the funds been transferred to Italian citizens on that card has been going down progressively, too. That is what has led to that evolution, but the cards with which we work the most have been growing as we expected.

With respect to the second question, which was with regards to the lapse rate, it has indeed gone down to 7%, below where it was last year. It's still above our historical trend levels, and hopefully, we'll manage to control that also going forward.

Certainly at this level, we are in line with the budget levels for 2026, despite being ahead of where it was in the past. Let's also not forget, as I've said in my script, that part of this lapse is self-induced as we are effectively rotating portfolios to different products within our product suite.

If you isolate that impact, the true lapse rate is around 4.5% as opposed to 7%.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Andrea.

Next question is from Giovanni Razzoli at Deutsche Bank. Go ahead, Giovanni, please.

Good afternoon. One question and one clarification.

I've seen that you had €2 billion of outflows in postal savings in this quarter. In the previous conference, if I'm not mistaking, you mentioned that in this year, there will be a concentration of redemptions of this product.

Can you please confirm if we have already at the peak of outflows in redemptions in 2025, or if you would expect it more in '26 and '27? Second question is a clarification, as the line was pretty bad on your response, Camillo, about the dividend per share.

You mentioned the range of €1.3, €1.5 of dividend guidance for 2026, or did I...

No, I didn't say that, Giovanni,

I

stop immediately. I said in February €1.25

to €1.30, and

what I'm saying now is that as a result of the upgrade of the net profit, we feel very comfortable getting at least at the top end of that range.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you for the clarification, there is another question left.

On the first question of postal bonds, I can tell you that 2027 is lower redemptions, and that we had a very good year so far on postal savings. We continue the positive trend of reducing the net outflows, and that's thanks to our focus on one end, our changing distribution model in the making, and the fact that we keep enjoying a sort of a honeymoon with our colleagues and shareholder of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti that will are keep providing us a very appealing and very interesting products for our clients.

One thing that I mentioned a few times in the past few years, but I take the opportunity to repeat it, postal savings being in the hands of 35 million Italians and having meaningful redemptions every year, are an engine in the engine of the platform. In other words, if you have a nice and good offering of postal savings on the shelf that you can offer to your clients, the dynamics with your clients across products is a positive one, and that allows you to get the client going to redemption to reinvest in postal savings.

If risk parameters allows it, to start a diversification trajectory into risk and into multiclass insurance products, and that's the basis also for our strong performance in protection, because that comes together with often an embedded offer in life products. That drives many our products, and when we talk about the flywheel effect, when we talk about the platform, when we say that it's much easier to sell a new product to a client that you already own than go out and win a totally new client, that's exactly what we mean.

Postal savings working is a client satisfied with the performance of the product that is in the perfect mood to receive a new offer on a product. That's really, in a nutshell, if you allow me, kind of the secret weapon we're trying to put on the table every day with our 30,000 tellers and 9,000 consultants facing retail on the physical side and our more than 4 million daily average users we've shown in February an increasing participation of the postal savings sales on the digital platform.

Thank you, Giovanni.

We have one more question from Michael Huttner at Berenberg. Please go ahead, Michael.

Yeah. Thank you so much.

It was really a very light question, well, actually, two. One is on inflation, and the other one is on solvency.

I did ask your wonderful IR team, and they said, 'No, inflation is like, no, nothing, €10 million or something.' I always worry a little bit about potential disruptions to the cost part of your business.

That'd be one question, what's the outlook there. Then the second is on solvency, 294%, the managerial guidance, 200%.

I know you're doing this, €1.5 billion cash extraction from Poste Vita, you've done €500 million, and I think in this number, you've already deducted €1 billion. Is there more to come out of this, or how should we think about it?

Thank you.

Please, Camillo, if you start with the inflation impact.

Yes. Michael, I do too worry about inflation, we do ensure that that message is passed to our divisions.

With regards to 2026, we did have in the first quarter some inflation-related costs, I think to the tune of around €20 million in the quarter, and that has to do mainly with variable costs growing with inflation, and also some of that €20 million related to transportation costs, where I also add that we are systematically transferring extra potential transportation costs related to energy to our customers to the extent we can.

On solvency, the 294% for the sake of clarity is including out of the €100 sorry, €1,500 million special dividend upstream from Poste Vita, €1 billion. The last €500 million will have around 11 basis point impact.

What we will do from here, I'm sorry, Michael, you need to be patient, going back to the first question of Antonio Reale, is going to be unveiled on the 24th of July.

Fantastic. Something to look forward to.

Thank you very much.

That was the last question. Thank you all very much for joining us today.