Good afternoon and thank you for attending our full year results conference call. Before we get into our results, I want to quickly comment the market reaction to the recent announcement of a US initiative called Altruist, that basically is an artificial intelligence tool for the automated tax planning that in Italy is largely irrelevant just because, no, for any investment-related taxation, the tax situation is handled directly by the withholding agent, basically the banks or the financial intermediary, and not by the client.

The volatility on our stock today comes from this US-centric situation that simply doesn't fit with the Italian wealth management context and even less with Banca Generali, also because we are not a brokerage platform. As and we say it several times, Italy has a unique economic and social environment where the wealth is still mostly invested in illiquid assets, think of real estate or private companies, not listed equity, and it remains very much a sort of, let's say, family affair.

In this context, our clients look for discretion, human guidance, and not automated answer or interaction with the machine. It never happened.

The confidentiality, privacy are crucial, are not negotiable in the long-lasting relationship with our financial advisors. For this reason, the idea that an AI tool could, let's say, commoditize advisory in Italy just doesn't make any sense.

If you think of Banca Generali business, it's built on trust, personal relationship, long-lasting relationship between a senior professional and our client, and several capabilities and expertise. When we help our client, basically, we must understand both they head, but also they stomach, and nobody wants that their very personal information can be stored inside a machine.

In Banca Generali, I think that AI is a great accelerator, it's not a replacement of business. I repeat, it doesn't make any sense.

AI will help our bankers work better and faster, while of course, the human judgment, discretion, closeness to the client will be mainly of our financial advisors. That's the reason why we don't see any strategic risk in today's news, and again, AI will be disruptive, but in positive sense.

Dealing with clients is another business, especially if it is about ultra-high-net-worth individual with very significant wealth and invested as I said, also in illiquid assets. Again, illiquid assets means not only private markets, but it means real estate and in their own company, almost the time, not listed one.

Again, family is a different concept, something very confident, need trust, nothing that you can solve out with technology. Having said that, let's start, as usual, with the major achievements for last year, page 3.

Let's say that we achieved new record high in terms of net profit, recurring net profits, and total assets. Commercial activity was very solid, with an acceleration in the last part of the year with the conclusion of the M&A headwinds.

Thanks to solid commercial and financial results and capital-light approach, we will propose an increase in the dividend per share at the next AGM. Now, page 4.

Net profit closed, as we said, at record high, €445.8 million, driven by recurring net profit, above €350 million, a lower contribution of variable net profit, basically for lower performance fee, and then a one-off in terms of tax refund for total amount of €39 million. The reason behind the solid result in recurring fees is driven basically by the solid net financial income and solid gross recurring fees.

Starting from net financial income, page 5, we close the year to €355.5 million, of which greatest part comes from the net interest income. As you can see, the last quarter closed at €82 million, thanks to asset expansion and a pretty stable net interest margin yield at 1.95%, that is in line with our guidance to stay above 1.9%.

Next page, page 6, total gross fees. We closed the year at €1 billion and 131 million.

If we focus on the fourth quarter of last year, you see that the growth compared to the same period of the previous year is at almost 11%, while the variable fees contribution was lower than the previous year, with a positive contribution in the fourth quarter, €43 million, and almost all the assets at or close to the high-watermark level. Next page, we will deep dive on the gross recurring fees, starting from the investment fees.

Investment fees closed at €976 million, basically driven by asset expansion and stable margin. Fourth-quarter number, €255 million, with an increasing contribution of both management fees and advisory fees.

The overall management fees margin is stable at 1.41%. Next page, other fees.

Here, you see an acceleration from 130 to 154, almost 55, basically thanks to the inclusion of Intermonte business and solid traditional business. Starting from banking fees, here we have the completion of the phase-in of the new pricing, lower contribution from the traditional business and increasing contribution from Intermonte.

Focusing on brokerage commission, overall result €75 million, fourth quarter almost €20 million, very solid brokerage activity of our client plus Intermonte contribution. Last, entry fees.

As we started the first half of last year with lower numbers. In the second half, we saw an acceleration.

Part of this acceleration was driven by also the new capabilities thanks to Intermonte, with a greater penetration of structured products. Considering only the fourth quarter, the result was probably the best ever at €16.6 million.

Moving on page 9, on the cost side, let's start with the total fee expenses. Overall total fee expenses closed at €600 million, with all the payout ratios at or below our guidance.

In particular, the payout to FA for the ordinary part closed at 34.6%, below the target of 36%. The incentive closed at 11.1%, below the target of 12%.

Also, the payout to third parties closed below the target of 6%. The fourth quarter ended at 5.8%.

As a final result, the overall total payout ratio to the network, excluding the payout on net interest income, closed at 51.5%, that is definitely below our target of 53%. Again, a great control of the payout and very flexible model linked to the revenues.

Next page, operating costs. Operating costs closed above €360 million.

This is basically due to some one-off and the change in perimeter. Starting from change in perimeter, you see the inclusion of Intermonte, €38 million.

The sales personnel costs, the part linked to the relationship manager, employee banker, closed slightly lower just because some bankers decide to move to the, let's say, to the financial advisory network with a mandate. This is a positive news.

Then, in the core non-items, you can see an overall contribution of €13.5 million, with an acceleration in the fourth quarter. This is basically linked to the cost of Mediobanca tender offers, the setup of two major initiatives, insurebanking and Intermonte, plus some projects to optimize, let's say, the organization of the bank.

Overall, bottom of the page, you see core operating costs in the range 6%, closed at 288, almost €5 million invested in IT infrastructure modernization, AI and data-related projects. As you can see, the fourth quarter looks higher than the other quarters, but is characterized by high seasonality.

If you compare fourth quarter with the same period of the previous year, you see that it increases around 6%. Also the core operating costs, excluding investment, is well under control.

Page 11, the last page on costs. Operating costs on total assets flat at the minimum level, 0.28%.

The cost/income ratio adjusted for Intermonte with a slight increase due to this one-off cost. Page 12, to sum up, very proud to have exceeded for the first time in the bank €1 billion in total banking income.

Costs characterized by one-off. Then, if we focus on the total non-operating charges, the overall total non-operating charges decreased to €105 million, thanks to lower regulatory contribution and lower provision.

I'm confident to see lower numbers for this year and for the future. In the P&L, we included at non-operating level also the €39 million of positive one-off, as already commented, to the tax refund.

Overall tax rate closed close to 24%. This is basically linked to a higher contribution of Luxembourg, and we confirm guidance for this year in the range of 26-27%.

Now, let's move to the section 2, balance sheet and capital ratio. Here, as already said in different conference calls, is an active business, asset expansion business.

You can see that overall total deposits increased to €15.8 billion, with an important contribution in the acceleration in client deposits at €13.8 billion. Let's say that the asset expansion, client deposit expansion, more than offset a small decrease in the net interest margin, as we commented at the beginning.

The net interest margin is driven by cost of funding and the yield on interest-bearing assets. Cost of funding slightly decreased to 0.77%, and as you can see, page 15, the same can be said for the yield on interest-bearing assets down to 2.81%.

A quick comment to the total assets: €18.5 billion. On the positive side, expansion in the banking book, financial assets at €12.8 billion, and also expansion of the loans to client, above €2.5 billion.

Page 16, let's move on capital and liquidity ratios. Also for last year, we confirmed solid ratios.

If we start from total capital ratio, close to 19%, also once included several, no, one-off, considered the impact of CRR3, Intermonte first-time consolidation, higher operating risk absorption for change of the model, and so forth. Let's say very solid total capital ratio.

Leverage ratio very high, 5.6%, and liquidity ratios rising over time, liquidity coverage ratio 337% and net stable funding ratio 245%. Overall, solid capital and liquidity ratio.

Next page, page 17, we see the dividend proposal. We confirm the total payout at 76%.

In terms of DPS, it implies a dividend of €2.90 per share. We will pay this €2.90 into tranches: the first one this year for a total amount of €2.20, and the second tranche next year for a total amount of €0.70.

This will allow us to be consistent with our goal to aim for a constant increase of absolute terms of dividend. I take this opportunity also to remind you that we are close to pay the second tranche of the DPS for the results of 2024, and we will pay on the 23rd 23rd of February, €0.65.

Now, let's move to the next section, the total assets and net inflows. We closed the year above €113 billion, two-thirds invested in assets under investment.

An important slide is number 20. Page number 20, you can see the strong expansion of financial wrappers and of the overall wrappers.

Financial wrappers increased by €1.8 billion in just one year, and the overall wrappers account for more than 50% of the managed solutions. Even more important and consistent with our targets, the overall in-house funds overtook for the first time the third-party funds.

You can see bottom the graph where in-house funds amounted to €13.2 billion, or €1.3 billion higher year on year, while third-party funds grew slightly at €12.6 billion. This is basically driven by inflows.

Page 21, you can see the overall result, €6.8 billion, better mix, €4 billion invested in assets under investment. Focusing on assets under investment, you see an increasing contribution of both components: assets under management and advanced advisory.

Concerning assets under management, page 22, you can see that most of the increase is driven by financial wrappers and in-house funds. We confirm with structural shift from third-party funds to in-house funds, at least in relative terms.

Page 23, there is a detail of the net inflows by acquisition channel. Let's say that the existing network contribute at the same level of the previous year, despite the tender offer, very positive reaction of the existing sales force.

If we focus on net recruitment, €1.9 billion, the underlying is characterized by two different trends: a strong contribution of recruitment of free bankers in Switzerland, Equitum, for an amount of €800 million, and a limited contribution of recruitment in Italy, penalized by the uncertainty, €1.1 billion. Overall numbers are close to the numbers of the previous year, 166, and this is also thanks to an acceleration of the numbers in the fourth quarter after the, let's say, termination of the headwinds linked to the M&A issue.

Page 24, we have also a quick update of how we started the year. Consider that January is always a volatile month, but let's say that if you compare in absolute terms inflows, better than the previous two years, €0.5 billion, and of course, there is a conservative asset allocation, but it's always the same story in January.

The signs from recruitment confirm the positive mood of the last quarter of last year, where it's not only a question of numbers of recruitment, but it's more about the quality. We expect a significant contribution from recruitment for this year.

Last, now we will give you an update on the two major projects, Intermonte and insurebanking, and then some guidance, some targets for the full year. Let's start from Intermonte, page 26.

You already know this page. Basically, we confirm that we will double before 2030 the net banking income from €42 million to €89 million, and of this increase, 25-30% will be already achieved this year.

As you can see, the cost/income will decline, it means that the synergies will present the same cost/income ratio as the bank. Why we confirm these numbers, but with an even more positive mood, because, as all the initiatives we are rolling out are working much better than expected.

The first one is about the synergies in terms of structured product internalization of derivatives. You see at the left of the page, you see the acceleration in the fourth quarter of last year of structured products.

We already mentioned it, and I can confirm that beginning of the year is higher than the same period of last year. We started also to internalize part of the margin in structuring products thanks to Intermonte.

Intermonte hedging accounted for 14% percentage point. Let's say that you're going to see an increasing contribution once we're going to complete the full integration and optimization of the IT platform, and it should happen in the second half of this year.

Managed products: we already launched two dedicated funds, Luxembourg funds, with focus on Italian large-cap and small-cap, and we already collected more than €100 million, and we have just launched a new financial wrappers with the proposition of protection and where the hedging strategy is covered 100% by Intermonte. Last but not least, probably the most important part of the synergy and the partnership, investment banking: 160 meetings, finally the first two mandates signed, other 8-10 close to be signed.

This is amazing. It's amazing just because the feedback from Intermonte is amazing, the feedback from the financial advisors is amazing, and the client really appreciate the synergies between private banking and investment banking starting from the long-lasting relationship of the private banker to leverage on the capabilities and competencies of Intermonte.

As you can see, the kind of advice is well-diversified, is about of course M&A, is about equity capital market, debt advisory, and so forth. Page 28, moving on to insurebanking, there is an update of Generali hybrid products.

Overall assets closed at €7.4 billion, stable year on year, with a higher contribution of in-house funds, from 4.1 to €4.5 billion. Overall margin are stable over time at 0.64%.

Page 29, an update on Alleanza partnership. Of course, we confirm the target, but again, also in this case, the mood is more optimistic.

Why? Just because we started piloting the distribution of banking products.

We selected 100 private advisors at the end of last year, and we tested all the procedures, processes, platform, and we open up 270 new current accounts. The machine works very well with great enthusiasm, and for this reason, during the convention of Alleanza, the 5th of February, Alleanza announced the starting of the rollout of Conto Unico, the current account dedicated to Alleanza, to all 2,700 private advisors within this year.

Quick comment on Stile Unico. Stile Unico is a unit-linked, we are talking about insurance wrappers.

We completed the rollout on to the 2,700 private advisors last year, and the first numbers are encouraging, with more or less €100 million of net inflows. Solid evidences from Intermonte and Alleanza, very positive on the short, medium, and long term of this partnership.

Now, from page 30, a quick update on targets for this year. Net inflows, volumes, we increase the guidance compared to the guidance of last year from €6 billion to inflows at least at €6.5 billion, with the assumption of stable financial markets.

We see confirmation of structural rebalancing between different distribution channels, and we are very optimistic on recruitment activity. We are also confident to increase the product mix, the quality of these inflows, we set an initial target of assets under investment from the previous €3.5 billion to the current €4 billion.

This is, again, with the assumption of stable financial markets and starting from the large share of govies bonds and corporate expiring this year and the perception that the overall assets under investment exposure is reverting to long-term averages. Last page, 31, some financial targets.

Net interest income: we increase the range of the net interest income for this year in the range of €330-340 million, driven basically by asset expansion, more client deposits and stable yields. We confirm both the management fee margin range and the core operating cost range, waiting for the new three-year strategic plan that we will announce probably in the second half of this year.

Just to close, I'm very optimistic on the bank, on the financial advisor network, and on the results. I perceive as we start a new season, and I see further synergies under the winged lion.

Generali is important for us, and will be even more important in terms of synergies for the future. Now, I will hand over for the Q&A session.

Yes, good afternoon. Many thanks for the presentation.

A clarification on the provisions for risks and charges, those of €49 million that you booked in the fourth quarter. Can you please give us some insight on that, what is due?

The second question is on the inflows in 2025. You clearly outperformed your guidance with €6.8 billion.

I'm a little bit surprised that you expect your net inflows for '26 to be lower than last year, given that we do not expect Mediobanca to launch another offer on you. [laughter] So, this is a joke, but I would like to understand why do you expect the other assets inflow to be lower than last year?

Thank you.

Thank you, Luigi. Let's start from the inflows.

As you know very well, we preferred to start with a conservative approach, and then overdeliver. €6.5 billion is the highest guidance ever communicated from the banking perspective, and with a better quality.

We will be more focused on the quality than on the quantity, but as usual, that the target have been set to be overachieved. Let's see.

Some conservative assumptions from the beginning of the year also to see the dynamics and the context. In terms of provision charges, then I will hand over to Tommaso, but let me give you the flavor of this line.

Let's say that in good time, I think that the best things to do is to be very conservative in the provision, especially for potential litigation or underperformance of specific products. We decided to clean up, let's say, the overall position in terms of provision for some illiquid initiatives, and then happy to release in case of different behaviors.

There is some prudent, we'll say, behavior behind that. For more disclosure on that, I will hand over to Tommaso.

Thanks, Gian Maria. Let's say that in provision, we have mainly three categories.

Basically, we have the provision for the FA for the retirement, basically, which is an actuarial provision that is performed every year. Then the other two components are linked more to commercial initiative.

We have been very, very conservative this year because also we had the benefit on the other side of the fiscal refund on dividends, we decided to be very conservative. Although, if we compare the overall provision, they are lower compared with the previous year.

Going forward, we expect that, of course, these provisions will go down because we have been very conservative in 2025.

Very clear. Thank you.

Hello. Thanks for taking my questions.

The first one would be again if you can come back a little bit on the sell-off that we are seeing today. I agree with your initial words, it seems unwarranted, especially for a business like Banca Generali, very much skewed towards private and high-net-worth customers.

Can you please repeat the main reasons why for you this is overdone, especially for Banca Generali? Also, maybe can you spend a few words on what could be the upside of artificial intelligence for your business?

The second question on the costs, I've seen the guidance on the opex. You refer to the core opex in your guidance.

Can you give us an idea of, in general, what do you expect in terms of, perhaps, other non-recurring items that you could see also next years in the cost base? Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Marco. Let's start by saying that if you look at the initiative, the US initiative, Altruist is basically a tool, an AI tool, to, let's say, to work out tax planning.

As in the US, is something that is on the shoulders of the client. Finding a way to offer a cheap solution to a sort of automation with tax planning, it's significant in the US.

In Italy, it cannot be applied just because, we already take care of this tax planning when it's about the investment-related taxation instead of the client. It's it's let's say that we handle it directly through the withholding the withholding agent.

It's the bank, the financial intermediary. This is the first consideration, but let's say that basically what Altruist is proposing in the US is not applicable in Italy, okay?

Very different context. Then you have to consider, in the case of Banca Generali, our business model.

We are the most exposed player to the high-net-worth individual, in the range of €1 million-€50 million, more or less. In that segment of client, the priority is to manage the overall wealth, bringing it closer to the family needs.

It's about family protection needs, it's about succession planning, it's about, of course, tax efficiency, but it's something different from what we define tax-efficient in the US. Basically, the tax tax efficiency in Italy means leverage of some specific vehicles, for example, the insurance one.

When you deal with the total wealth of the client and the needs of the family, it's all about, of course, there is some rational behaviors, but great part of the conversation is driven by the stomach of the client, and they ask for confidentiality. It's almost impossible to store all the information they provide in a machine just because it's so personal that this is the first question and the first need of the client, to be assured about the use of his information.

Again, and we start discussing this kind of topics thanks to a long-lasting relationship with client with the banker. It's about the human touch, the closeness of the client, the closeness of the banker.

Of course, we provide an open-ended platform with the best-of IT, the best-of products, the best-of financial advisory, and so forth, but the essence of our business is that one client is different from the other one, and is different not for the product or asset allocation, but for that how they built their wealth and how they connected this wealth with their family. It's a very complicated business, very personalized business, and it's basically made up made up by human touch and physical presence.

I spend most of my weekend meeting top clients. It's a different story.

In the if you consider brokerage platforms, I mean it's it's it's about technology, and there can be some threat from technology itself, from innovation. If the model is based on the competencies, the professionals, and the long-lasting relationship on non-standardized needs, it's much more complicated.

I'm let's say that doesn't make any sense to consider any digital disruption as a threat to this model. AI, yes, that can be an accelerator.

It can be an accelerator, of course, standard approach for the bank, more efficiency to the bank, and this is standard for any bank. We are managing a a very important process to change the culture.

We launched a project with ambassadors across all the functions of the bank, and I'm sure that we are approaching AI in the best way. The real game changer is for the financial advisors, just because our bank, compared to any other bank, is more complex, more complicated, just because we want to give the possibility to have plenty of services, of products, and of and of opportunities.

For the financial advisors, it's much more complicated to be updated on all what on everything we provide. Simplifying the operating process to the financial advisor, providing them the next, let's say, offering for the client with the all the information, make the relationship much easier.

It's a way to simplify the selling proposition and to optimize the operating machine for the financial advisors. In this sense, I think that you can be more efficient in the bank and more productive for the financial advisors.

We should see an expansion of multiple, not a correction of the market. Then, the second question is about the non-core costs.

Short introduction by myself, and then I hand over to Tommaso. Let's say that Intermonte, I do expect stable costs.

Sales personnel, I do expect stable or declining costs, except for any particular recruitment. One-off costs, in terms of, let's say, consultancies, or stack like stuff like that, I do not expect an impact as this year, as last year, sorry.

Overall, we should see a reduction of of this component.

Yes. I confirm that, of course, core costs exclude sales personnel if we have changing perimeter, we will include in 2026 Intermonte in the core cost, and we expect a reduction of the non-core component linked to one-off, because we don't expect to have another tender offer by anyone, I would say, not only Mediobanca, and, of course, also the project of Alleanza and the integration of Intermonte have been accrued in the major part in 2025, and we don't expect to have the same amount of one-off also the next year.

On average, if you look at the long term, the pure non-core items have been around €4-5 million, and we expect in 2020 the next year to have the same amount. Overall, the guidance is applied on non-core cost, but also on the total operating costs, since if it's the same increase that we expect.

Thank you. Can I follow-

Please follow up.

To basically benefit from revenue synergies, essentially, do you need any investments beforehand? Do you foresee any major expense you need to put through before enjoying these revenue synergies?

If you think about a timeframe, would you think about, I don't know, this benefits coming over the medium term, over the long term? I don't know, any colors on this progress.

I do expect a positive impact already next year. We're going to launch some specific initiatives in the second half of this year, and I'm sure that will imply a higher productivity.

No, I'm positive on the contribution starting from next year. In terms of lean processes in the bank, this cultural shift is already happening, I do expect an overall increase of quality and efficiency in the bank.

We have plenty of projects, we can finance this project with the savings in, let's say, ordinary business. The reason why you do not see or we do not expect an acceleration of costs despite insurebanking, despite Intermonte, despite other very important projects, is due to the fact that we consider some savings from the existing business thanks to AI.

Thank you.

Sorry, just to complete the first question, we are considering different partnership with AI provider. We spent almost 18 months discussing with the major initiatives in the AI private banking company, fully digital platform.

Again, I do see opportunities of collaboration, not of competition, considering our business.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you so very much for participating to our conference call, and happy to answer also post-conference call to any further question.

Thank you. Bye.