Good afternoon, and welcome to our first quarter results conference call. As usual, let's start with a quick introduction.

The year started very well with both strong financial and commercial results. In particular, net profit was well supported by both recurring and variable components.

The commercial results were very, very strong thanks to an extraordinary job of the existing sales force. Even more important, the two major initiatives of the bank, Insurbanking and Intermonte, are going in line or above the expectation.

In particular, Intermonte closed the first quarter of the year with an increase of 40% of the results and €3 million of revenues driven by synergies. Today we will take the opportunity also to give you an update on ETF and present Investlinx as we are at the final stage in the acquisition of this small but strategic asset management in Ireland.

As usual, let's start by numbers, at page 4, with net profit. Overall net profit close to €126 million.

As I said, thanks to a strong contribution of recurring, a record high €93.5 million or 80% higher year on year. Also variable net profit contributed positively thanks to a variable fees linked to the market, with a contribution of €33 million to the total result.

The net profit result is driven by all the revenues stream, in particular net financial income, page 5. You can see the overall net financial income at almost €92 million, stable quarter on quarter and 4% higher year on year.

This increase year on year is driven by solid net interest income, €82.7 million or an increase of 4% year on year, and solid trading gains, 9.2 or +6% year on year. You can see also the total net interest margin slightly higher at 2.02%, and we will comment the reason in the section linked to the balance sheet.

Now let's go through the total gross fees, page 6. The overall gross recurring fees closed above €300 million, first time ever, with an increase of 8% year on year.

The variable fees contribute positively for 46.6. Even more important, we have more than €13 billion of our Luxembourg assets close or in line with the high-watermark level.

We do expect a other positive contribution from performance fees in these weeks. Moving on to the different components of gross recurring fees, page 7, we start, as usual, with the representation of the investment fees.

Higher management fees, 242, higher advisory fees, 256, with stable margins. You can see margin on management fees at 1.43%.

Here you have a positive seasonal effect due to less accounting days. As I said that the overall margin are stable, it's all about a business of asset expansion.

Page 8, here we can see also the positive contribution of other fees, almost €45 million or 17% higher year on year, with a stable contribution of banking fees, strong results in trading, brokerage commission, almost €22 million, and strong results from entry fees, in particular structured products, at €16.2 million. Positive news from the recurring components, and positive news from costs components.

If you go to page 9, we can start from payout ratio. Everything is in line with our projection, you see a slight decline in the fee expense on net interest income, just slightly above €2 million in the quarter, ordinary payout close to 36%, cost of growth below 11%, and payout to third parties just slightly below 6%.

Here the confirmation how important is to manage and to steer the network and to control the payout ratio. Page 10, you have a new representation of operating costs.

We simplified the representation, and we restated the historical series to include Intermonte. You see that the first quarter of this year closed slightly above the guidance, 6% to 8%, 82.5 or 8 +8.3%, which is basically driven by an acceleration of all major strategic projects.

It's investments linked to future growth. Bottom, you see non-recurring items.

There is a stabilization as communicated in the previous conference call at €2.2 million. The sales personnel costs slightly increased linked to the hiring of the bankers from BG&E.

As a result, page 11, we see the level of operating costs on total assets at the lower level at 0.28%, and we see a reduction also in the cost/income ratio adjusted by the volatile components and adjusted by Intermonte. Now we are below 36%, and we do expect to see further reduction.

Just to close this first part of presentation, very strong operating profit, also excluding the performance fees, and this is driven by strong net recurring fees, double-digit growth. I'm very positive also for this trend in the second quarter.

If we focus on total non-operating charges, you see a decrease to €18 million, mainly thanks to a lower provision. As I said, very strong recurring net profit at €94 million including the negative effect of the temporary tax measures introduced by the budget law.

A quick comment to tax rate, in line with our range, within 26%, 27%. Now let's move on the balance sheet part of the presentation, page 14.

You see a slight increase in total deposits from 15.8 to 16.2, a slight reduction in the cost of funding from 0.72% to 0.68%. This is linked to the fact that in the first quarter, we haven't launched any specific commercial initiative.

If we see page 15, you see a slight increase in interest-bearing assets, 16.7 to 17.2, and here you see a slight increase of the yield on interest-bearing assets from 2.68% to 2.7%. A slight increase in the yield on the bearing asset and a slight decrease on the cost of funding imply the net interest margin at 2.02%.

Page 16, capital and liquidity ratio. You see total capital ratio and leverage ratio well above the regulatory level and also including a payout in line with the past years, at 85%.

Liquidity and coverage ratio and net stable funding ratio are pretty stable, the first one above 300% and the second above 200%. Now let's move on, and let's focus on the third part of this presentation.

Here we changed the presentation just to give you more disclosure on the Insurbanking business and a different view on the managed solution assets. Let's start from page 18.

This is a new presentation, as I mentioned, where first of all, we represent on one hand the total assets of BG clients, and on the other, the total assets Insurbanking of Generali clients. Second, we present both the numbers at the end of the first quarter as well as an update at the end of April.

Looking at numbers, you see a significant recovery of both assets, BG assets and Generali Insurbanking assets. In particular, BG total assets increased to €116.7 billion, highest level ever, and the overall total assets in Insurbanking with Generali is at €7.5 billion.

If you focus on the right part of the presentation, the different comments, bottom, you see an update also of the business with Alleanza Insurbanking is in line or slightly above expectations. We have two different components of this partnership.

The first one is about an insurance wrapper distributed directly by Alleanza and managed by Banca Generali. Here, since inception, the overall gross premium are at €107 million €170 million, of which 40% already invested in unit-linked and another 40% will be invested gradually in the next 3, 4 years.

Overall asset allocation will be 20% traditional life insurance and 80% unit-linked managed by Banca Generali. This is distributed by 2,700 private advisors by Alleanza, while as the second part of the project, the banking the clients, started with a pilot last part of the year.

We consolidate all the digital procedure and processes, great feedback from the pilot phase, and starting the rollout. The rollout started in February.

Now we have already opened more than 1,700 current accounts. The feedback are very positive.

Here I do see the feedback very, very coherent with the strategy from both the managers on the network as well as the private advisors. As I mentioned in different moments, is not if, but is when, and is about training courses and communication.

The feedback again are very, very positive and strong. There is a strong commitment by everybody.

Very positive news from the Insurbanking, but now let's focus on our core business with Banca Generali clients. Let's move on to page 19.

Also in this case, you see a new representation. On the left side, you see the overall assets, €116.7 billion, and the overall contribution of assets under advanced advisory.

Here you include both asset under custody and asset management products. You see that we are at 8-- at 10.8% of total assets.

On the right, you see the breakdown of the BG total assets by three categories. The asset under investment include of course the asset under custody and banking under advisory, the traditional life insurance, and the managed solutions.

Now managed solutions account for almost €54 billion. We see stable traditional life insurance.

Traditional life insurance accounts for more or less 20% of asset under investment. Then you see the components of advanced advisory services invested in asset under custody at €7.7 billion, that is a new record high.

Next page, there is a deep dive of managed solutions. The deep dive of the €53.9 billion at the end of April.

Here you see a focus on the so-called in-house products. In-house products is about the in-house funds, Luxembourg funds distributed at a retail level, €13.6 billion, and then the financial wrappers at 14.8.

If you compare the level at the end of April, to 3 point to €28.4 billion, to the first quarter of last year, 24.2, you see a significant acceleration in the allocation in in-house products. Then you have a focus the gray part, the lighter one, third-party funds, €12.9 billion, and finally, but not less important, the insurance wrappers.

I'm very confident to see an acceleration of in-house products just because we are very close to the launch of very innovative solutions, and the same can be said for the insurance wrappers. In the next weeks, I do expect significant contribution from managed solution compared to historical levels.

Page 21, let's go through the net inflows. In this case, there is first representation of the first quarter and then a focus on the April numbers.

Let's start by page 21. In page 21, we see the traditional representation of total net inflows in terms of three categories.

We see €700 million in asset under investments and an overall contribution of net inflows at €1.9 billion, that is the highest level ever achieved by the bank. You see a stable contribution of in-house products on the right.

Next page, page 22, there is the representation of first quarter results by acquisition channels. Here you see the amazing job of the existing network, €1.4 billion, and constant contribution of net recruitment.

In terms of numbers, 60 new financial advisors with an acceleration of young talent FAs to support the creation of new teams and the succession planning of the eldest financial advisors. Then page 23, there is a focus on the April numbers.

Again, here the acceleration is very, very strong, almost €900 million, even once included a one-off inheritance claim of a non-Generali insurance policy for a total amount of €150 million. Including also this €150 million of a very poor insurance policy, we achieved the best April ever.

You see that the asset under investment account for 0.4 billion. If we look at the net inflows by acquisition channels, here you see an acceleration of both existing sales force, 0.7, and recruitment.

I have to say that I never experienced in my life such enthusiasm for recruitment. We have several meetings, and I think that we will give you a very, very positive news in the coming months.

Now let's enter the last part of the presentation, the business update and closing remarks. As I mentioned before, this is an opportunity to present Investlinx.

Investlinx is a very young asset management company, was founded in 2021, is an independent asset manager that is based in Ireland and at the moment is focused mainly on active managed ETF. As regulated by of course the Central Bank of Ireland, and more important, has been authorized to manage on one hand active ETF, on the other also UCITS funds and discretionary mandates.

The positive news in this case is that despite its short operating history, we already completed the startup phase, and we already achieved the breakeven phase. If you look at the current area of activity, two active ETF.

The first one is mainly equity, bottom-up approach, and the second one is a balanced solution. Why is so important for us Investlinx for the sustainability of the bank and for the acceleration of results?

Just because we have acquired a turnkey platform with a very limited execution risk. Now we have two platforms of asset management, the first one in Luxembourg and the second in Ireland.

This gives us a great flexibility. We have an established Irish manufacturing hub ready to distribute both active ETF and funds complementary to our Luxembourg offer.

Last but not least, we work actively with ETF. If you go to page 27, you see stocks and volumes.

As of today, we have more than €8.2 billion of ETF as underlying of financial insurance wrappers, as underlying of funds, as well as underlying of advanced advisory services. ETF considering just asset under custody account for more or less 9%.

Then, if you look at the bottom of the page, you see that the traded volumes average of the last 2 years, including Banca Generali as well as Intermonte, are above €40 billion. Of course part of the story is to internalize being part of the value chain in active ETF.

Roadmap: we are at the signing moment in these days. We do expect the closing at the end of June, at the beginning of July, and we are almost ready to launch the first initiatives.

The distribution channels will be mainly two: direct distribution channels to our clients and to institutional clients through Intermonte, and indirect distribution as underlying of our financial and insurance wrappers. Let's say that Investlinx has two major goals: the first one to give more flexibility to our international asset management platform, and on the other hand, to internalize part of the value chain referred to the ETF business.

Page 29 and 30, we show the targets we already shared with you in the previous conference call. We have just given an update to the net interest income at page 30 in the range €335 million, €345 million.

We increased the range by €5 million due to the slight increase in the yield curve. Now we are ready to hand over and to answer to all the questions.

Thank you.

Good afternoon to everybody, and thank you for taking my questions. I have three actually.

The first one is on the acquisition of the Investlinx. The rationale in my view is very clear, and is a very interesting deal.

I think it will complement your product suite for your very sophisticated client base, so that is very clear. I would expect that some pushback on the market could be, okay, but the higher penetration of active ETF may cannibalize the margin of your existing product mix, which I don't think is the case, but I would like to know what's your response to this potential pushback on the market.

Second question, you had €170 million of product placement out of the insurance agreement with Generali Alleanza, which in my view is a very, very strong number. Is it fair to compare this amount with the €0.7 billion of asset under investment inflows in the Q1, and more specifically to compare it with the €0.1 billion of insurance wrappers inflows that you had in the Q1?

Because if that is the case, this amount of inflows from the Insurbanking agreement is extremely good in my view. The last question is another positive element in my view is that you seem to have resumed to a very healthy trajectory in terms of recruits.

We know that for Banca Generali recruits of bankers is a key component of the growth strategy. I've seen that in the Q1, by the way, the recruits were concentrated on junior resources when compared with the past.

I would ask you to clarify if this is a change of strategy, if it's a temporary trend, and what is the pipeline for future recruits over the next couple of months, and what is the profile? Thank you.

Thank you, Giovanni. The answer on the risk of cannibalization of ETF.

We say that we are working very well with ETF. Always say more often used as the underlying of financial insurance wrappers to minimize the total expense ratio to the clients.

In some cases used also by our top bankers as underlying of advanced advisory services. If you combine the fees of the advanced advisory services, part of the internalization of margin of ETF and the brokerage fees, you would have an excellent margin, I do not see risk of cannibalization.

Especially because we will focus on niche strategies and replacement of stocks in more common ETF. Second, the inflows.

You are right. €170 million of gross inflows provided by Alleanza is a big number, especially if you consider the volatility of the market and the geopolitical chaos in this moment.

The enthusiasm of the network is very high, is very strong, and there is a strong commitment. I do believe that we will see positive surprise in the medium-long term just because the private advisors of Alleanza see the opportunity to increase, elevate the degree of professional and to cover also other parts of the portfolio of the clients.

This is very positive. If you compare the numbers of Alleanza with internal numbers, the numbers of Banca Generali, the numbers for Banca Generali in terms of insurance wrappers were pretty low just because we are expecting the launch of the new platform, and the launch should be next week.

I think that we're going to see positive numbers as soon as May. Third, on recruitment, I'm very positive.

I'm very positive as I met several very senior bankers. Thanks to the acquisition of Intermonte, now we are able to attract very senior bankers with important entrepreneurs as clients.

I do see some of these conversation very close to have an happy end and to join the bank. You can say that monthly data are normally some say volatile, but the overall numbers of meetings and of interest from these meetings is at the highest level ever.

I think that you will see both an increase in numbers as well as an increase of assets. The focus on young talent is as important as the focus on say the most senior one for the sustainability of the network.

It's very important to see the blue part of the bar increasing over time. Thank you.

Sorry, one clarification, Gian Maria. You mentioned that in May, you launched a new platform.

I missed this comment here. What are the details of it?

We are launching a new version of our insurance wrappers for our clients. The focus will be again also in BG, not only in in-house managed solutions, but also on the insurance wrapper.

Just to say that in the bank, we say that the inflows of the insurance are driven by new release of products and a new release of platforms, while for Alleanza, it's a blue ocean as is the first time ever that they can present a financial wrappers with an insurance wrapper. First time ever, plenty of clients, great enthusiasm.

This is no-brainer for Alleanza. For Banca Generali, is driven by innovation and products.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes. Hi.

Good afternoon. A follow-up, Gian Maria, on Investlinx on the questions asked by Giovanni.

You said Investlinx will be mainly used for niche strategies, but looking at the simple P&L you provided, I think there are very little number of employees, fund managers, or analysts. I was wondering who is providing the brain behind these new strategies you want to put out?

How scalable is Investlinx given the current structure? Linked to the margins question from Giovanni, those active ETFs are probably priced in the 0.8%, 0.9% percentage points ballpark in terms of management fee, and this is the underlying, and advisory fee contract that, if I'm not mistaken, should be priced 0.5%.

Is it fair to say that it is still in the 1.3%, 1.4% ballpark the overall gross margin of these products? Under wrappers, it's even more than that?

The last one is a kind of curiosity on the one-off claim, the €150 million. What does it mean non-Generali insurance policy?

I supposed that all the Ramo I were [Genertel?] savings of Generali, I don't understand what does it mean.

Thank you.

Thank you, Gianluca. Starting from the end, is a old international insurance policy.

A few years ago, we used to work with Utmost. Then Generali decided to sell it, and so we have still a run-off portfolio, and this was the major position.

What is the impact in terms of revenues? You said very little, I presume it's kind of 10 basis points,

something like that. A few basis points.

A few basis points.

Okay. Thanks.

A few basis points. The second and say that I'm confident to retain part of these outflows, we're going to see in the next month.

Second, margins. We say that the profitability, the margins of ETF will be in the range of 0.5%, 0.9% depending on the kind.

You can have active index to replace passive funds, and you can have niche initiatives. You can think in the range 0.5%, 0.9% depending on the underlying.

You are right that will be combined with advanced advisory fees, brokerage fees, and wrappers fees. The brain is partly in Italy, Intermonte, Banca Generali, is partly in Luxembourg, for example on our BG Fund Management.

If you think of our major competitors, for example, the biggest one provide solutions from Ireland, and a great capabilities are in Luxembourg. You can also leverage on existing brain, and the platform is fully digital, is of course no legacy, and is fully scalable.

No reason to have any limits in terms of assets.

Very clear.

We will give some disclosure of numbers during the presentation of the next 3-year strategic plan at the end of the second half of the year.

Thanks a lot.

Yes. Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions.

I have essentially one as the other ones have been previously answered. My question is focused on your operating costs.

You say that you are investing a lot in IT and also AI initiatives, and also on the growth of your machine. When do you think that we can see the first tangible benefits of those investments in 2 years' time, for example?

Thank you.

Thank you, Elena. Let's say that you are right.

Part of these costs are to support the IT say innovation and development, part to set up the Insurbanking and Intermonte business. Let's say that part of these costs are already generating positive inflows thanks to the collaboration with Intermonte and Banca Generali, and parts are to support the Insurbanking business with Alleanza.

From an AI perspective, more efficiencies in the processes, we do expect to stay still on the upper part of the band, 6% to 8% for this year, and I do expect a normalization for next year. Thank you.

Yes, good afternoon. Thanks for the presentation and taking my questions.

The first one is on your guidance regarding the net inflows for this year, which looks increasingly prudent. Is there any element that you can give us to explain this prudence or should we expect that you're going to outperform in terms of net inflows this year?

Then regarding the recruitments, I understood from your comments that the integration of the investment banking services in your offering allows you to attract more senior bankers. Can you give us an idea regarding those recruitments, if they relate to the broader market or from a competitor in particular, a competitor that tried to buy Banca Generali last year but failed?

Thank you.

Thank you, Luigi, and thank you for not mentioning the name. Let's say that in terms of net inflows, of course you are right.

The message is pretty clear and pretty positive, but at the moment, we decided to maintain the same guidance in order to see the next quarter and then decide just once say the numbers. You are right.

In the normal context and without the headwinds of the last year, of course is right to consider the target as conservative. In terms of recruitment, we didn't recorded significant recruitment by the player you were mentioning.

As they are mainly employees, it's difficult to convert an important number of employees in pay-vision, in financial advisors. It's not from that player, or just partly from that player, but is from, let's say, both traditional private banking system as well as some FA network, where you have bankers with important portfolios willing to upgrade the offer and providing also alternative services to the entrepreneurs.

It's about the high-quality bankers and high-quality financial advisors. Thank you.

Very clear. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Just a curiosity from my side.

I've seen that you guide for half a billion, 1 billion of deposit inflows this year. Also this one looks a relatively conservative number in the light that in April only, basically you did half a billion of deposit inflows.

I was, yeah, wondering if you can give us some color on this number, and also what is the role of Alleanza in this number for this year, also in light of the fact that you already opened 1,700 new current accounts under that partnership? Thank you.

Thank you. You are right.

In the first 4 months, we had significant inflows in the current accounts, but part of these are let's say as a sort of parking waiting for the new initiatives. Partly will be reinvested in these new solutions, and this explains why I'm more confident than in the past to see in the next weeks strong numbers in managed solutions, of course in a normal market condition.

At the moment, let's say that Alleanza is not included in these numbers. I try to explain why.

As I mentioned, the Alleanza clients are affluent clients. The average amount per policy is around €25,000, €30,000, €25,000 to €30,000.

The average of the current account is around €5,000, €5,000 to €10,000. It takes from 3 to 6 months to really onboard a client as a main bank.

It will takes time. The deployment say on the banking activity started in February, and it will finish at the end of July.

The insurance wrappers is on top of the numbers, and the profitability for us is about the underlying. We manage the underlying of these insurance wrappers, and you will see these numbers in the institutional share classes of our Luxembourg platform.

Are in the Insurbanking bar, the first page of the presentation for total assets in that part, and I think that you will start see some impact in the second half of the year when you going to gain momentum. We will inform and give disclosure of these numbers with the representation that we presented today.

Let's say that only the current account and asset under custody part will impact on the overall assets of the bank just because you open up a current account with the bank. That part will be in these numbers, but the impact estimated for this year is negligible, is pretty low, due to the fact that we are in ramp-up phase.

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Okay. Thank you very much for participating to our conference call, and have a good day.