This conference will be recorded. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MLP SE Conference Call regarding the publication of the Results for the Third Quarter 2025 and the First Nine Months 2025. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Pascal Löcher. Thank you very much, and welcome to MLP's Conference Call to our Results for the Third Quarter and the First Nine Months of 2025. With me today is our CFO, Reinhard Loose. He will guide you through the presentation. Of course, we are happy to take your questions after the presentation. Please go ahead, Reinhard. Thank you, Pascal, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, please allow me to present the key message for the first nine months of the financial year 2025. MLP remains firmly and vigorously on its good course. Even one-off effects, which need to be processed at times, as it is the case this year, do not change this. We provided information on this last Friday. Within the MLP Group, we benefit more than ever from our broad and strategically interlinked positioning, which provides additional stability and at the same time generates sustainable growth year- after- year. During the first nine months of this year, we were able to achieve new highs in total revenue despite a persistently difficult macroeconomic environment. This is a remarkable achievement by our team, not least because, as I already reported at the half-year stage, we have not experienced and are still not experiencing any tailwind in parts of our markets. Businesses and consumers alike are unsettled. The U.S. President's so-called Liberation Day, in particular, with its drastic tariffs, shook the capital markets in April and still has an impact today. However, the lack of political decisions, the ongoing economic downturn, and not least recent rising unemployment are also cause for concern. Despite operating in such a difficult environment, the MLP Group still succeeded in setting new highs in key figures for future business development. This applies to both the assets under management of EUR 64.2 billion and the managed non-life insurance premium volume of EUR 794 million. In terms of earnings before interest and taxes, the MLP Group stands at EUR 61.1 million after nine months in 2025, which is below the previous year's record high figure of EUR 66.4 million. In the third quarter of 2025, we achieved EUR 18.3 million and thus, even slightly exceeded, the very strong prior year quarter. One thing is particularly noteworthy about this development: our well-established and very successful consulting business, namely the intensive support we provide to our clients. We are their preferred dialogue partner for all financial matters. A closer look at the previous year's comparative figure makes this particularly clear. Q3 EBIT 2024 includes significantly larger EBIT contributions from performance-based compensation at FERI and from the interest rate business of MLP Banking. This shows the enormous growth and substance that we have already achieved in the MLP Group in recent years. As already reported, we have adjusted our EBIT forecast for the current year. This was due to changed expectations regarding the level of performance-based compensation in wealth management and the real estate development business. In addition, we are seeing a weaker than originally expected old-age provision business. As previously announced, we also intend to focus the business of our group company, Deutschland. Immobilien, and thereby making it less susceptible to risk. We will benefit from this very soon, just like from our extensive IT investments, which I talked about at the half-year point. The IT investments are focused particularly on artificial intelligence, which is increasingly being integrated into our consulting services, for example, in the preparation of client meetings by our consultants. Last but not least, we'll further strengthen our position in the corporate client business, among other things, through innovative and digital companies that we have established within the MLP Group in a targeted manner and whose development we are actively advancing. This means we are following our proven path to success. We have increased our EBIT midterm planning for 2028 to between EUR 140 million and EUR 155 million. On our way there, the current year is above all a year of transition, a year in which we have invested and focused. Regardless of the necessary responses to changing markets, our business model is so robust that we have set ourselves even more ambitious yet realistic targets for 2028. The fact that we are implementing this increase in our targets at this particular point in time once again underpins how sustainably we have positioned the MLP group for this path. You can find an overview of revenue development in slide four of the presentation. In the first nine months of 2025, MLP increased its total revenue to a new high of around EUR 773 million. The share of recurring revenue was almost 70% at the end of 2024, highlighting the great and sustainable stability of our business model. We earn recurring revenue from the continuous high-quality service provided to our existing clients throughout the MLP Group, above all the Property & Casualty and Wealth competence fields. The remaining share of sales revenue is generated from our new business, particularly in the Life & Health competence field. In the first nine months of 2025, the Group grew particularly strongly in the Property & Casualty competence fields with an increase of 7%. Compared to the same period of the previous year, MLP was able to significantly increase the managed non-life insurance premium volume. MLP also achieved growth in the Life & H ealth competence fields with an increase of 4%, driven primarily by the health insurance business included in this figure and to a lesser extent by the old-age provision business. After the first nine months of the year, the Wealth competence fields recorded a slight decline in revenue of -2%, primarily as a result of significantly lower performance-based compensation. This requires new record levels to be achieved in the underlying concepts even after market-related setbacks. Without the performance-based compensation, the wealth competence fields would also have recorded growth, with the corresponding figure standing at 4%. While we recorded lower interest income as expected due to the declining interest rates, we were able to achieve double-digit growth rates in real estate brokerage and loans and mortgages. This is yet another example of the strength of our business model, which is based on multiple pillars. Finally, a brief look at the others competence field. As expected, revenue was slightly lower here due to the planned and strictly implemented reduction of market and business-related risks in the real estate development business. I have addressed this repeatedly during the previous quarters. With the step announced last Friday at Deutschland. Immobilien, we now intend to end real estate project developments, for which we ourselves are also responsible for construction and thus make our real estate business less risky. We will therefore no longer initiate such projects. Only the existing projects will be carried out by us to completion. The growing and continuing trust in our consulting services displayed by our clients is also reflected in the key figures. They are extremely important for future revenue development. It is therefore all the more pleasing that we were able to increase assets under management to a new high of EUR 64.2 billion. To the best of our knowledge, this makes us the second largest bank-independent asset manager in Germany today. Let's take a quick look at our other key figure. We were also able to increase the managed non-life insurance premium volume to another record high of EUR 794 million. As of the 30th of September, the MLP Group's consultants served 597,400 family clients. The gross number of newly acquired family clients was 15,500. We also supported a further 27,800 corporate and digital clients in the MLP Group. The number of consultants rose to 2,121 during the course of the year, primarily as a result of our successful trainee program. This program, which is very attractive for young professionals, equips employed junior consultants at MLP with the skills they need to succeed as self-employed consultants. Indeed, 495 trainees had already joined the program by the end of September 2025 since its launch in mid-2023. You can find an abridged version of the current income statement on slide eight. In the first nine months of 2025, the MLP group recorded EBIT of EUR 61.1 million, which, as already communicated, was below the exceptionally strong figure from the same period last year but significantly above the average of the past five years. This average figure is EUR 47.6 million. If you now take a brief look at the right-hand section of the slide, you will see key performance indicators that underpin our strong balance sheet. Our shareholders' equity amounts to EUR 577 million. The regulatory core capital ratio was at 17.9% as of the 30th of September, which remains significantly above the requirements of the regulatory authorities. The liquidity coverage ratio, or LCR for short, serves as a benchmark for short-term liquidity in stress scenarios and is therefore an indicator of resilience. At 1,124%, it is also well above the 100% minimum required by regulatory authorities. Let me come back to our recently revised EBIT forecast of EUR 90 million-EUR 100 million for the whole year before possible one-off effects resulting from focusing on the real estate business. In terms of EBIT, however, these effects should not exceed EUR 12 million and might also even have an impact on EBIT of the financial year 2025. We are more convinced than ever that we will continue our operational business success. In the current financial year, we expect sales revenue to slightly increase in the property and casualty competence field in particular. In the Wealth competence field, we continue to expect revenues in 2025 to remain at the previous year's high level, though we remain cautious in view of the volatility of the capital markets. Of course, it also cannot be ruled out that there may be positive capital markets developments from which we would benefit directly in the Wealth competence field. In line with developments in the first nine months, we are now anticipating stable revenue in the Life & H ealth competence field, having previously expected a slight increase in revenue. Within this competence field, we continue to expect a slight increase in revenue from health insurance and expect now stable revenue from old-age provision. Irrespective of this, we are keeping a very close eye on our costs. As already mentioned, we have slightly increased our midterm planning for the end of 2028. The corridor now ranges from EUR 140 million-EUR 155 million. Previously, it was EUR 140 million-EUR 150 million. We continue to expect total revenue of EUR 1.3 billion-EUR 1.4 billion. Performance-based compensation at FERI, which can only be planned and influenced to a limited extent, has once again been considered cautiously and therefore only included to a limited extent in the increased planning. We have left it unchanged from the previous planning. In this context, I had already referred to the enormous substance of our operating business, which we have continuously built up over the past few years. This is also reflected in our planning for a continued significant growth in key figures, namely the managed non-life insurance premium volume and the assets under management. The expanding assets under management, FERI has significant further potential as an asset manager, underpinned by highly professional and modern investment research. In the area of alternative assets, with over EUR 18 billion under management, FERI already maintains one of the largest expert teams in Germany. The strategic development of potential and consulting family clients, the targeted expansion of the corporate client business, and the multi-asset approach for institutional clients should lead to growth in all competence fields. The planned significant increase in earnings is also supported by our digitalization strategy, with a particular focus on AI applications, which are expected to drive ongoing efficiency gains and further improve client support. Our development of AI service agents continues at full speed. At the final stage, we will offer clients 24/7 availability and complete processing of simple matters. An AI system, which makes the sometimes time-consuming preparation for client appointments significantly easier for our consultants, has already reached the practical testing phase. For example, the AI can extract the relevant data for financial consulting from documents uploaded by clients and sort and store it in the right place in our systems that directly support the consultants. These new technologies are used throughout the MLP Group in a very targeted manner, but also always responsibly. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me now to move on to the summary. Firstly, our strategically developed positioning is proving itself more than ever, especially in phases without a tailwind from the markets and also when it is necessary to deal with one-off effects, which can occur from time to time. Secondly, artificial intelligence as part of our digital strategy is already an additional efficiency and growth factor today and will remain so well into the future. We will also remain vigorously active in this field. Thirdly, our increased midterm planning for the end of 2028 underlines our sustainable growth path. In the coming years, we will benefit from the fact that we have now focused our real estate business and at the same time made strategic investments. Many thanks for your time and your interest. I'm now happy to take any questions. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question now, please press nine followed by the star key on your telephone keypad. In case you wish to cancel your question, please press three followed by the star key. Let me just repeat, please press nine and star to state that you have a question. The first question at the moment comes from Henry Wendisch, Nu Ways. Your line is open. Yes, thanks everybody. Thank you, Reinhard, for the presentation. A couple of questions from my side. Let's go with the obvious one. I always ask is the net inflows and the performance fee metrics that we have seen in Q3 for our modeling. On the same topic, more or less regarding the guidance card, we said there was a mix of three things. One is a lower expectation of performance fees and, of course, the real estate development that is not turning out the way it might have been looked like at the start of the year. What is sort of a little bit of a surprise for me is a weaker old-age expectation now. Could you give us maybe a little bit of a split? Which of these three developments was the biggest one or to what extent? Then directly a follow-up on that, why has sort of your old-age provision business outlook for Q4? It is very, very important for the fourth quarter, so why has your outlook a little bit changed there? I have seen you launched a new product, the Portfolior ente. What is sort of the, how can we think of this new outlook of yours in the old-age space? I think the very positive highlight here is the underlying profitability. It was a very strong gain. Also, sales, if you include performance fees, you grew by 5% on a Q3 basis, so that looks very good. I think the biggest improvement we have seen in profitability was in banking. Could you shed some more light on what has happened there? I have seen a positive effect in the so-called Bewertungsergebnis. Maybe that's something that's behind this, but I don't really understand yet what is the real driver here in the banking business underlying profitability. Even if you include the net interest income, which is declined, of course, as well, the profitability is still on a very good level there in banking. What's going on there? Hi, Henry. Thanks for your questions. I start with the, let's say, easy one to answer, the net inflows. The net inflows for the whole group, for the, let's say, the gross inflow for the whole year was EUR 4.2 billion. The gross outflow for the whole year was also EUR 4.2 billion. We have overall performance of EUR 1.2 billion, obviously mixed in different areas. Your next question will be where does it come from? We had outflow of a bigger customer with a consulting mandate with extremely low margin, but with some interesting assets under management. Therefore, in the area of the company sector, there was relatively weak for the whole year. This was more or less explanation a little bit to the net inflows. The performance fees for the whole year was EUR 4.8 million. I think this leads to your question then for the underlying business. I just would like to compare for everyone here on the call, the performance fee for the first nine months in 2024 was EUR 26.8 million. That means we have EUR 22 million less performance fees in nine months and only, in hyphens, only EUR 5 million less profit finally. That underlines that the rest of the business in general was quite okay, I think, just to underline this. The guidance cut, yes, performance fee real estate is clear. Old-age provision, we will have a very strong last quarter, but perhaps not as strong as we expected. That is clear. What is the reason for that? We see, let's say, very, very good activities in the wealth management area. We know that our consultants obviously only have 24 hours a day. At the moment, they invest more time in wealth management than in old-age provision. Therefore, we have a little bit mixed feelings about this. On one side, we are extremely happy with what is going on in the wealth management area, especially, let's say, in the area of the private consultants. The inflows are extremely good there. This has the result that they have less time to consult their customers in old-age provision. That was the reason why we were a little bit more cautious there. Again, there will be a strong quarter, but perhaps less strong than we would have expected in the beginning. On the other side, we will see better results, I think, in the wealth management area in the last quarter in the private clients' business. Therefore, as you also said, the underlying profitability was quite good. One reason for this profitability, of course, was the banking sector. There you also see as an outcome what I just mentioned, the inflows in this area. We have, in the first nine months, more than EUR 1 billion net inflow in the private customer sector in the banking, with obviously the best margins in the wealth management in the whole group. This supports the banking business and in the risk, Bewertungsergebnis, in the risk sector. We were relatively cautious concerning risks last year. The comparison last year to this year is that we are good provided in the risk sector already from last year onwards. We had to do less this year. That was the reason why the risk figure in comparison to last year is quite good. I hope, Henry, I have answered all your questions with that. Yes, just one follow-up on the banking. Does this imply that this elevated margin is going to stay there at these levels, or do you see an effect coming back in Q4 maybe and also in 2026? As always, it's depending a little bit on the development in the market. For 2025, now 13th of November, we don't expect declining margins in the banking sector for 2025. Great. Thanks a lot. Great. Thanks a lot. You're welcome. The next question comes from Jochen Schmitt, Metzler. Your line is open. Thank you. Good afternoon. I have three questions, please. Firstly, what's your new expectation for performance fees for the full year? Secondly, excluding any exit costs, do you expect a negative EBIT from property development in Q4? And thirdly, the EBIT range of your new guidance, may that implicitly be read as sort of headroom for the financial consulting segment for which Q4 is seasonally the strongest quarter for full-year EBIT, but which may be somewhat volatile? These are my questions. Thank you. Hello, Mr. Schmitt. The performance fee in our original plan, we expected a lower double-digit figure for performance fee. I just reported that we have until now EUR 4.8 million performance fee for the first nine months. I would expect something like a lower million-euro number to add on this EUR 4.8 million, but we will be definitely somewhere between EUR 5 million-EUR 8 million, I would say, just to give some numbers there. On the property and the real estate sector, that's a good question. The question was if we expect a negative result in the last quarter in the real estate segment, I would altogether expect a negative figure there. Yes. And then the EBIT, I think I lost the last question. Can you please repeat the last question again? Yes, sure. I mean, you have implicitly left a range of EUR 10 million in your new outlook for the full year, but this also refers to the fourth quarter. What may bring you to the lower or to the upper end? Is it finally the performance of the financial consulting segment? That's my question. Obviously, the area of performance fee leaves some volatility for the last quarter. We are quite happy with all the other segments at the moment. Therefore, let's say, to reach the upper area, I think we should see we have to see no negative, let's say, some positive effect, not perhaps a positive result, but at least some positive effects in the real estate segment and some perhaps a little tailwind on performance fees that would help us to come to the upper area of this range. Thank you very much. Thank you. At the moment, there seem to be no further questions. If you would still like to raise a question at this point, please press nine and the star key. As there are no further questions at this point, I'd like to hand it back to you, Mr. Löcher. Okay. If there are no further questions, I would like to thank you for taking part in our conference call. Of course, you can reach us if any further questions arrive later. I wish you a good afternoon. Thank you and goodbye.