Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call Conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Banca Generali first quarter 2024 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gian Maria Mossa, CEO and General Manager of Banca Generali. Please go ahead, sir. Good afternoon, and thank you for attending our first quarter results conference call. First quarter results were very strong, both in terms of financial results as well as in terms of commercial results. Overall net profit closed at EUR 122 million, while total assets achieved new highs at around EUR 97 billion, thanks to favorable market conditions but also a very consistent commercial activity. The result of April is in line with the first quarter, but with an acceleration of the quality of the mix and also May start very, very well. So let's start commenting net profit. So page four, as you already said, a jump of almost EUR 50 million driven by two major components: the recurring net profit supported by both net financial margin and gross recurring fees, plus performance fee. And as you can see, the contribution of the variable net profit amounted to EUR 40 million. Page 5, let's start with net financial income. The trading gains were in line with the previous quarter, and you know that here there is room to adjust the overall trading gain in line with the overall result of the net financial income. Concerning the net interest margin, there is a positive surprise. The result is probably the best quarter ever once you carve out the component of the inflation link. This result is the consequence of higher net interest margin and a slower reduction compared to our expectation on overall total assets. If we move to total gross fees, you see at page 6 a very strong result, higher almost by 8%, and the gross recurring fees, and the variable fees closed at EUR 54.4 million. On both components, positive news. May is going pretty well in terms of overall gross fees. Moreover, variable fees, we have more than EUR 10 billion very close or at the high watermark, and we already posted other EUR 5 million-EUR 6 million performance fee in these first days. For the gross recurring fees, you know there are two major components: the investment fees and other fees. Investment fees increased by 5%, and if you break down the two major components, you can see positive contribution from both management fees and advisory fees. If we focus on management fees, page 8, you see that we exceeded EUR 207 million. This is all about asset expansion, while the margins are pretty stable and above our guidance for the three-year strategic plan. There is a positive momentum in all the in-house funds. Page 9, you see the advisory fees. Here, the increase was more significant. The overall contribution jumped to almost EUR 12 million, and again, also in this case, the result is driven by asset expansion with, say, constant margins. The overall margins on advisory fees are confirmed at 0.49%. Page 10, today we will focus a little bit more on the other fees just to explain a little bit the exceptional result. Starting from other banking fees, other banking fees are in line with the same period of last year, so no news, good news. Brokerage commission jumped to almost EUR 15 million. Most of these increases are structural and are driven by asset expansion and also better quality of the mix with a major focus on increasing focus on also Forex and, of course, also equity due to the favorable market conditions. If we focus on entry fees, also in this case, let's say that there are some structural factors and some one-off. The first one-off is the placement of the BTP Valore. It accounted for EUR 2 million in terms of fees. Let's say that the rest is, for the greatest part, coming from structured products, certificates, and a minor contribution from front-fee in asset management products. Let's say that the volume on certificates continued to be pretty strong also in April and May. If we move to page 11, we start now considering the part of the cost, starting with the payout ratio. Here, everything is in line with expectation. You can see only a small increase in the payout to financial advisors for the ordinary component. This is due to some specific factor, temporary factor. The first one is the mix of the inflows of the first quarter, where you know structured products, brokerage, advisory fee as an added payout. And the second is a specific initiative on the insurance, where we slightly reduce the commission for clients and maintain almost unchanged the payout to financial advisors. So the result is a slight increase in the ordinary payout. But let's say these are all temporary initiatives, and I'm confident to confirm the target of 36%. As you can see, the payout to third parties is pretty stable. And also here, in the medium term, I do expect to go at around 6% or lower. Page 12, operating cost. These numbers, to me, are probably the best news because overall, you see an increase of 6.3% of the core operating cost. But once you carve out the setup of BG Suisse and the phasing of the national banking contract, the increase is only by 2.4%. Let's say that we are managing very well the cost base despite the ongoing investments for innovation. Page 13, you can see the excellence of our operating leverage with the operating cost on total assets at a new floor at 0.28. The cost income, also once carved out the most variable components, you see volatile components, you see that the ratio stood at 33%. To sum up, page 14, total banking income very strong, up almost 33%, well supported by net financial income plus gross fees. Cost under control once we exclude, let's say, the one-off component. Operating profit very strong. Below operating lines, you see two increases. The first one is the contribution to banking funds from 6%-10% and the net provisions. The reason of the increase in the net provision, the reasons are mainly two. The first one is the different impact of the rates on the discount of the reserve for our financial advisors. So last year, same period was a positive contribution +3.8%. This quarter, negative -0.7%. So the overall effect is -4.5%. And then we had some conservative and prudent provision for, let's say, the financial advisory fidelization and the reserve for the pension and some provisions also for the clients. So you know that when numbers are pretty good, we prefer a more conservative attitude on the provision side. And the tax rate closed below 25% at 24.2%. Also in this case, here, you see some one-off components. Of course, the impact of performance fee reduced the tax rate. Here, we continue to expect guidance in the range of 26%-27%, probably closer to 26%. As a result, net profit jumped at EUR 122 million, and the recurring net profit closed at EUR 82 million. Now, moving on to the balance sheet, the overall assets closed at 15.2% with the interest-bearing assets accounted for EUR 13.8 billion. In this case, you can see that the yield increased by 0.14% with the contribution of all the major voices. Financial assets decreased by EUR 100 million. Loans to clients decreased by EUR 100 million. Focusing on the liability side, here, you see more or less a stabilization of the clients of our deposits and a slight increase in the cost of funding for the retail clients from 0.72% to 0.84%. So again, also from the balancing perspective, stabilization of client deposits and a slight increase on the total assets make me confident on achieving or overachieving the target we mentioned last time of EUR 280 million. Page 18, capital ratio. Here, there is positive surprise. Overall, capital ratio increased thanks to the retained net earnings but also thanks to Risk-Weighted Assets optimization. This optimization accounted for 1.5% in terms of total capital ratio. So we closed at 21.2%. Consider that we have the dividend payout ratio implied in the own funds is at around 87%. It means 80% of the recurring net profit and 100% of the variable net profit. So we are also confident to deliver good dividend also for this year. Leverage ratio well above our targets, and we continue to stay with a very liquid portfolio with all the liquidity ratios well above the regulatory requirement. Now, let's move on to the commercial activity and total assets. The recruiting part will be part of the focus on the business update. So now we have four pages. two are about total assets, and two are about total inflows, and the scheme is almost the same. Let's start with total assets. Page 20, at the top, you see an increase of almost EUR 11 billion on total assets, of which 3.5% in assets under management. Bottom left, you see an impressive acceleration of assets under advanced advisory, +EUR 2.3 billion, and now we exceeded EUR 10 billion. Top right, you can see the overall assets under investment. 65.3% is the highest level. It means EUR 5.5 billion higher than the same period of the last year. The overall weight of assets under investments on total assets is at 67.5%, and we consider this a level from which we do expect a normalization. I'm pretty confident to close the year at this level or higher. It means that the mix of the inflows will be positive. If you look at page 21, you have total assets, the details of the assets under management, plenty of good news. The first one, stabilization of the Traditional Life Policies. Second, the increase in the Managed Solutions. If you focus on the bottom left, you see that both wrappers and in-house funds account more on the total assets under management. In particular, the sum of wrappers and in-house funds now account for 55% from 52.3%. It means that we have accelerated the overall exposure, the relative exposure in-house products by 2.7% in one year, and more will come. Very confident, optimistic on numbers for the financial wrappers and also for the in-house funds. In-house funds are gaining momentum, but you will see, again, some slides on this topic in the business update. So now, let's see the same pages for the net inflows for the first quarter and then the detail for April in the business update. The overall net inflows for the first quarter closed higher year-on-year and with better quality. You see the red bar is positive, EUR 200 million compared to last year, negative, while we confirm positive net inflows in advanced advisory. On the right, you see the overall impact of the inflows on assets under investment, quality meter, EUR 600 million of assets under investment with growing contribution, as I mentioned, of financial wrappers and in-house funds. Page 23, there is the detail of the inflows of the assets under management. And again, you see the normalization of the traditional life policies with positive inflows. On the right, you see increasing contribution of financial wrappers, pretty stable in-house funds but in acceleration in April, and negative contribution of third-party funds. So the focus is on in-house solutions. Page 25, we would like to focus a little bit on the targets for this year in terms of net inflows and in terms of the quality of these net inflows. We have an update of numbers including also April. The first graph at the top is about the traditional representation. You see that in the first four months, we had inflows for more than EUR 2.3 billion compared to the EUR 2 billion of last year. So it means almost 50% higher of better quality. The better quality, let's say, is pretty clear with the result of April. On the right, you see the result of April last year and the result of April this year. This year, we have positive inflows in in-house funds, positive inflows in financial wrappers, positive inflows in insurance, and also positive inflows in banking assets. And if we focus on the second graph, bottom of the page, you see that we stay now the contribution of the investment solution accounted for 39%. But again, we are very positive to achieve the target of 40/60 thanks to several initiatives and the normalization of the market condition. On the right of the page, you can read some optimism on the overall net inflows because we see two potential upsides, recruitment and Switzerland, while the optimism on the quality of the net inflows comes from some consideration on our assets under custody and optimization of our offering in Luxembourg. So let's go through these potential upsides. So page 26, the focus is on recruitment. Recruitment started very well. You see an acceleration of senior recruitments from 29 to 39, an acceleration of the new junior recruitment from 12 to 25, and also an acceleration of the assets managed by the team, so the combination of senior and junior. It's about an increase of 20%. So market conditions are normalizing. We have plenty of people and professionals willing to understand our business model. And the growing demand comes from traditional banking systems but also from direct competitors. So I'm very confident on achieving the targets in terms of recruitment. And then there is Switzerland. We celebrated the opening of our Swiss branch on Monday. There is a significant interest for our project, and we are close to receive the final authorization to offer the banking solution of our Swiss bank to Italian clients. And you well remember that we have two different models of business. The first one is more on medium-long term to develop the onshore business in Switzerland, and the second, of short-term, medium-term, to start managing the money of the Italian resident in Switzerland thanks to Italian services, Italian investment services, Italian professionals, and deposits in Switzerland. In the first, let's say, four months, the contribution of the total inflows of Switzerland accounted for EUR 100 million. Most of that is booked in Italy. So if, on one end, we are positive on the overall net inflows, so let's say that the EUR 6 billion target could be probably low compared to what we can realize, we can achieve. Also, in terms of mix and quality, we start to be more confident of the final result. Let's start from page 28, where there is a focus on the total assets under custody. Total under custody accounted for almost EUR 27 billion. For us, in terms of percentage for our clients, it's a peak. If we break down these numbers, first of all, you start seeing that more than EUR 5 billion of bonds will expire within one year, EUR 5 billion. Two-thirds of the bonds have a positive performance. It's much easier to sell a bond with positive performance than a negative one. Also, in terms of liquidity of this portfolio, only 5% of total assets under custody is invested in structural products. On one end, we can continue to provide good performance in terms of structural products. On the other one, let's say that the portfolio is pretty liquid. Last but not least, even for the remaining part of assets under custody, you see that the penetration of advanced advisory services is still 22%. So there is room also to implement advanced advisory services further on assets under custody. So I'm sure that we will see a normalization of assets under custody, and I'm sure that we will continue to deliver higher profitability thanks to structured products and assets under advisory. Next page, page 29, you see other positive news, and it's about our Luxembourg platform. We achieved the previous record high, EUR 21.4 billion, of which 10.7% of retail funds. And you have already seen in the previous conference call that the interest for the retail distribution is more and more focused on in-house funds compared to third-party funds. And the second graph shows you the percentage of this distribution. So we had the low at 43.8% of, let's say, in-house funds compared to third-party funds. Now, at the end of the First Quarter, we were about 46%. April was very positive for in-house funds because we launched a new offer, and in the second half of the month, we collected more than EUR 100 million with negative inflows in third-party funds. Let's say the optimization was about the new products in existing asset classes but also the coverage of two new asset classes, the bond one and the alternatives one. Now, with the existing scenario, with the actual scenario of interest yield, we think that we can also gain more traction on more traditional bond funds. We do believe that alternative funds can work better with higher-yield scenarios. For all these reasons, we do expect that the rebalancing between third-party funds and in-house funds will continue for a profitable future. Page 30, that is the last one, just a recap of our major targets of the three-year strategic plan, consistent growth, higher than EUR 6 billion, very optimistic, very confident to beat this target, the quality, 40/60% in assets under investment. There is a normalization of the market, and there is positive feedback from the network and the clients for the new offering. So we are positive also on the mix, profitable growth. Let's say that we confirm the targets of the previous conference call with very let's say with conservative assumption on net interest income. We see a very solid gross recurring fees, cost under control. Moreover, you see that there is plenty of capital, and we are more than confident to achieve and deliver the income growth. I remind all of us that the 20th of May, we're going to pay EUR 1.55 per share. It's the first tranche of the dividend for the last year. Now, I will hand over for the Q&A session. Thank you. This is the Chorus Call operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on touch-tone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Elena Perini in Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead. Yes. Thank you. Good afternoon and congratulations for your results and also for the net inflows of April. I have four questions, actually. The first one is on the trend of performance fees in April when the market conditions seemed to be more challenging. Then, if you can provide an outlook for entry fees because, yes, you talked about some one-offs, but I think that the pace is stronger than in the past. Then, on your guidance as regards the NII and costs, which were overall well, the NII was better than expected in the first quarter. And then the costs were up more or less in line with the guidance path with the setup costs of BG Suisse. So I don't know if you have any updates on them. And then final question on the tax credits related to the Superbonus, if you have any exposure and if you could have any impacts then from the new ruling that is under the discussion at the moment? Thank you very much. Thank you, Elena. So starting from performance fee, April closed at EUR 4 million performance fee but with the recovery of the markets in May. Now, as I mentioned, we have an important part of the total assets very close or at the high watermark. So from the level reached this day, achieved in these days, there could be an upside also in the performance fee. Entry fees, you are right. There is some seasonality in the numbers. The first one is the BTP. But again, this week, there is another placement. I do expect slightly lower numbers. So if I have to give an estimate of the BTP for us for this quarter, it should be in the range of EUR 250million- EUR 300 million. In the first quarter, it was about EUR 400 million. So it's not about EUR 2 million but could be 115. Entry fees for the asset management products mostly depend by market, but let's say that the contribution is pretty marginal. For the structural products, you have some seasonality. So the base period is the first quarter and the last quarter of the year, the fourth quarter. So you will see a normalization in the second and the third, but the demand is pretty robust. In terms of guidance for the net interest income, let's say that we maintain our target to stay at or above EUR 280 million. There are basically three major assumptions. The first one is that we project a revenue at 3.1%, so definitely lower the level as of today. We continue to project to estimate a reduction of overall client deposits in the range of EUR 500 million-1 billion. And honestly speaking, let's say that the trend in these last few weeks is the opposite. The overall weight of current account for power clients is at 8.5%. That is a very low level. Let's say we prefer to continue to project EUR 0.51 billion also because the years have surprised us at the beginning of this year. Let's wait for a reduction, and then we will update eventually the projection. Third, we continue to assume a slight increase of the cost of funding for retail deposits. With this assumption, we are confident to achieve EUR 280 or more. In terms of cost, let's say that the operating leverage is pretty impressive. It's pretty impressive. We have to consider that we want to continue to invest for Suisse but also for other projects. Our target for the three-year plan is in the range of 5%-6%. We could stay a little bit above 6%, but we are talking about a zero point, not a percentage point because, let's say that, as I mentioned, we are continuing to optimize the operating machine, so we have some savings. In terms of tax credits, Superbonus, nothing. It's negligible for us. No impact. Okay. Thank you very much. The next question is from Domenico Santoro, HSBC. Please go ahead. Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for the guidance on the NII. I wonder if, given the expectational rates, you can also look beyond 2024 and give us an indication of NII for 2025. Regarding your management fees, I was just comparing the performance of your management fees with all the competitors that so far they have these close numbers. Now, we can basically make a sort of a comparison. You sort of underperformed in terms of growth on gross management fees over the last quarter but also over the last quarter that I mean, management fees have floated around EUR 200 million. Is it also true that you are intercepting revenues on the different lines? We should probably look at your business in a different way, including also advisory. But just looking at Q1, other competitors also reported a slight uptick in terms of margins. Why your margins are stable, and probably also because your sales have been a little bit weak. So is this an inflection point? So from now on, you expect management fees to accelerate and margins to improve from here, given also April was very strong? Or I mean, we should look at your business overall, and you aren't accepting revenues also via different kind of business like the advisory, and that's the reason for this sort of underperformance. So is it going to be reverted in a way, or is it going to continue this way? I know that you mentioned the in-house funds, and probably this is the answer. Thanks. Thank you, Domenico. Starting from net interest income, considering the projection of EUR 280 million, I do not see a significant impact, negative impact for the next year. Let's say we are EUR 10 million-EUR 15 million less, lower, but with a significant reduction of the interest rates. So you should see the sensitivity. In terms of management fees, you are right that some competitors provided higher margins. Here, you have to consider two effects with three effects with different signs. The first one is about insurance, the traditional life insurance. We decided to temporarily reduce the management commission to clients. This accounted for 1.5 basis point. And then there is a normalization with the commission after a couple of years. So you have as a detractor, let's say, some reduction in the insurance business, but it is temporary. And this offset positive contribution of in-house funds and, of course, positive market effect. So overall, I do not expect I do not expect an increase in margins. It's more about stabilization. I do expect an increase in volumes. And the increase in volumes is for financial wrappers as well as in-house funds. Then you are right. We do see also a repositioning of the industry and of the markets on advanced advisory services. So being the market leader in advanced advisory services and financial wrappers positioned the bank, in my opinion, with a competitive advantage in more challenging times. So I'm pretty satisfied with what's going on from a commercial perspective. Just to mention, the first two weeks of May is just two weeks, but the percentage of the assets under investment is above the upper band of our range. So we are close to 70%-80%. So let's say that I'm positive. I say the markets stay at this level. I'm positive on the quality, on the mix, and so as a consequence, also on the management fee. Thank you. Sorry, just to clarify a bit of follow-up on the margins. These are management commissions that you mentioned in insurance. Is it a temporary effect on 2024, or is it going to, in a way, weigh the margins for longer? Our initiative is on a 2-year time horizon. It's not just for this year, but it's also for next year. It's 24 months. Understood. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next question is from Alberto Villa in Intermonte. Please go ahead. Thank you for taking my questions. Three, if I may. The first one is, again, on the traditional life flows. Are you still seeing any kind of or expecting for the future any kind of outflows, or the commercial activity is actually working well? And in the future, how do you see, in general, the contribution from these kinds of products to the business? The second one is on recruitment. It started well this year. Maybe you can give us an idea of what is your expectation of the contribution of recruitment for the inflows in 2024. And effectively, this is the last year of the business plan, so maybe there will be then time to update us for the future, I guess, in the coming quarters. And finally, on BG Swiss, you mentioned the possibility also for M&A there and international expansion. I don't know if it's possible to elaborate a little bit more on what are your ambitions. We know the targets for Switzerland but also in terms of eventually looking at opportunities outside of Italy and Switzerland. Thank you. Thank you, Alberto. On the traditional life flows, I have a slightly different view from short-term versus medium-long-term. In the medium-long-term, to me, this is a great competitive advantage. Of course, in this phase of positive markets and you focus on your clients, focus on the yield. But when there is some turmoil, some volatility, it's the place to be. So the normalization of the yield, to me, will be a positive contribution for this asset class. We continue to see some outflows, but let's say that the inflows, the gross inflows, is pretty strong. So the overall result is zero or positive. So again, we have the lion in our brand. I think that in normal condition, it's a great advantage compared to competitors. Now, there is a gradual normalization also of the outflows. In terms of recruitment, let's say so far it's working very well. As I say, there is increasing interest. We do expect EUR 1.5 billion for this year, so around 25% of the target that we announced. Could be a little bit higher. Could be. It depends on, let's say, when we successfully accelerate in the recruitment because it takes time to transfer money. So the potential positive impact could be at the end, in the last part of this year or in the first quarter next. But let's say that this is a positive contributor. For BG Swiss M&A, of course, since we announced the loan through our BG Swiss Bank, several external asset managers approached us because they consider us a potential harbor because no legacy, no risk, and a very efficient operating machine. So we are considering some potential acquisition of external asset managers where the costs are very, let's say, very small, and you can consider person by person. So no big deals. It's just an acquisition of assets, basically, also with assets. And we are just dialoguing with a couple of players, but it's something similar to BG Valeur, something that we can finance with our equity. And it wouldn't change numbers of the bank overall. For the international expansion, let's say that now, we are very focused on Switzerland. So at least for this year and probably also next year, our main focus will be in Switzerland. There is appetite in the insurance business to consider also out-of-bank clients. So we are starting considering this project in Italy. I do not exclude that in the future, medium-long-term, we can consider out-of-bank clients also abroad. Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone. The next question is from Luigi De Bellis, Equita SIM. Please go ahead. Good morning too. Question for me. The first one is on the managed solution. So you mentioned the strong momentum for in-house funds vis-à-vis third-party funds. So do you expect this trend to continue? And if so, are there significant differences in terms of profitability for you? And the second question, more general. So we are seeing lower numbers for the last BTP Valore. So where we are in your view in terms of normalization of market condition for flows, so how do you see the appetite of your clients for BTP compared to some months ago? So you mentioned it's also a good trend in May. Can you elaborate also on this trend? Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Luigi. Let's say that if you ask me where the inflows will go in the next 6, 12 months, I'm more positive on financial wrappers and advanced advisory services, probably first choice financial wrappers. Then in the retail distribution of funds, I do see an advantage on in-house versus towards third parties. I don't see reason to change this trend. But let's say that if I have to choose one kind of product, it's all about financial wrappers, and it's good for us also because the underlying part is invested in our Luxembourg platform. So first of all, advanced investment services. Second, retail funds. In the retail funds, I see positive inflows for our in-house. For the BTP Valore, just to give you my feeling, the current one should be 20%-30% lower compared to the previous one. This is just internal projection. I do see room for another one or two placements for the retail distribution also because the penetration of Italian Govies bonds is now starting to be a little bit less distant from the peak of the previous years. I do expect another couple of initiatives but less successful than the previous one. In terms of appetite, as I mentioned, the volumes are a little bit lower than the previous one. We start seeing more interest on asset management solutions also in the bond space. Again, the normalization is almost there. From this moment, I think that our industry will take an advantage. Thank you. Once again, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone. Gentlemen, Mr. Mossa, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for any closing remarks. Okay. Thank you. And waiting for meeting you in person. Bye. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.