Anima Stock

[Audio Gap]

I now have pleasure handing over to Luca Mirabelli, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Luca. The floor to you.

Thank you, Rebecca. Good afternoon to everyone connected. Thanks for joining us for this presentation of our 9 months results for 2026, which will be hosted, as usual, by CEO and General Manager, Saverio Perissinotto. The set of results, you should already have seen in the presentation. Apparently, someone in the market has not seen it or has a different interpretation than the one we are going to expose

Anyway, without further wait, I'll give the floor to Saverio Perissinotto. Thank you.

Good afternoon to everyone, and welcome to our results presentation of the first 9 months of this 2026. You have a very clear document that have been provided to you. If we go to Page 2, which is going to digest the main highlights, I will say that the third quarter of 2026 proved to be quite satisfactory for our standard.

First of all, let me comment that during the third quarter, we were able to gather net inflows into assets under management of roughly EUR 1 billion which was a quite good result since this 2026 has been mainly impacted and mainly characterized by the termination of the Etica SGR mandate, which for our stand was a significant customers and a significant part of our business because we lost a bit less than EUR 6 billion of assets.

The second thing that I would like to highlight to you is that the third quarter, we were able to deliver strong P&L result. Our net profit stood at EUR 49.4 million for the quarter, which is 8% more than the third quarter of 2025. And of course, our EBITDA was also in line with a quite good number and impressive figure. Why this happens? Because I mean, I think that, God thank you, the major outflows that we recorded during this year were on the weakest side of the profitability ladder. So, on that point of view, we were able to, let's say, keep a good pace on profitability. And since we lowered, let's say, the RM, which were the least attractive as far as profitability is concerned, marginally, our P&L has been improving in a quite substantial way.

The second thing that I would like to quote, which is quite satisfactory on the management's point of view is that in this first part of the year, we were able to deliver some synergies of cost and some efficiency initiatives, mainly on the space of what we call other income, which has been quite good and also on the general and administrative expenses. And more the time goes by, more we are able to record, let's say, positive impact on our P&L. To make a long story short, the first 9 months of 2026 were able for us to give us EUR 408 million of total revenues, which is 11% more than last year and an inch more than EUR 208 million of net profit. And this figure has to be carefully considered because if 4% more than last year could appear as a modest or a moderate number, please, I have the duty to remind you that on the last 9 months of 2025, the number was spoiled with a one-off income related to a certain, let's say, specific income factor, which was giving us more or less EUR 30 million in that statement of account of 2025.

So if I adjust the number and I try to take off this extraordinary one-off income contribution, our EUR 208.2 million net profit of 2026 is, in fact, 13% more than the figure of last year. So as Luca Mirabelli entitled our presentation, Anima is quietly and very silently keeping on setting positive records as far as P&L is concerned.

I will take you to Page #3, if you allow me, just very shortly to tell you that the structure that you see is more or less the same. The only difference that we can quote compared to the last time we presented the numbers to you is the shareholder participation in Castello, the shareholders' capital. Castello is now owned at 100% because we purchased the last 20% from Oaktree during the summer was during the month of June, beginning of July, if my memory is correct. This was the normal exercise of an agreement that we had. We had a put agreement with them, and we decided to realize this operation. So now Anima Holding is 100% holding all the structure which are operational, which I remind you is Anima SGR, which is the bread and butter asset management operation in Italy, Kairos, which remains asset management and wealth management practice of excellence in our market and in which I will quote you later on what we have been doing in the recent months, which has proven so far quite successful.

And we have this alternative pool of alternative assets, which is Anima Alternative mainly specialized in private debt and Castello SGR that you know is mainly active in the real estate business. The total AUM that we manage today is EUR 208.2 billion in which we have in this EUR 208 billion, EUR 1 billion of the activity of the family office activity and EUR 1 billion of the advisory on the life insurance activity, which is quite important for us.

I will suggest to go to Page 9, just to briefly enter the P&L structure, which is the most relevant things so far, in which you have in the first column the detailed numbers of the first 9 months compared to the same 9 months of the previous year. Total revenues stood at EUR 408 million, as I was quoting you before, 11% more than that. Of course, performance fee is contributing with the biggest part of the pie, which was -- thank you, we were able to capitalize of good financial market conditions, especially in the first part of this year, which was quite satisfactory so far. But it's also worth mentioning that we have 5% more on the normal revenues, management fees and other income, which is plus 5% compared to last year.

As I was mentioning earlier, total expenses are exactly at the same level of last year with 2 major differences. The first one is the optimization of the cost. General expenses is in the range of 10%. We were able to save more or less -- a bit less than EUR 4 million compared to last year. And we have a little bit more of personnel cost, HR cost, that is mainly due for the accrual for the bonuses for the investment teams who were able to provide us with the high level of performance fee that we were able to record on the first part of this 2026. So EUR 408 million, less EUR 116.2 million of total expenses take us to an EBITDA, which is 16% more than last year, in less than EUR 292 million. You will see in the next line, not necessarily the nonrecurring costs, which are, let's say, less interesting, but the EUR 34 million of other income, which was the contribution of last year that I was quoting as a one-off that, of course, this year, we unfortunately do not have in our P&L, depreciation and amortization, and we reached a level of a bit less than EUR 255 million of EBIT plus 6% than last year, net financial income plus the dividends that we received from M Paschi.

And of course, we arrive at profit before taxation, which is 6% more than last year, EUR 198.5 million. We pay our taxes we accrue what we are due to pay for our taxation, and we reached a net income of EUR 208.2 million, which is 4% last year. And as I was saying to you at the beginning of this presentation, is 13% more adjusted for the nonrecurring items that we were able to record last year. Those are the most important things wanted to quote for you.

I will take you to Slide #5 of this short presentation. because it is important to make a comment on our weighted average performance of our RM. And this is probably the same story every time when we record good financial market conditions, especially on the equity side because if the Italian industry is growing at 4.5%, 4.25% more or less year-to-date, we are a bit less than that. We are a bit less than 4%, 3.9%. And this is basically due to our RM structure that as you can see on the right-hand side of Page #5, we have 10% more on the bond side, and we have 9-point something less of equity exposure for vanilla equity exposure, which, of course, is explaining the difference in -- as far as our performance is concerned.

I will not comment Page 4. I will take eventually later on some questions should you have eventually some, but this is the usual breakdown of our total assets. But I think it's more interesting for you to have a look on Page #6. Page #6 is the net flows per asset class. And the third quarter, as we were mentioning, we were able to record positive inflows and we were also able for our standard to record equity funds inflows, which for us is a quite substantial, let's say, happening, and this is the reason because we quoted for you. But what is most important is that our observator Anima gives us the idea that investor sentiment in spite of all what we read on the papers is maintaining -- is more or less stable and also giving some sign of improvement, which is something that let us think for the better for the quarter to come and the months to come year-end. This is probably also due to the fact that we were having some target date funds, which were expiring.

And so our distributors were able to convince our customers to have an additional flavor of equity market in the portfolio. Page 7 is giving you the precise answer on what I was quoting at the beginning that in spite of the fact that our net inflows remains, let's say, if we make the exception of Etica SGR, quite close to 0 at the end of the fact year-to-date. The major part of the outflows has been recorded and registered on the lower profitability scale. And this is the thing which help us to provide solid, robust P&L numbers in spite of the fact that our OM have been suffering during 2026. Fund user, retail customer, pension funds and of course, also a little bit on help of the duplication of the wrapping is also giving us a good help in order to provide the numbers that I was briefly commenting before that.

Page 8 is a bit of confirmation of what we were quoting a few minutes ago, EUR 774 million is the retail net inflows, which is giving us a confirmation of what's happening on the, let's say, the sentiment and the feeling of the retail investor, which for us still remain a good indicator of the mass market sentiment, and this is something, which hopefully we are able. We hope to be able to capitalize on the months to come. Page 9, we have already commented. If you see Page 10 and Page 11, you have the split and the drill down of the revenues by quarter divided between recurring fees, placement fees and other income, which, of course, is giving you almost EUR 160 million of this quarter, which is the highest number we have been able to record so far at least since a certain number of year. This number are not taking into account the performance fee that I was explaining you a few moments ago.

So I think that more favorable asset mix, good quality, of course, control, trying to in-source as much as we can of the revenues that we let outside our perimeter are helping us to provide the number that I was mentioning to you. On Page 11, you have the split company by company between fixed and variable salary of Anima, Castello, Kairos. And I would say that the number is very similar to the quarter of last year. So unless you do not have particular questions to be asked of particular issues, I will not comment in further details. Of course, we were able to recruit a certain number of person since the beginning of the year. And this, of course, has been able also to provide us a good level of backup that we are going to display in the months to come.

It's probably worth commenting Page 12 and Page 13, which is the outlook of the net financial position. Net financial position is giving us a net cash of EUR 714.7 million. At the moment that we are talking with you, this number is less than that because at last week on October 23, we have been repaying the bond which was maturing at the end of October in 2026 and which was accounting for EUR 284 million. So the real number that you see today is EUR 74.7 million, less EUR 284 million because, of course, we decreased our debt and we lower our cash position because we were able to fully reimburse this obligation without recurring to any financing and so on. Accrued interest expenses, of course, is the cost of the bonds. IFRS 16 is waiting for 17 and something million put options related to [indiscernible], which is a company related to Castello activity and in 2025 account for a bit less than EUR 5 million and other payable is not worth mentioning particularly.

We have cash and equivalent at the time that was -- the page was prepared of EUR 675 million. And of course, the securities are mainly related to the stake that we still have in Monte dei Paschi, which, of course, is up of EUR 140 million more or less compared to the figure of last year at the end of last year, the position was worth EUR 165 million is worth today EUR 181 million and very likely is going to be replaced with a smaller stake that we are going to have in Intesa Sanpaolo Group when the OP is going to be completed. Page 13 is the net return on liquidity by quarter, not too much to be said about that. We have our own portfolio of investment in the company, which is in the numbers that you can see, we have a bit of interest income.

We have been of financial margin, which is the less the cost we pay. And we have the red part of EUR 2.2 million is the accrued value of our investment in our own funds, mainly the illiquid part and the private markets investment that we have for our own account. Page 14. Page 14 is just -- we would like to give you a flavor of what we are going to do in the quarters to come. We are going to develop further our alternative pool I was mentioning to you, we have Castello, which is real estate, Anima Alternative, direct lending and private debt. And it is very likely Anima Alternative and Banco BPM Invest SGM, which is an SG structure belonging 100% to Banco BPM who is mainly investing in funds of funds into the private market space and is accounting for a bit more than EUR 1 billion, EUR 1.2 billion, if my memory is correct, is going to be merged with Anima Alternative.

So we are going to have a bit more of market capability and market placement capability. One is more on the private debt, the other is more on the private equity side. And I think that we will make a lot of sense without making any overlap and any major issues related to this extraordinary operation.

Let me go to the conclusion, which are very well stated on Page 15. I think that we have not been particularly advantaged in the last weeks and the last months since, as you know, we are more a fixed income house and the raise of interest rates have been not helping us as far as performance are concerned. But I mean, we -- the favorable -- more favorable asset mix give us 18 basis points of margin on our assets, which is quite good. We were able to control our cost and to increase the other income part of the P&L. And this has been, of course, helping us. And as I was mentioning to you, in spite of the fact that we've been able to recruit 15 more human resources as a group, general expenses and total operating costs are lower in the last year. And this, of course, is something that has been particularly appreciated by our Board of Directors and by the capability to deliver a strong net profit.

Of course, the appreciation of a couple of million from our investment or investment in our alternative space is convincing us that what we have been doing has been doing in the correct way. And I think that even if we are facing some headwinds, I think that our business model is proving to be quite steady and quite robust even in a context which, of course, remains with a few question marks on the horizon. But of course, we are going to face them, and we are going to confirm that this business model is proving quite substantial, efficient and quite good in order to record good results in the quarters to come.

I will stop it here, if Mr. Mirabelli agrees, and I will hand it over to him.

Of course, I agree. I paid for that. And please, before we give the room to the Q&A session, just a minor note. Last time, some of you had issues in formulating questions. Please pay close attention to the instructions on how to ask questions. And if all else fails, feel free to drop me an e-mail or a WhatsApp. We do care about your questions. Please, Rebecca, go ahead.

Thank you, Luca. Thank you to the speakers today. [Operator Instructions]

So the first question today comes from Alberto Villa.

I have a few. One is related to the incoming offer by Intesa that will start in a few weeks. I know it's probably early days, but can you give us an indication of your posture towards the offer? And so let us know if you have already in mind what to do. You have already discussed eventually with the Board what would be the stance of the company once the offer is live.

And if you decide to tender, there will be a cash component and a share component linked to that is if you have any thoughts about what to do eventually the shares you will get [Technical Difficulty] in the future. Related to this if you want in the communications about what you want considering the past [Technical Difficulty]. The thoughts that they thought -- another question is on the net inflow for October. If you can give us any color on what to expect from the -- and finally, I understand you are not within the companies that are hit by the increase in tax rate by the government, but...

The quality of the sound is very bad, Alberto. We heard a lot of noise.

Okay. Sorry about that. I like to reformulate or you understood the previous question?

No, I understood that you were asking about the flavor of the month for October, if my understanding is correct.

The inflows, yes. And finally, if you have any thoughts about the package of measures presented by the government, if they can have an impact on your business. I'm talking about in particular.

So I try to give you the answer point by point and my colleague, the group CFO and our other colleague would eventually intervene if they could add additional details.

As far as the first question is concerned, the answer is we haven't take a formal decision yet. We still have 1.6% of the capital of Monte dei Paschi. And if we have made our calculation in the correct way, we are going to have the equivalent of 0.3%, if my memory is correct, probably a bit less than that of Intesa Sanpaolo capital. This, of course, is -- could eventually give us also a certain amount of cash, which is in the order of EUR 40 million, if my memory is correct, probably more than that EUR 60 million, sorry, I made a mistake. But formal decision to tender or not to tender has not yet been taken by the Board of Anima Holding.

Second question, MPS distribution contract. I would say that we have a contract with MPS, which is going to expire in 2030. And I have been raised and educated then contracts are underwritten to be respected. So I hope and we are working to make the contracts to be respected. This is the idea. To be fully transparent with you, we still have to understand how is going to be the split between the retail banking operation that apparently are going to be retained by Intesa Sanpaolo and the retail banking operation, which are going to be passed to the world. And this, of course, will make an additional difference for us. But of course, we are working on this file. We are working with our legal department. We are working with the operational department. We are also working with Banco BPM, which is our major shareholder in order to establish the more success position as possible that is going to be related to the final offer and the final result of Intesa Sanpaolo taking over Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

On the October numbers, we have a flag which is not yet completely defined. We still are facing some small outflows, but we are, let's say, still waiting to understand if in the institutional space, we are going to have some numbers positive. And as far as the flavor of P&L is concerned, I think that we are going to have probably a normal months without major contribution, I would say, of extraordinary performance income so far.

Last but not least, you asked me about the taxation issue. My understanding is that after the date that we are answering and talking together are not going to be impacted by the additional request of taxation from the government. On the [ profit ] tax, I am probably not in the right position to give you a sentiment. I'm not convinced it is going to be a major issue, but of course, it's something that is going to do a little bit of noise. I don't know if one of my colleagues wants to elaborate further on this tax issue. Okay. I hope I answered your question, Alberto.

So thank you, Alberto, for your question. We will now give the word to Elena Perini.

Okay. Perfect. So I've got 2 questions. The first one is about your margins, which were good in this quarter, in particular. If you can elaborate on how you believe you are convinced that they are sustainable. And the second question is about the outlook on performance fees, which were quite strong in the first and second quarter and then lower in the third quarter. So what can we expect -- what can you see in this month of October? And what can we expect for this fourth quarter?

I try to answer, and my colleagues will intervene and add on additional details if necessary. Our margin sustainable? My answer is, should we imagine that we keep more or less the same asset mix and we keep on with the same innovation in terms of products, I think that 18 basis points is probably a number that sounds reasonable to me, sounds reasonable to me.

Now of course, this kind of numbers depends very much on financial market condition and the capability of the distributors to accept our value proposition in terms of product innovation, in terms of mix of products, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We -- I give you an example to try to be as clear as possible, we are going to do a product with Banco BPM in the months to come, which is going to be a buildup of multi-asset activity, which allow us to probably maintain the level of marginality that we have been quoting so far. Now of course, if financial markets are going to record a major correction and the appetite for the risk is going to decrease by definition, will be very challenging to maintain 18 basis point as far as our margin is concerned.

What is the outlook for performance fee? The outlook for performance fees, at least in the short term seems to me [ so manifest ] quite challenging. And I'm going to wait my words. You know that we go on a high basis. And since interest rates went up, our performance of the bulk of the fixed income-driven products, of course, has been recording a negative markdown. Consequently, I think we need a certain amount of weeks or a bit of months in order to be able to be closer to the level that is going to allow us to be able to record and retain some performance fees.

So this is what I will tell you right now. Of course, the last days since we -- as you can easily imagine, we look at this number very closely. Let's imagine that we are going to have a couple of good weeks in financial markets in which spreads are going to decrease, interest rates are going down, of course, by present quote has to be reconsidered. But remain prudent, we remain humble. And so we consider that the biggest part of the performance fee is already in our pocket, is already in our numbers, and we do not expect major contribution for the end of this 2026.

I don't know if Marco, Gianmaria or Enrico, you have something to add on that?

So thank you, Elena, for your questions. We now have a question in the chat from Gian Luca Ferrari. He actually has 3 questions, so I will read them out. His first question is, can we have more details on the efficiency initiatives on other revenues and G&A expenses? Can we have some examples? His second question is, what's the mix of the 660 retail inflows in 3Q, target maturity, equity, fixed income funds? And his last question is, any guidance for performance fees at year-end?

Okay. I will answer question #3 because I've already answered to Elena, and I will hand it over for question one on general expenses. And question 2, general expenses. Maybe, Marco, I appreciate if you could give a contribute and maybe I ask Gianmaria for question number #2.

Marco Pogliani, Group CFO. Thank you, Saverio. Regarding efficiencies on general expenses, we did some job on efficiencies on our main outsourcers. So the decrease in general expenses is something we can say it's going to be recorded even in the next month and next year. So these efficiencies are something that we are going to record even next year.

Regarding the mix of the net flows of the quarter, I think we can have a closer look at the number and give you the answer to Luca after the call.

So thank you. Currently, we do not have any questions queued. So we will wait just a few moments to give everyone the opportunity to ask their question. [Operator Instructions]

As there are no further questions, I will now give the word back to the speakers for any final comments before bringing this presentation to a close. Thank you.

Thank you. No final comments. Just a final thank you for those who chose to attend. Our next appointment will be at some point in February, probably 2027, for the full year results. And I'm looking forward to speaking to you on that occasion. Again, thank you and have a nice day.

Thank you, everyone. This presentation will now come to a close.

Welcome to everyone connected. Our apologies, my personal apologies for the delay in the start of this conference call due to some technical glitches that we are hopefully worked over. Now let me give the floor to our CEO and General Manager, Saverio Perissinotto, for his comments and illustration of the first quarter results. Go ahead, Saverio.

Yes. Good afternoon to everyone. Very welcome to this conference on the first quarter results of Anima Group. You should have received a short presentation on the title is keeping up the pace. And let me make a very short agenda. We are going to give you a short overview of where we are. We are going to zoom further on the breakdown of OM and the main distribution channels. We will zoom later on, on revenues, cost and financial position, and we will consequently draw some conclusion.

On the first slide, which is Page #2 of your presentation, we have sum up the main highlights of this quarter. Useless to say that market conditions have been quite challenging, and we have been facing some -- especially during the March -- the month of March and end of February, some headwinds. But I mean, at the end of the quarter, we have a situation which remain still quite comfortable. As I was mentioning before, we have faced, let's say, some challenging numbers as far as net inflows are concerned because we were recording the outflow of the mandate of Etica SGR. You know that this is something which was completely foreseen and announced since more than 1 year ago because the first announcement was made in January 2025. But of course, we recorded these outflows during the month of March.

The total revenues are up 5% compared to last quarter '25 at a level of EUR 140.6 million. We were having a total EBITDA adjusted, which is in the range of EUR 101 million. And of course, we are having a net profit, which is EUR 69.9 million adjusted to the extraordinary item that we were cashing in the last quarter of 2025, which, of course, this year, unfortunately, was not present. These are, let's say, the main activities that we are going to further zoom after in the presentation. The other important thing is probably worth mentioning the fact that since we are historically having a net asset allocation, which is less tilted to the equity portion of the portfolio, our results have been a little bit better than the average of the market, which is something which is satisfactory even if the number is, of course, in the negative territory since market condition.

Let me remind you on Page 3, where -- who we are and where we are exactly in our structure. Anima Holding, which is the listed company is controlling 4 major SGR companies. The major part of the assets, of course, is in Anima SGR. Anima SGR, which includes the main distribution contracts with distributors and of course, with the major number of products available to distribution. We are now fully consolidating Kairos SGR. You probably remember that Kairos was acquired quite recently by Anima. Kairos is active in asset management activity and also offers wealth management practice to limited numbers of high net worth individual in Italy. And we -- what we consider having, let's say, an alternative investment unit is the sum of what we do in Anima Alternative, which is mainly active into private credit fields, plus what we do in Castello SGR that you know that Castello SGR is mainly active into the real estate asset management space.

Of course, as I was mentioning at the beginning, we have less than EUR 6 billion in the unit of alternative investment, a little bit more than EUR 10 billion on Kairos. And of course, the largest part of the pie is in Anima SGR, which is something below EUR 188 billion of assets. The total sum of all those assets bring us to the EUR 203.3 billion of total assets. And of course, we have also EUR 800 million of assets under advisory, which are included in this slide. I remind your attention that you probably know that we have 80% equity stake for Castello and is still active a put and call option between Castello and Oaktree, which was the original owner of Castello from which we bought the company 2 years ago, if my memory is correct.

On Slide #4, we give you a very clear representation on how our total assets are split at the end of March. The biggest part of the pie is, as you already know, between the retail, which is waiting for more or less 1/3 of the total assets, 46% are on the institutional and the channel B2B2C, which is mainly the unit-linked related to Poste and to Banco BPM is accounting for 30%. Let's zoom on the retail side. Retail side means for us the main distributors, what we consider being the strategic partners, which, of course, are Banco BPM, which is now having 89% of our company; Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which is accounting for another 28% of this total EUR 65 billion. Credit Agricole, Italy, which is the result of the acquisition of Credit Agricole of Credito Valtellinese with whom we were having a strong distribution agreement. And the balance is between the financial advisers network present in Italy, [ Banca ] [indiscernible] less than 1% and some private bankers and others.

The total amount of this first retail channel is EUR 65 billion, EUR 27 billion is Poste activity funds, exception of the with-profit insurance contract and the unit-linked, which is for 2/3 and 1/3 is insurance unit-linked related to Banco BPM for 90% and 10% is related to the distribution of the same product unit linked to Monte dei Paschi di Siena with AXA. The institutional side is EUR 93.6 billion is mainly with profit insurance contract. The biggest part is, of course, with Poste Italiane, which is having 70%, a bit less than 70% of this EUR 93.6 billion other 12% of with profit contracts, pension funds and fund user is another 12% and the alternative investment we put it in this bracket because this is institutional.

Of course, we have to add 9% of the total asset, which is accounting for EUR 17.5 billion, which is what we call duplication. Duplication, as you know, are the products are -- which invest in retail and institutional classes of Anima products. And of course, the sum of all these channels goes back to the EUR 203.3 billion that we were mentioning before.

Slide #5 is giving you a bigger clearer picture on what I was mentioning at the beginning in the highlights, -- you see the Assogestioni breakdown by category. This, of course, is on average, is having an exposure of a bit more than 1/3 into equity portfolios. And of course, we have to add flexible and balanced portfolio for another quarter, 25% more or less. If we look at the same numbers compared to our average asset allocation of our products, you see that we are 21% in a pure equity, a bit less on the flexible and a bit more on the balanced funds. But this probably is the major reason which explain the difference of better performance compared to the average Italian industry.

Page 6 is, let's say, a slide which, of course, I do not like very much because it's showing you the breakdown in the quarter on the mutual funds. And of course, you can see that bond funds, flexible and equity all recorded negative net asset gathering since the beginning of the year. Of course, we consider that this, let's say, tepid and not very hot attitude in investing into asset class is very much related to the geopolitical situation and what's going on in the Middle East. And of course, this is the main reason that principally is, let's say, cutting confidence into the mind of the retail investors. And this is the first things that we witnessed in this case.

Slide #7 is quite interesting because at the end of the day, is probably this is the reason because even if we are facing negative numbers in -- as far as Assogestioni is concerned. Fortunately, the withdrawal of funds are concentrated on the less profitable bracket of products that we manage. So we face a bit less than EUR 1 billion of outflows coming from with-profit product, which is called insurance with profit. We are facing, of course, of the Etica SGR that we already have mentioned and the wrapping side, as you know, in Italy, we are perceiving -- cashing in only the excess fee compared to the mother fund respectful of the underlying funds when there is the possibility. So at the end of the day, also the wrapping is having a very small impact as far as our profitability is concerned.

I imagine that you could ask me eventually what will be the impact on the profitability of the well-known outflows of related to Etica to give you a number, we expect to have the full impact for the months to come for the totality of the 2026 year, probably having less than EUR 6 million of total impact of the revenues related to this withdrawal of Etica mandate. The other numbers, we have the few numbers of inflows that we have them. We have them fortunately on the retail clients, B2C, the fund user and the part of the institutional mandate with the exception of Etica. I think that Page #8 does not add too much information to what I have already told you in the formal slide. So I will not comment it. I will now go to the elements of the P&L, which are quite interesting in this, as I was telling you at the beginning, still challenging and better environment.

As you can see, total revenues are up 5% compared to the first quarter of 2025, reaching the level of EUR 140.6 million. We have been able to cash in more or less the same level of performance fee of last year, which is in the range of EUR 29 million. And the net revenues with exclusion of the performance fee are up 6% compared to last year, which is quite good because we were capitalizing of the positive market effect, which was at the end of last year and during the month of March. Total costs are 1% less of the same amount of last year in the range of EUR 39.5 million, which is quite good. Our cost income is in the range of 35% -- 35 basis points before performance fees. Of course, if we are able to cash in some performance fees, we are in the range of 28%, which is quite a good number and is worth mentioning.

The EBITDA is following the same, let's say, direction than our revenues, more or less, we are up 7%. And we are, of course, the big difference between last year is the fact that we do not have this year the one-off price adjustment for one of our distributor, which was able to give us result before financial income and taxation of EUR 109 million compared to the EUR 88.6 million that we realized in this year. Income tax -- taxation is in the range of 31% for the quarter. So we have to cut down EUR 27.2 million, and we arrive at a net income accounted net income that, of course, is the number that we consolidate in our quarter of EUR 51.4 million, which is less 14% of the number of last year, which was staying at EUR 71.8 million. But of course, which we consider adjusted for the nonrecurring item, we are up 13% at EUR 69.9 million compared to EUR 61.9 million of last year, which is a quite substantial and positive number, especially according to what we have been living in the first quarter of 2026.

Rapidly going to the split of the revenues by quarter at Page #10, not too much to be told to be honest. Net recurring fees are having the biggest part of the pie, of course, EUR 86.4 million. Net placement fee, which I remind to everyone is the portion of the fees that we are able to keep inside the SGR perimeter, which are distributed by the networks and other income is mainly related to what we are able to negotiate with the depository banks and all this chain related to this activity. Personnel expenses are a bit higher than last year. You can see the color is related by company.

The big difference in the EUR 2 million that you can see the EUR 2 million more compared to last quarter is essentially related to the tail red that are the variable, the bonus provision related to the portion of the performance fees our team were able to cash in the first quarter. So the EUR 6.6 million have to be compared to the EUR 4.6 million of last quarter, which is mainly related to the fact that in this quarter, the performance fees were, let's say, a bit more relevant compared to last year. Not too much to be at as far as Kairos is concerned, which is more or less on the same level and Castello SGR, which is a huge smaller than last year on the variable component.

If we move to Page 12 is a very clear zoom on our consolidated financial position. And you know that we still are paying interest on the 2 bonds, one which is maturing in this October and the one which is maturing in '28, EUR 283 million, the first one and EUR 299 million something, the second one. Of course, we have interest expenses for EUR 6 million, IFRS 16 for EUR 20 million. We have the put and call option cost related to the activity of Castello and the Kairos activity, which is accounting for EUR 20 million, and this give us a position of EUR 630.6 million of debt, which is faced on the other side of the balance sheet with cash and equivalent for EUR 744.7 million. And we have a large portion of securities, which are, of course, the MPS Monte dei Paschi stake at market value, which is a bit less than it was at last -- the year end of 2025 plus, of course, the time deposit that we have.

So this gives us a total cash, which is close to EUR 1.189 billion, and we have a net financial position, so net cash in hand, which is in the EUR 558.3 million compared to last year. Last year, the difference is related to the fact that the value of Monte dei Paschi was a bit more important than it is today as far as market is concerned. Total net return on liquidity by quarter is probably less relevant, but it is, of course, an information that we give you. At the end of the day, in the first quarter, we have nothing to particularly to announce you because our -- the total sum between the pluses and the minus is close to zero between interest expenses and own portfolio result. So I will not stay too long on this slide.

And -- going -- try to draw some conclusions. Of course, I think that the most relevant things that I can tell you is that we do not have particular changes in the business model, in the strategy and in the commercial activity to announce you today. We try to keep, let's say, our road map in a very clear way. As we told you, P&L has been very satisfactory. Performance of the products are okay in a challenging environment. Of course, we expect the next quarters to come to have some rebound in the net asset gathering activity. What we do with Banco BPM, we will start a new commercial activity into the managed accounts, which are, let's say, instructed by Anima but powered by Kairos as we consider having a good attraction as brand in front of the private customer, the retail customer of the Banco BPM.

Of course, we try to propose according to market condition, products that allow the customer gradually to have an exposure into equity market, and this is something which is generally very much appreciated by distributors. And of course, we consider that our priority stay into the commercial space of trying to revitalize the numbers, the negative numbers we have seen with Monte dei Paschi di Siena in the first quarter with Credit Agricole and with the different additional distributors that we have. But the day that we are speaking today, as you know, markets, especially equity markets are back to almost record high, and this is something which is going to help us to factor the high watermark effect. So hopefully and keep our finger crossed, if the situation is going to see, let's say, a better market condition in the months to come, this could be also an opportunity for us.

As I was telling you, we do not expect that the [ outs ] of Etica mandate is not going to have substantial impact on our P&L. We try to remain focused on the pricing that we are able to put on our products with satisfaction with our distributors. And of course, we also will witness in the next quarter a strong dividend, which is going to strengthen our net financial position coming from the stake of the 1.7% equity stake we still have into Monte dei Paschi this year.

I will stay here. I hope to have been able to give you a clear view of what has been our first quarter of 2026. As we told you at the beginning, we entitled this presentation, keeping up the pace because I think we have all the elements to be able to deliver substantial results in our business model and in our business, which, of course, is very much related to what's happening on financial markets and as we were mentioning shortly. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Saverio. And now I would open the line to any questions from the audience. Operator, please help us.

[Operator Instructions]

The first question today comes from [ Andrea Levy ]

I was wondering if you can provide us some detail of the trend of flows in April? And what are you observing, expecting in the current market environment? So how is the macro uncertainty affecting inflows? And second question is clearly quite tough to say, but which trend of performance fees should we expect going on? And a very last one, should we expect some new institutional mandate tenders in the coming months to positively impact the flows?

Okay. Thank you very much for your question, and I will answer this question very clearly. The net inflows of April, I mean, the number will be published later this week because we still wait the last numbers to come in. What I can anticipate to you is that we do not see yet a change of the trend to be very clear and very transparent with you. As far as performance fees are concerned, I mean, your question is very good. It's very sharp. I mean no one has the crystal ball to imagine how markets are going to behave in the months to come. What is relevant for us is the fact that we have to be over our high watermark. And this is something which, of course, one of the preconditions, we are not very far from that. And this is something which makes me, let's say, have a positive and constructive attitude.

Now of course, I have no idea what's going to happen in financial markets in the months to come. But let's see what is important is that should we have the opportunity related to the financial markets, we are going to take this opportunity, and we have to ride it strongly and very firmly and try to deliver the best performance on the sake of our customer and consequently being able to cash in some possible, let's say, performance fee.

As far as institutional mandate standard is concerned, you asked me a question that I have to confess, I do not know by heart how is the calendar of the tenders to come. But we have an institutional mandate team, which is following this very closely and very, let's say, carefully. So I expect that we are going to tender as much as we can. And of course, if our condition will be competitive and according to market standard, I do not see any reason because we are not being positive considered by the institutional investors.

The next question today comes from Alberto Villa.

We cannot hear you Alberto Villa.

Alberto, can you hear us?

We have one question comes from chat. The question is from Elena Perini. Can you please briefly elaborate on your exposure to the private credit? Do you see any risk?

I'm not sure to have listened correctly to the question. The question is regarding private credit, I'm correct?

Correct.

Okay. No, definitely, we can assure Elena Perini, that we do not face any critical point as far as our private credit exposure is concerned. You know that we do not have huge numbers on that, but except that we have 100% of this private credit is Italian lenders related. So we definitely do not consider to face critical point on our private credit exposure. And by the way, since it's 100% into the hands of institutional customers, we do not face any request of withdrawal at all.

Currently, we do not have any question queued, so we'll wait just a few moments.

Okay. As a reminder to Alberto Villa, who might or might not be trying to reconnect and to anyone else who might have questions after the call, the IR contacts are, of course, always at your disposal. I'm just trying to buy some more time. But if we don't have any sign of live from Alberto, we might close the call here as far as we are concerned.

I confirm that currently, we do not have any questions in queue.

Okay. So at this point, we would like to thank everybody who attended, and we'll speak to you on the half year results call in early August.

Thank you very much, everyone, and I look forward to welcoming you on the next conference call. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.