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Good morning. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the doValue First Half 2026 Financial Results Presentation.

[Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Daniele Della Seta, Head of Investor Relations of doValue. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Daniele Della Seta, Head of Investor Relations at doValue. I'm joined by Manuela Franchi, our Group CEO; and Davide Soffietti, our Group CFO, as we present doValue's Q2 2026 financial results.

It is the first quarter to fully reflect the consolidation of coeo. This transformative transaction is already contributing to a stronger growth profile for the group. Manuela will begin with an overview of our performance and the key market dynamics. Davide will then provide a detailed review of the second quarter financial results, cash generation, and financial structure. We will conclude, as usual, with a Q&A session.

Thank you for joining us today. I will now hand over to Manuela.

Good morning, everyone. The first half of 2026 marks an important step in the evolution of doValue. The group is now more diversified across geographies, clients, and credit segments. Digital receivables have become a material part of our revenue and earnings base, while our traditional servicing platform continues to provide scale, visible cash flows, and AI-insulated servicing capabilities.

The half year delivered on the priorities we set out for this phase: growth in digital receivables, profitability, a stronger capital structure, and an established servicing platform. Let me highlight 4 key developments from the first half.

First, digital receivables. The business of coeo continued to deliver strong growth. Revenue increased by 25% year-on-year, supported by 5 million new files onboarded during the period. coeo client base continued to diversify beyond its historical anchor relationship and growth remains ahead of the assumption in our original acquisition case. Second, pro forma group EBITDA, excluding nonrecurring items, reached EUR 121 million. In the second quarter alone, EBITDA grew 21% year-on-year. Profitability benefits from coeo inputs on AI automation, while the doValue business continued to implement disciplined cost actions. Third, we further strengthened our capital structure. The recent refinancing extended our debt maturities and is expected to generate approximately EUR 4 million of annual interest savings while enforcing liquidity and financial flexibility.

The picture of the first half is a group with a faster-growing engine, a more efficient cost base, a longer and cheaper debt structure, and a servicing platform that keeps replenishing itself. That is the base from which we run the second half.

Let's now turn to Page 4, and look more closely at digital receivables. This is the engine of the group next phase of growth and in the first half, it accelerated. Revenue was up 25% year-on-year and EBITDA reached EUR 46 million. The quality of that growth matters as much as the rate. Germany, which is by far our largest market for digital receivables, grew 21% year-on-year. This is scale compounding on an already large base, not a small base effect. And it comes with efficiency, not with headcount. Indeed, new files under the full-time employee were up 21% year-on-year as automation absorbed the additional volume.

Second, diversification is accelerating. Collection revenue from clients other than coeo anchor customers was up 50% year-on-year. Behind that number, there is a complete commercial pipeline. We signed 11 new contracts this year, worth more than EUR 10 million of incremental annualized revenue and around 350,000 new files per year across 6 different sectors: telcos, utilities, insurance, mobility, commerce, and financial services. This is the practical answer to the question of whether the platform can extend beyond this anchor relationship and beyond buy now, pay later. It already is.

Third, a word on the own portfolio, which is the part of this business that is least familiar to our investors. We hold the receivable portfolio with an expected market value of EUR 120 million, EUR 140 million, with an estimated remaining collection value of EUR 170 million. Let me clear on where this is going. The disposal process on this portfolio is progressing, and we expect to complete it by end of this year. At that point, the group will be fully asset-light, a pure servicing and receivable management platform with no balance sheet exposure to the receivable we've managed.

Two points are worth making while that process is completed. First, this portfolio is limited in size relative to our balance sheet, and it turns into cash very quickly. EUR 61 million of collection in 6 months against EUR 120 million, EUR 140 million of market value speaks for itself. To give you a measure of how quickly this portfolio converts into cash, receivables purchased in the second Q have already returned 20% of the amount invested during the same quarter.

Second, for as long as we own it, the group retains that cash generation. So the time to completion is not a cost to us. It has cash flow in the meanwhile. We will complete the sale on the right terms, and we still expect that to be within this year.

Let's now turn to Page 5, which shows how that growth is actually produced, deepening automation in our core markets and scale in the newer ones. Let's start with automation.

Total automation in Germany reached 77% at the end of June, up from 69% in December, 8 percentage points in 6 months. In practice, cAI, our proprietary AI platform handled around 1.3 million interactions on a fully automated basis in the half, 400,000 more than in the second half of the year and more than 1 million files were closed with no human involvement at all, up 23% from 854,000 a year ago.

The reason we spend time on the numbers is that they translate directly into unit economics. Human-assisted contacts per file were down 24% versus the second half of '25. The same file now requires materially less human effort, which is what lowers our cost to collect. The automation is moving up the complexity curve, not just handling simple cases. By June, 62% of cAI-related e-mails were processed straight through against 41% in January and 75% of documents against 49%. This is deployed technology with measurable outputs in production environment, not a pilot.

Now the second half of the page, scale outside Germany. Revenue in the markets outside our core grew 28% to EUR 50.6 million, and the newest platform are the fastest growing. In the Nordics, revenue reached EUR 15.6 million, up 83%, with Sweden at EUR 11.6 million. Norway went from EUR 0.1 million to EUR 1.9 million and turned profitable in the second part of the year of operation.

In DACH, outside Germany, revenue was EUR 12 million, up 52%, with Austria at EUR 7.6 million, and Switzerland at EUR 3 million, delivering its first profitable half year. Finland has launched and is generating its first revenue, and Denmark is next, which will bring the group to 14 countries. The pattern here is what matters more than any single country. The greenfield playbook is repeatable. It requires very limited capital and it reaches profitability quickly.

Finally, the box at the bottom of the page, which is the part I would draw your attention to because it's new. Cross-selling between doValue and coeo has moved from intentions to signed contracts in both directions. doValue signed and is already operational on a new mandate with German banks. Relevant because banks carry around EUR 50 billion of nonperforming loans, a stock up 67% since 2020 in a servicing market with no skilled incumbent.

In the other direction, coeo signed contracts with payment and e-commerce operator in Spain and Italy, where our operation is now active, and Greece follows in September, also with the first deployment of the cAI voice agent in a doValue market.

Let's now turn to new business on Page 6, where I want to start with the single most important fact on this page. We have already delivered the new business target of our business plan. Since the start of the plan, we have won EUR 27 billion of new business against the '24-'26 target of EUR 24 billion. The target is achieved 6 months before the end of the plan. And in the first half alone, we added EUR 3.1 billion of GBV made up of EUR 1.5 billion of new mandates and EUR 1.6 billion of forward flows. On top of that, secondary sales amounted to an overall EUR 0.5 billion, of which EUR 0.2 billion being the first-ever sale of reperforming loans in Greece occurring in the first quarter.

By region, the picture is uneven. Spain had a strong half, adding around EUR 450 million of new business from 2 banking institutions. One in new relationship, the other is the shifted contract perimeter with Santander. Italy signed around EUR 200 million of new mandates with forward flows from Banco BPM, and BPER growing 46%, mostly driven by the contribution of Banca Popolare di Sondrio within the BPER perimeter. In the Hellenic region, activity was visibly softer in the second quarter as market participants adopted a wait-and-see approach while the Katseli framework evolves.

Now a word on the quality of this new business because volume alone would be a misleading way to read this page. The market is more complex, particularly in Italy, where collection has been softer and the flow of new business across the market has slowed in 2026. Looking at the second half, we expect several portfolios to come to market from secondary transactions in the coming months. For doValue, although with a lower collection rate, this is generally new business, new mandates, new investor relationship, and incremental GBV under management.

Before turning to guidance, let's look at the market backdrop on Page 7. The European NPE market has evolved into a new equilibrium, underpinning more than EUR 2 billion of addressable servicing revenue across our core footprint over '26, '29 period. This is not the same market we had 10 years ago when banks were dealing with very large legacy stocks at the peak of the NPL cycle. The market is smaller than the peak NPL market of the past, but more disciplined, more returning, and more sustainable. And this is where the role of the servicer becomes systemic.

The second message is equally important. The opportunity is no longer limited to banking NPEs. Technology and AI are making it economically viable to serve adjacent asset classes that were historically less profitable under a traditional human servicing market. This is exactly where the combination with coeo becomes strategically powerful.

doValue brings scale, licenses, institutional relationships, and deep servicing expertise. coeo brings a highly automated AI-enabled platform for small ticket, high-volume receivables. Together, we can address both sides of the market, the new equilibrium in banking NPE, and emerging opportunities in the other credit and receivables segments.

On the basis of this strategic backdrop, let me turn to what this means for our full year 2026 outlook. Across our markets, performance remained differentiated. Italy continues to face low primary NPE volumes as bank default ratio remain near historical lows. The aging stock of existing portfolio and the slower-than-expected expansion of value-added services are adding to the challenge.

Greece is performing well, although regular development may delay some secondary market transactions, while Spain continues to progress, but as yet not on optimal scale. Most importantly, coeo continues to deliver double-digit growth, ahead of expectation and structurally less exposed to the NPE cycle. Taking these 3 elements together, we believe our full year 2026 pro forma EBITDA guidance of approximately EUR 300 million remains within reach, assuming that coeo continues to perform broadly in line with the first half and the group is able to adapt its cost base to the new market reality, both areas where management is strongly focused on and has delivered.

On leverage, delivery remains dependent on 2 key drivers: completion of the coeo receivable portfolio sale, and the expected normalization of NPL working capital, with encouraging trends already visible in the second quarter. At the same time, the strategic direction of the group is clear. We are building a broader, more diversified and more technology-enabled platform, with digital receivables providing an additional engine of growth, and the servicing franchise continue to generate scale and cash flow.

This give us confidence in the group ability to navigate the current market environment and deliver shareholder value beyond 2026. You will hear more on this on the next -- 18th of October in our Capital Markets Day.

Now I will hand over to Davide, for a detailed financial overview of the quarter.

Thank you, Manuela, and good morning, everyone. Let's start on Page 9, with the second quarter financial highlights. The second quarter results provide the first full quarter view of the larger group, including coeo. Gross revenue increased by 3% year-on-year to EUR 181 million, primarily reflecting the first time contribution from coeo. Net revenue increased by 17% to EUR 148 million. The difference between gross and net revenue growth reflects the different operating model of coeo, where a large proportion of cost is recorded through outsourcing fees. Outsourcing fees, therefore, represented 18% of gross revenue in the quarter.

EBITDA, excluding nonrecurring items, increased by 21% to EUR 58 million, supported by contribution and resilient profitability in the Hellenic region. The EBITDA margin remained broadly stable at 32% compared with 34% in the second quarter of last year. This reflects the contribution from coeo, resilient stability and operating flexibility in the Hellenic region, partly offset by the weaker performance in Italy.

Below EBITDA, net income, excluding nonrecurring items, was EUR 3 million, broadly flat year-on-year. Higher EBITDA more than offset the effect from the negative items arising from the consolidation of coeo, including PPA amortization and the interest expense associated with the bond issued to finance the acquisition.

On completeness, on first half pro forma basis, assuming coeo has been consolidated from the beginning of the year, EBITDA, excluding nonrecurring items would have reached EUR 121 million, while group net income, excluding nonrecurring items, would have remained positive at EUR 16 million. Both these figures are relevant because they are coherent with guidance figures.

Finally, coeo's own portfolio generated EUR 31 million of cash collection in the quarter and EUR 61 million in the first 6 months. These collections relate to principal and that fall outside EBITDA, while the related collection fees are recognized in the gross revenue. We do not think cash EBITDA is the most appropriate metric to assess the operating performance as our model remains fundamentally servicing. However, while the portfolio is still on balance sheet, if you want to look at EBITDA on a more comparable basis with debt purchases, the information provided on portfolio cash collection for investments and related accounting treatment gives you the elements to do so.

Overall, the second quarter showed a stronger scale and broader earnings base of the enlarged group. It also shows that this diversification into a growing market provides a meaningful buffer, although not yet entirely offsetting the softer dynamics affecting part of the traditional servicing business.

Let us now move to Page 10, where we show how significantly the group's revenue mix has evolved over the past 12 months. Digital collection already represent 31% of group revenue compared with 43% from NPL servicing. One year ago, NPL servicing accounted for 64% of group revenue and value-added services was 17%. Today, the enlarged group has significantly more balanced mix, 43% in NPL servicing, 31% digital collection, 12% non-NPL servicing and 14% value-added services. This is more than a perimeter effect. It represents a structural change in the composition of the group.

Digital collections provide the group with a meaningful exposure to structurally growing markets, supported by the continued expansion of consumer credit, digital commerce, and recurring outsourced receivables management across financial and nonfinancial clients. They also significantly expand our presence in Central and Northern Europe. At the same time, specialist servicing remains a sizable and highly relevant franchise.

NPL servicing is still the largest component of group revenues, and it continues to provide scale, long-standing client relationship, specialist state management capabilities, and cash generation across Southern Europe. The strategic value in the larger group comes from combining these 2 platforms. We retain our leadership expertise in complex servicing while adding a digital collection business with a broader exposure across geographies, clients, and sectors.

The more balanced revenue mix reduces the group's exposure to individual NPL market dynamics while retaining a sizable and resilient credit franchise. This is particularly important in the current market environment where traditional servicing trends remain different across countries. Such trends do not remove the near-term impact of the softer dynamics currently affecting Italy. However, the contribution from digital collection is already mitigating part of that pressure and, over time, should make the group structurally less dependent on any single geography or sales cycle. Overall, the slide shows a group that is materially more diversified than 12 months ago, still anchored in specialist servicing, but now complemented by digital collection platform that already represents almost 1/3 of revenues and provides an additional engine for future growth and earnings resilience.

Moving to Page 11, we can see how the broader revenue base translated in EBITDA. EBITDA, excluding nonrecurring items, increased by 21% year-on-year from EUR 48 million to EUR 58 million, primarily reflecting the first-time contribution from coeo and the resilient profitability of the Atlantic region. The EBITDA margin remained broadly stable at 32% compared with 34% in the second quarter of last year. This demonstrates the resilience of the group despite the pressure affecting business.

On a first half pro forma basis, assuming that coeo has been consolidated from the beginning of the year, EBITDA excluding nonrecurring items reached EUR 121 million, up 25% compared to the first half 2025, with margin of 33%. The first message is scale. The larger group is now operating from a materially broader mix base. Q2 EBITDA increased to EUR 68 million and first half pro forma EBITDA to EUR 120 million.

The second message is margin resilience. EBITDA margin was 32% in Q2, and 33% on a first half pro forma basis. This reflects the contribution from coeo growing as increasingly automated platform together with the operating flexibility of servicing business. At the same time, we are not ignoring the trend impact of the traditional servicing business.

Italy remains affected by softer collection, lower primary NP volumes, and a lower contribution from value-added services. Proactive cost mitigation measures are already underway to align the cost base to the current volume trends. Spain and the Hellenic region continues providing support to the group's profitability. In particular, the Hellenic region remained resilient despite softer market activity while Spain continued to benefit from cost discipline as the business progresses towards optimal scale.

Moving on to Page 12. I would like to spend a moment on coeo's own portfolio, which is an important component of both the cash generation profile of the business and our transition towards an asset-light model. The first point is that this is a fast turning and cash-generative portfolio. At the end of June, the portfolio had an estimated market value of approximately EUR 120 million to EUR 140 million and estimated remaining collection of approximately EUR 170 million over 120 months. These figures refer to expected principal collection and therefore, exclude the collection fees generated by the platform.

The portfolio comprises approximately 8 million files and generated EUR 60 million of principal cash collection in the first half of 2026. This collection were recorded for the benefit of doValue balance sheet and demonstrate the speed at which the portfolio converts into cash. The rapid conversion is also visible in the most recent investment. Of the EUR 48 million reinvested in portfolio purchases during the second quarter, 20% had already been collected by the end of June. This is the defining feature of coeo's portfolio model. Capital is deployed into granular receivables that start converting to cash very quickly.

The second point is strategic. Our objective is not to maintain a permanently capital-intensive portfolio business. As announced at the time of the acquisition, our strategy is to divest the full investment portfolio and maintain the group as an asset-light servicing platform. We continue to target completion of the disposal within 2026, preserving coeo servicing and technology capabilities while removing the balance sheet intensity associated with the portfolio ownership. Until the disposal is completed, the portfolio remains a temporary but meaningful source of cash generation.

The final point is how investors should think about the portfolio while it remains on our balance sheet. From an operating perspective, this is not strategic departure from doValue servicing-led model. It is a portfolio that come with coeo. It generates significant cash while we own it and it is expected to be sold as part of our transition to the full asset-light structure. At the same time, as we discussed earlier, the related cash collection and investments are important for understanding cash generation and comparability with debt purchaser. We do not intend to manage the group around debt purchasing metric, but we are providing the information needed to bridge that view if analysts choose to do so. The key message is therefore straightforward. The portfolio is fast-growing, cash generative and on track for disposal, while the strategic destination of the group remain an asset-light servicing and receivable management platform.

Let's now move to Page 13, where I will take you through the main items between EBITDA and group net income. EBITDA excluding nonrecurring items was EUR 57.6 million in the second quarter compared to EUR 47 million in prior year. Nonrecurring items within EBITDA amounted to EUR 7.4 million, mainly linked to the acquisition of coeo. After these items, reported EBITDA was EUR 50 million, up EUR 5.5 million year-on-year.

Below EBITDA, depreciation, amortization, net write-downs provision and adjustments amounted to EUR 32.6 million, an increase of EUR 7.1 million year-on-year that mainly reflects the consolidation of coeo and the related preliminary purchase price allocation. As a result, EBIT was EUR 17.5 million compared with EUR 20.1 million in Q2 2025.

Net financial expenses and net gain and losses on financial assets amounted to EUR 16 million, increasing by EUR 2.6 million year-on-year. This reflects the cost of the bond and RCF used to finance temporary holding of coeo receivable portfolio. This results in EBT of EUR 1.5 million. Income taxes amounted to EUR 9.3 million, slightly higher than the previous period, reflecting the contribution from profitable entities across the group, including coeo.

Minority interest amounted to EUR 3.7 million, increasing by approximately EUR 1.1 million year-on-year and relates to the group's partnership with BPER, Banco BPM, and Eurobank. Group net income, excluding nonrecurring items was positive at EUR 3.3 million compared with EUR 2.8 million of Q2 2025. On a first half pro forma basis, assuming coeo has been consolidated from the beginning of the year, EBITDA excluding items would have been EUR 120 million, while ordinary net income would have been EUR 16 million. The main takeaway, net income, excluding nonrecurring, is growing just after the first quarter of full consolidation of coeo, proving the EPS-accretive nature of the transaction.

Moving to Page 14. The key message is the significant improvement in cash generation during the second quarter and importantly, the full reversal of the working capital absorption recorded in Q1. Starting from the reported EBITDA, the quarter also includes a EUR 2.4 million noncash IFRS line item related to the coeo receivable portfolio and EUR 31.4 million cash collection from coeo on the portfolio, recorded for the balance sheet.

Net working capital contributed EUR 38.9 million in the second quarter, fully recovering the absorption recorded in Q1, in line with our expectations. This compares with a positive working capital contribution of EUR 3.4 million for the first half, confirm the first quarter absorption was temporary and fully reversed in Q2, and that the Q1 absorption was driven by timing rather than a structural deterioration in the group's cash conversion.

Other assets and liabilities absorbed EUR 39 million. This includes recurring cash items such as IFRS 16 payments and redundancy costs, as well as specific temporary and nonrecurring effects. In particular, the quarter includes an approximately EUR 8 million delayed cash impact related to the VAT dispute in Greece with the Greek Tax Authority. Following the ruling, we expect this amount to be fully recovered, making it only a shift in timing.

The line also includes EUR 12 million cash mismatch, the 100% payment of the 2025 management incentive plan versus the 6-month accrual for 2026. After this movement and EUR 7 million of CapEx, cash flow from operations reached EUR 76 million compared with EUR 33 million in the second quarter of the last year. Adjusting for transaction costs and temporary VAT effect in Greece, recurring operating cash flow was EUR 90 million.

After taxes and financial charge of EUR 20.9 million, recurring free cash flow amounted to EUR 68 million in the quarter. This demonstrates the strong cash generation capacity of the larger group once temporary and transaction items are separated from the underlying performance. Reported free cash flow was EUR 64.1 million compared with EUR 19 million in Q2 '25.

Below free cash flow, the reported cash flow before debt repayment was significantly affected by 2 clearly identifiable items. The first was the EUR 38.5 million net cash impact from the acquisition. The second was EUR 48.2 million investment in customer receivables, reflecting strong file intake supporting future collection revenue. As discussed in the previous page, this portfolio investment has rapid cash conversion profile. Near 20% of the amount invested during the quarter has already been collected by the end of June.

The reported cash flow before debt repayment was therefore negative by EUR 370.8 million, but this figure is not representative of the group's underlying cash generation as it includes the acquisition consideration from coeo and the portfolio investment. The key takeaway from this page that recurring cash generation remained strong, while the working capital absorption recorded at the end of Q1 was fully reversed during the second quarter. This cash generation capacity together with the planned portfolio disposal remains an important support for the group's deleveraging trajectory.

Let us now move to Page 16, and look at the group financial structure and deleveraging trajectory. The key message on this page is that the reported leverage at the end of June reflects the completion of the acquisition, the related financing and dividend payments made during the first half. Reported net debt was EUR 855 million at June 2026, corresponding to reported net leverage of 3.1x. This includes the acquisition debt, the cash impact of the transaction, and the dividend payments, which were not included within the leverage guidance.

The slide also shows a pro forma view excluding the coeo receivable back book. On that basis, net debt would have been approximately EUR 722 million and leverage approximately 2.6x, comparable to the 2.2x guidance dividend or 2.3x post-'25 dividend paid in May 2026.

Liquidity remains solid. The group had approximately EUR 168 million of cash on balance sheet at June 2026, after the effect of the financing action completed after quarter, and further strengthened the maturity profile and financial flexibility. Our outstanding bonds are currently trading at around 5% yield to maturity, among the lowest levels in the sector, while the average cost of debt is now approximately 5.9%, following the recent refinancing.

Importantly, both Fitch and Standard & Poor's have confirmed the group's BB rating with a stable outlook, reflecting the stronger business profile and expectation that deleverage remains a clear management priority. The path to the leverage is supported by 3 elements: recurring cash generation, the planned sale of the receivables, and the lower financial cost following the refinancing. We have also completed important action on the liability side of the balance sheet.

As you can see on Page 16, in July, we put in place EUR 330 million of new bank facility comprising of EUR 150 million term loan and [ EUR 80 ] million revolving credit facility, replacing the previous facilities. The refinancing followed the EUR 61 million of our 2031 senior secured notes. The proceeds were primarily used to prepay EUR 50 million of existing term loan.

The new financing package delivers 3 clear benefits. First, it reduces our financial financing costs. The new blended cost of debt is approximately 5.9%, broadly in line with the trading level of our 2031 senior secured notes. We expect the refinancing to generate approximately EUR 4 million of annual interest savings, providing direct support to cash generation.

Second, it materially improves our maturity profile. The maturity of the term loan has been extended from October 2029 to July 2031, while the revolving credit facility has been extended from October 2027 to July 2031. The term loan will begin amortizing from the second year with approximately 40% remaining value at the final maturity. The group, therefore, has no material refinancing wall before 2030.

Third, the new facilities provide greater covenant flexibility and additional financial headroom while maintaining a diversified funding structure across bank financing and capital market instruments. Following this transaction, our funding structure comprises EUR 330 million of bank facilities, EUR 410 million of senior secured notes due in 2031, and EUR 300 million of notes due in 2030.

These actions do not change our focus on deleveraging. They make the path more efficient by reducing interest costs, extending maturities, and strengthening financial flexibility. The group, therefore, enters the second half with a broader earnings base, a stronger funding structure, and clear financial priorities, delivering recurring cash generation, complete portfolio disposal, and continued deleveraging.

This concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention. We will now be happy to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Tommaso Nieddu, Kepler Cheuvreux.

I have 2. The first one is on Italy's region. So can you unpack the drivers behind the Italy EBITDA decline in more detail? How much is lower collection activity, market conditions versus phasing or one-off items? And also, what gives you confidence this reverse in H2 rather than representing a new run rate?

The second question is on guidance. Given that the H1 results were quite soft on the stand-alone business, so can you walk us through the bridge to the EUR 300 million full year EBITDA guidance? And how much of the required H2 step-up is Italy normalization versus continued outperformance versus Hellenic and Spain region? Also on your guidance, now there is a new exclusion, which is the impact of the portfolio sales. So can you quantify what magnitude are we talking about?

Thank you, Tommaso. Now on Italy, the EBITDA of the first half of last year had around EUR 10 million, EUR 11 million of sales disposals which were related to portfolio of our clients, which were sold, which didn't happen in this part of the year. So basically, taking out that element, the remaining difference is mostly driven by the collection trend in this part of the year that will be picking up in the second part, together with the cost action should stabilize the EBITDA to levels which are net of the EUR 10 million, EUR 11 million of extraordinary of the first half of 2025 to the new level for the EBITDA of this year versus last year numbers. So stabilization is taking out these effects.

Regarding the other businesses, as you have seen, the Greek business is improving in terms of collection, and this is driving the upward trend on the NPE revenues. On the other side, clearly in the first half of last year, we had some sales that did not happen in this part. And this is due to the regulatory environment, which has stopped investors from taking decision before the court came out on the Katseli law, and it was clear now what they could recover or not so that they can put a plan in place for the second part, which they did for the secondary sales.

Regarding the other 2 markets, the dynamic is positive, although they are minor in size. And the restructuring of the Spanish business is bringing now the company which is growing EBITDA, but also below EBITDA has no losses and will produce cash, and will be a positive contributor to cash flow of the group.

Clearly, on the coeo side, we are only assuming a trend which is similar to the first half, not additional upside, although you have seen that the business has been benefiting from not only the underlying market trends, which are positive for e-commerce and buy now, pay later, but also from the higher penetration into new clients, which is driving down the contribution of the main client, Klarna, from 50% to 40% of file intake, which is a very important step taking into account that Klarna itself continues to grow by more than 20% year-on-year.

The other positive aspect that you will see in the dynamic of the EBITDA of the contribution of the other countries because obviously, the revenue growth trajectory, with stable cost base because of the dynamics on the automation of the processes there will have a full effect on EBITDA beyond also the diversification that the business is doing to the other doValue countries. The contribution of coeo to doValue countries obviously is netted off in the company. So you see it on the doValue side. You will not see it on the coeo side, but coeo is contributing that to the growth also of the other countries, and this will be evident in the second part of the year.

On the overall guidance, obviously, we are very keen not only on revenue and EBITDA, but also on the leverage. And there, I think the 2 drivers are very clear. It's the disposal of the portfolio where the timing we are taking is to optimize the price, not because it's a question of selling. And the more we hold on into it, more cash we have from the portfolio. It's a very profitable one, as you have seen from the statistics that Davide has provided. We are not including cash metrics as the debt purchaser do because our business will be soon asset-light, but gives you a metric that explains also the high turning of the purchase price of the portfolios into real cash.

Now on the bridge of guidance, Davide will provide more details.

Yes, mainly on coeo, your question was about coeo. We always communicated to the market a clear target of coeo. Start with EUR 60 million when we acquired, clarifying that those EUR 60 million would have roughly 45%, 50% of cash conversion. So this lower cash conversion mainly because the cash include the aspect of the portfolio. So what we are saying that our target is coherent with the target we achieve to the market when we acquired the company. So we will have EBITDA target. We continue to have this roughly 45%, 50% cash conversion that will include net effect for the portfolio.

Maybe another data point we should highlight on the guidance of the year-end. Last year, we had EUR 99 million of EBITDA out of a full year result of EUR 217 million. Today, we have EUR 121 million of EBITDA pro forma versus a guidance of approximately EUR 300 million. So you can do the proportion there. Obviously, we are adding a business which has not the seasonality as the traditional business, and that's why we are assuming a stable contribution despite the dynamics that we have explained about the new business intake at coeo.

Yes. Sorry, just a follow-up. So about the secondary sales that didn't materialize in H1, regarding that, should we expect them to materialize in H2? Or you don't have any kind of visibility on that?

Yes, we have a pipeline of secondary sales for the second Q. In our guidance, we are more conservative on the full year on that. So if all were to materialize, obviously, it would be better. But we are -- the sales are in the pipeline for the second Q -- second half, sorry.

The next question is from Antonio Gianfrancesco, Intermonte.

Two questions. The first one is on coeo because you reported EUR 56 million revenues and EUR 18 million EBITDA in the second quarter. This is implying a margin of around 31%. But if I look at what you reported in the first quarter, coeo was indicated at EUR 64 million revenue and EUR 26 million EBITDA, so something like 41% EBITDA margin. Maybe I misunderstood something, but I wanted to better understand why revenues and EBITDA are down quarter-on-quarter and what you consider the clean underlying margin of the business, which integration onboarding on commercial cost we should expect in the second half? And what revenue and EBITDA contribution is now embedded in your full year guidance for coeo?

The second question is on new business because the new business intake reached EUR 3.1 billion in the first half and the GBV remained broadly stable, let's say. But traditional service revenues continue to decline. So I want to understand if the new mandates are entering at comparable fees and margin levels. And if -- or let's say, how quickly this commercial intake should translate into revenue and EBITDA contribution?

I will take your first question, coeo. We expect that the average margin in between -- as Daniele said, between 35%, 37%. First half is 37%, making the average -- we expect 35% because as we have already discussed during the first quarter call, coeo seasonality is strong in this quarter than the last one -- on the second one. So first quarter is always stronger quarter, so we are going to benefit to have higher margin. But on average, if we look full year, we expect a 35% margin. So also where we have again, third quarter a little bit lower than the first quarter. It will be a little bit higher. So on average, we expect 35%.

On the new business intake, as you have seen from Greece last year, the EUR 7 billion are now producing the collection, and we expect a similar lagging period for this business. The positive part of this contribution of the EUR 3.1 billion is that half of it comes from forward flow. So from fresh vintages, especially on the Greek and BPER contracts, which are the majority component embedded.

To this business, we are adding separately other opportunities, which are related to the digital collection business to the NFC business, which are not valued on GBV basis only. That's why we added the new metrics which are related to file intake and the like, which are more similar to the small ticket business of -- to give you an order of magnitude of how that trajectory is moving up.

Obviously, the last component on the VAS side. To give you an order of magnitude on Italy, last year, the VAS plus non-NPL revenue were 41% in the first half this year are 51%. So more we grow this component, higher will be -- lower will be the contribution of the NPL. And that type of cost initiative we make will allow to exploit the maximum cash contribution from the traditional NPL while benefiting from the growth of the second half. And this is what our new business plan is primarily about. This shift organic into the new revenue dynamic and extracting as much cash from an EBITDA margin perspective and from a cash flow perspective from the traditional NPL business.

The next question is from Simonetta Chiriotti, Mediobanca.

I have a few. The first is on Italy and specifically on the trend in collections that were down 21% in the second quarter, 16% in the first half. So could you help us to understand what is happening on that side? And in particular, what changed with respect to your original expectations when you acquired Gardant?

And also, actually, VAS revenues declined year-on-year in the first half. So if it's possible to explain this trend. And on the cost side, costs remained flat. So how is the cost structure? Is it completely fixed? So no correlation with the revenue trend? On a different issue, could you give us a quick update on the tax receivable project in Italy? And another couple of questions. If possible, you gave the ERC of coeo over 120 months. It looks a very long period. Is the collection profile so long for coeo? And finally, if you could provide the details of the EUR 40 million other asset liability cash absorption in the first half.

Yes. On your first question, Simonetta, yes, the collections were down. Basically, we experienced lower new business intake from newer vintages. And as the amount of GBV of older vintages was weighting more, the collection rate decreased and hence, the overall collection from the business were down.

So answering to your question of what's changed vis-a-vis the original expectation of Gardant, I would say it also comes to market condition in Italy. We have lower volumes from primary deals and hence, lower collection from previous vintages. On the other hand, this trend was partially compensated from higher volumes from forward flow from existing partners of Gardant. But of course, this wasn't enough to compensate the shortfall on the primary transaction in the market.

On the cost side, we have run the efficiency measures in the first half. So the exits are happening between June and July, and therefore, you will see the impact on the cost in the second half. But this is regarding projects. So it will not -- it will continue over the next few years as more as we introduce technology, we make efficient the cost base, higher the reduction of the cost. So the composition of the cost in Italy is quite evident that 70% is personnel and the remaining is 18% IT cost and the rest is general cost.

On the tax receivable project, you have seen 3 days ago, there was the final decree, which defined the perimeter into which AMCO will play and also the condition under which AMCO will have to be given by the local authorities to manage. So they are obliged to move to AMCO if the recoveries are not at a certain level. So it's quite actual effect. So there will be a continuous flow to AMCO and the distribution to the other servicers. So now AMCO is expected to run with public tender between -- in the end of the year. I think we are already set for that. And we will participate to that tender.

Yes. On the question about the other asset liabilities, we'll give you the breakdown. Roughly EUR 10 million IFRS 16. So to pay the rent in the office we operate, including coeo. Then we have roughly EUR 8 million of redundancy costs as part of our plan. We have also the MBO impact, as described before. It is roughly EUR 13 million -- [ EUR 23 million ] -- as decided, we have paid fully. The MBO for '25, we didn't recover fully, the MBO. So this will be unformidable during the year. It happened also last year. Then we have the delay in the recovery on the VAT in Greece is approximately EUR 8.5 million. And we have also paid the transaction cost with the multi net working capital of roughly EUR 7 million. This is how we get to the total change.

About the collection in coeo. As we said before, it's very fast earning portfolio. On average, the recovery of the price paid is in 18 months. Then we show the recovery of 120 months because most of the collection come in in the first 3 year, because then we have the tail that we continue to generate cash.

And this reflects a very important data, which is the 20% that we already recovered as principal on the portfolio investment made in the second Q. So you see the very fast turnover nature of this portfolio only looking at this data.

The next question is from Davide Rimini, Intesa Sanpaolo.

I have also a few. The first is on guidance and is on free cash flow guidance, whether you might confirm the EUR 90 million free cash flow before dividend and debt repayment for this year? And whether sort of this include -- I do notice that in the slide, there is a reference on some one-off and you put sort of a reference on recurring cash flow. So whether sort of this include or not those items?

And still related to that, I do understand that you signaled how cash flow generative is the coeo portfolio. And at the same time, you highlight the commitment to exit before year-end. I just wonder whether within the guidance, you might clarify what's the contribution of coeo portfolio? And partly related to that, whether sort of initially, what has been sort of the reasoning behind in keeping in a way longer rather than initially signaled to the market?

Second question is sort of on the outlook. On Slide 7, you provided sort of an outlook, which suggest a challenging market backdrop and linked the guidance to an execution in terms of cost efficiency measures. I was just wondering whether out of the outlook that you provided in Italy and Greece, there is anything that we should be aware of in terms of additional cost-cutting measures. I noticed that you put the reference that this is a recurring activity. I just wonder whether there is anything more out of the synergies out of Gardant in Italy, for example, that we might share today.

Yes. On the cash generation, we confirm the guidance of the EUR 90 million free cash flow for the doValue perimeter. And then we have the cash flow coming from coeo, was EUR 30 million minus the financial charge on the bond of roughly EUR 19 million. So we confirm the free cash flow generation and the impact of the portfolio sales. In terms on the portfolio, we highlighted that the value -- including the range between EUR 120 million and EUR 140 million. We are working to try to extrapolate the maximum value of the portfolio sale. This is why we have included now in our simulation on the portfolio sales, the value in the middle is EUR 130 million.

The fact that we continue to own the portfolio, it helps in the cash production. As soon as we continue to hold on the balance sheet, we collect cash flow. So this helps in some way the leverage and -- but not impacting our results in terms of EBITDA, because the component of the portfolio impacting our results are the fees we get from those portfolios.

So maybe to go back to your specific question, the -- keeping or not, it's a question of maximizing value versus the income we get from holding on it. It's not blurring the free cash flow, operating free cash flow generation, which remains separate from the portfolio contribution, still the one which we have portrayed before.

Now in terms of the indication that we gave here, it's -- we are obviously weighting in our guidance the weaker point about the market as well as the other initiatives we are doing. So there are plus and minuses, but still guiding to our final results. We wanted to make you aware, obviously, of what is the market backdrop, but it's our job as managers to obviously weigh these effects to get to the final targets, which we have announced.

In terms of the cost measures, they are not going to change the free cash flow generation that we have indicated. So it's still consistent with the numbers. Any other measure we may want to -- we are planning to execute.

If I may, just sort of a follow-up since I noticed the EUR 40 million one-off in the cash flow sort of picture on Slide 14, and whether sort of this -- since you introduced this concept of recurring, I just wonder whether sort of the EUR 90 million guidance is included or not, this EUR 40 million.

It's a one-off temporary effect on the cash flow. We will say that the VAT has been a delay. So we would assume this VAT now in the first half because of the dispute with the tax authority that went well. We need to wait a few months more to get this cash. But on an ongoing basis, we can recur it. So it's a one-off only for this period, not on a recurring basis. So we need to include this cash in look forward. The same happened for the temporary cash out, but we will be completely absorbed by the end of the year. So the one-off are mainly related to our transaction cost. That has been paid. And the redundancy cost as -- that we have the plan will be -- following year will be lower than the one we have had this year, the previous year.

At least on the VAT, should I expect to be reversed in the second half?

Yes, we will collect during the year to help us to respect our guidance. So this has been only a timing effect. It's not a structural change.

The next question is from Davide Giuliano, Equita.

I have 3. The first one is on revenue evolution. What dynamics do you expect in second half on the ex-coeo perimeter and so the value stand-alone. Is there anything impacting the comparison base, which we should take into account, for instance, in terms of secondary sales fee last year?

The second one on coeo, we saw gross revenues growth of plus 26% year-on-year in Q1 and plus 25% year-on-year in first half 2026. So the growth rate was essentially confirmed in Q2 as well. Just one clarification. Does the growth rate refer only to the servicing business and let's say, NPL investing business also in Q2?

And you previously said Klarna is down from 50% to around 40% of processed files, if I'm not mistaken. Can you also provide an indication of Klarna's contribution to revenues in first half? And the very last one on coeo back book. Can you give us an indication of how discussions are progressing regarding the structuring of the disposal of the back book and the related forward flow agreement?

And looking at Q2, it seems to me that keeping the back book generates a cash absorption on a run rate basis given that you invest EUR 48 million and collected EUR 31 million. Am I missing something? Or this is something we should also expect in the coming quarters?

Under portfolio, the growth is only considering the revenues and not the portfolio. On the transaction, we are -- the transaction, we have investors that give us a funding offer. We are negotiating to improve the price. We are factoring also the [ receivables ] that will securitize the portfolio and the fund that will buy the notes and then we will send those notes to the investors to identify.

In terms of cash absorption, you are right, coeo is growing, so the volumes are growing. So the clients are grafted to coeo, more receivables. This means that after 4 months coeo has the option to buy higher volumes. So as you have seen in this quarter, we bought [indiscernible] cross-selling the portfolio, we'll transfer -- the funding of those growth to the third-party investors and we will benefit from the servicing fees. So if the portfolio remain on our balance sheet, this will be a structural future. But in the same way, we are improving the company, we are getting more cash.

One other point you raised was on the group of coeo. We confirm that is without the portfolio, so it's only on the servicing side. Around the Klarna contribution in terms of revenue of coeo was around 60% now moving down to around 50%. And in terms of group contribution was around 10%, moving down to around 9%. I think we have addressed the other questions, Davide.

Yes. Maybe I missed the one on the comparison base on second half 2025, if we should take into account some secondary sales fee when making our estimates for second half 2026. I don't know, probably I missed it before.

No, we compare what we have experienced last year in the first quarter, most of the higher volumes will come in the last part of the year. This means we can reasonably expect the secondary sales that will grow mostly in the last part of the year also because of the Katseli law. In Italy, we also expect few transaction sales to grow the secondary sales either impact -- will be an upside to recover fully that Italy, as Manuela stated, this lower performance, coeo will offset this lower performance in Italy.

We said that in the first half of last year, Italy had around EUR 10 million, EUR 11 million of secondary sales. This is because the bank had some back book that wanted to dismiss. Now this amount has reduced. So they will still do in the second part, but less than half of this amount.

[Operator Instructions] Gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for any closing remarks.

That will be all for today. Thank you all for joining. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.

Good morning. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the doValue First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Presentation. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Daniele Della Seta, Head of Investor relations of doValue. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Daniele Della Seta, Head of Investor Relations and M&A at DoValue. I'm joined by Manuela Franchi, our Group CEO; and Davide Soffietti, our Group CFO, as we present our Q1 2026 financial results. Manuela will begin with an overview of our performance, including key insights linked to market and business trends. Next, Davide will provide a detailed analysis of our financial results for this quarter. We will conclude with a Q&A session to address any questions you may have. Thank you for joining us today. I will now hand over to Manuela.

Good morning, everyone. Let me start with the 3 key messages. We confirm our full year guidance of EUR 800 million revenue and EUR 300 million EBITDA pro forma for the acquisition of Coeo with the Q1 in line with our internal phasing. Coeo's Engine of our next growth phase is performing ahead of expectation on every metric with commercial synergies already activated. Commercial momentum across our core servicing business remains strong and increasingly diversified with non-NPL asset classes taking the lead. The year-on-year comparison reflects a very strong Q1 2025 base. To be clear, last year was not supported by nonrecurring items. It benefited from an unusual timing concentration of revenue effects that normally materialize across different quarters of the year.

On a like-for-like basis, EBITDA would have been broadly stable year-on-year. This is why our EUR 55 million EBITDA before Coeo is fully consistent with our full year guidance and internal phasing. Historically, the first quarter represents between 15% and 20% of full year EBITDA. And on top of that, we will consolidate the full contribution of Coeo from Q2, a business that is growing at a sustained pace. Taken together, this puts us on the trajectory towards the 2026 combined target. Commercially, the quarter also confirmed the momentum continues. New business reached EUR 1.6 billion, in line with the EUR 8 billion annual target with a healthy contribution from both new mandates and forward flow agreements.

Most importantly, Coeo is performing ahead of expectation on every key metric. In Q1, Coeo revenue grew by 26% year-on-year and EBITDA ex NRI was around EUR 26 million, clean of portfolio collections. From Q2 onwards, Coeo turns to value into broader, faster-growing and [indiscernible] enabled group with the first commercial synergies already started and revenue synergies expected to materialize from third quarter. A quick update on the timing of our Capital Markets Day. Given that Coeo closed in mid-April and is central for the new phase of the group, we won the new business plan to fully reflect Coeo management platform and growth opportunities as well as all the technology levers which will enable our growth and operating efficiencies. We will, therefore, hold the Capital Markets Day in October, presenting an integrated business plan for the combined group from day 1.

On automation, Coeo continues to show why it's one of the most advanced platform in its segment, reporting more than 17% of cases resolved digitally. Finally, our capital structure remains solid. Net leverage was 2.3x at quarter end, on track towards 2.2x by year-end, and Fitch reaffirms our BB rating with stable outlook in April after the Coeo closing. On this basis, the Board has resolved a dividend of EUR 0.09 per share payable next week. Sustainable and recurring cash generation will allow us to approach shareholder remuneration in a consistent and pragmatic way going forward, and we will share more details at the October Capital Markets Day. To sum up, Q1 was in line with our internal phasing. The year-on-year dynamic reflects timing rather than underlying the trends.

Coeo is performing ahead of expectation. And with the closing of Coeo, the group enters a new phase of growth, diversification and value creation. If you follow me on Page 3, let's move to Coeo. Here, the message is very positive. First, one important point. The Q1 numbers you see on this page are not yet consolidated in DoValue reported first quarter results since the transaction closed on April 16 after quarter end. Coeo is the engine of our next phase of growth and will fully consolidate to our P&L from April onwards. And this engine is already running at full steam. Coeo had a very strong first quarter. Revenues were up 26% year-on-year. File intake grew by more than 40%, and the revenue run rate is already well ahead of our expectation. This confirms the quality of the assets that we have acquired and the strength of its digital-first model.

Importantly, this growth is becoming more diversified. Plaza remains a key client, but is now significantly less than half of total file. More than 60% of files are [indiscernible], supported by new clients in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden as well as renewal across existing clients. On automation, Coeo continues to show why it's one of the most advanced platform in its segment. It processes 345,000 high customer interaction in the quarter, up 26% with 70% of activity handled digitally. This is translating into real efficiency with the revenue per quarter up 24% year-on-year. The platform is also expanding geographically through a proven greenfield playbook that requires very limited capital expenditures.

Sweden is a good example. After just 1 year, revenues grew by 77% year-on-year, reaching EUR 6 million in the quarter. Denmark has now been confirmed as an additional market, bringing the doValue Group to 14 countries in 2026. At the same time, Coeo is starting its expansion in Italy and Spain by leveraging the collaboration with doValue. And this is already becoming a group opportunity. We have activated commercial synergies with 3 major clients in Italy and Spain, starting to be managed from June 26, and operational synergies are also underway, including the deployment of Coeo [indiscernible] voice agent and CRM capabilities to DoValue. The takeaway is simple. While reported Q1 does not yet include Coeo, the combined group is already materially stronger. From Q2, we begin consolidating a business that is growing faster than expected, highly automated, increasingly diversified and already generating tangible synergies with DoValue.

Let's now turn to Page 4 and look at why Coeo's growth is structural. Coeo operates in markets that benefit from several long-term growth trends. The first one is the continued expansion of e-commerce across Coeo's core geography, DACH, the Nordics and the U.K. E-commerce is expected to continue growing over the coming years with annual growth rates in the high single digits. The second trend is the increasing penetration of buy-now-pay-later within e-commerce. Even in the markets where buy now, pay later is already well established, penetration remains far from saturated. In other words, most e-commerce transactions are still paid through traditional methods, which means there is still meaningful room for buy-now-pay-later related receivables to grow within Coeo's existing market perimeter. And the third, even larger opportunity is beyond buy-now-pay-later.

Nonbanking receivables, including telco, utilities, insurance, mobility and commercial receivables represent a much broader addressable market. There are high volumes, granular receivables where traditional human servicing model is often too expensive. but where Coeo digital and AI-enabled platform can create attractive economics. This is a key point, Coeo does not need to rely on one single growth driver. It benefits from growth in e-commerce, growth in buy-now-pay-later penetration within e-commerce and growth in broader nonbanking receivable outside buy-now-pay-later. In DACH, the Nordics and the U.K. where Coeo is already operating, this creates a clear and immediate runway. These are markets where the platform is already present, where client relationships are already in place and where there is still significant white space to capture.

Italy, Greece and Spain represent an additional opportunity, but with a different timing. These markets are still much smaller in terms of buy-now-pay-later and digital receivable penetration. So we see them as medium to long-term growth options. The important point is that DoValue already at scale, local presence and institutional relationship in these countries. So as these markets develop, we will be positioned with Coeo's technology and operating model into them. Let's now turn to new business on Page 5. Our commercial engine continues to perform. Year-to-date, new business reached EUR 1.6 billion, in line with the trajectory towards the EUR 8 billion annual target, considering the usual phasing of the year and the pipeline ahead.

This is a solid result, particularly because this year, there wasn't any sale of a large legacy portfolio like the Alphabet won in Grid last year and still delivered EUR 1.6 billion of new business. This is business as usual. The mix is also encouraging. In Italy, we signed EUR 560 million of new servicing mandate with non-NPL asset classes, including performing and UTP exposures, accounting for around 70% of new mandates in Italy. This confirms that diversification is progressing in practice and not only in our strategic narrative.

In the Hellenic region, new mandates amounted to around EUR 300 million with a balanced contribution from Cyprus and Greece. We also completed the first ever sale of reperforming loans in Greece, while retaining the servicing of the portfolio, an important signal that the Greek market is evolving and that reperforming loans are becoming a recognized and investable asset class. Core flow remained solid at around EUR 700 million in the quarter. In Italy, BPER contract flow were up 20% year-on-year despite the fact that the Banca Popolare di Sondrio perimeter will only start contributing after completion of the merger with BPER, which occurred on April 2026.

This means that we expect some contribution from [indiscernible] so flows from Q2 with a full effect from Q3 onwards as well as the stock to be added. Importantly, new inflows were 1.45x collection, supporting GDV stabilization. So the message is simple. Even in a clear banking system and a normalized NPE market, doValue continues to generate new business, replenish its servicing base and expand into more diversified asset classes. Let's now turn to the market backdrop on Page 6. The European NPE market has evolved into a new equilibrium, underpinning more than EUR 2 billion of addressable servicing revenues across our core footprint over '26, '29 period. This is not the same market we had 10 years ago since the peak of the NPL cycle and banks were dealing with very large legacy stock. The market is smaller than the peak NPL market of the past, but more disciplined, more recurring and more sustainable. And this is where the role of the servicer has become systemic. This is visible across our footprint.

In Italy, we see approximately EUR 5 billion to EUR 6 billion of annual NPE disposal from banks, plus EUR 8 billion of secondary disposal, and the country remains #1 destination for European NPL capital allocation in '26. In Spain, primary and secondary disposals together exceed EUR 10 billion annually with the market entering a regulatory transition under the new NPL directive. In Greece, we have around EUR 5 billion annual flows from banks and secondary transactions, supported by GDP growth of around 6.5% and an expanding state receivable stock above EUR 100 billion.

In Germany, the bank NPE stock has grown 62% versus 2019 to around EUR 50 billion in a highly fragmented servicing market with no structured incumbent, a clear opportunity for scale technology-enabled operators like us. The second message is equally important. The opportunity is no longer limited to banking NPEs. Technology and AI are making economically viable to serve adjacent asset classes that were historically less profitable under a traditional human heavy servicing model. This is exactly where the combination with coeo becomes strategically powerful. DoValue brings scale, licenses, institutional relationship and deep servicing expertise. Coeo brings a highly automated AI-enabled platform for small ticket, high-volume receivables. Together, we can address both sides of the market, the new equilibrium banking [indiscernible] and the emerging opportunities in adjacent credit and receivable segments.

Let's now move to Page 7 to strategic execution. Beyond the quarterly numbers, Q1 was an important quarter in terms of delivery against the key strategic priorities of the group. First, on Garden, the integration is now completed. The 7 work streams have been closed. The platform is fully consolidated and synergies are entering full run rate. This is a clear example of execution ahead of plan. This is also visible in the cost base. Staff costs were down 7% year-on-year at group level, confirming that the integration is not only completed from an organizational standpoint, but is also translating into tangible efficiencies. Second, we are preparing for new revenue pools in adjacent markets.

In Italy, the 26 budget law positions AMCO as the central platform for the recovery of local tax receivables and implementing the is expected to define the operating routes and the addressable volumes. This could turn that what has historically been a fragmented and adopt opportunity into a more institutional and transparent market. For doValue, this is exactly the type of opportunity we want to capture in the next phase, although not traditional banking and servicing, but it's very close to our capabilities, data collection, legal processes, operating scale and technology. Third, we continue to strengthen our commercial position.

In Q1, we won a new servicing mandate from a new client, a leading global asset manager, reinforcing our role with top-tier investors and in secondary transactions. At the same time, the first ever Greek reperforming loan sale confirms what new asset classes are becoming investable and that doValue is well positioned to remain the servicer of reference as this market evolves. So the message on execution is clear. Gardant is delivering synergies are ahead of plan. New regulatory opportunities are emerging and institutional client diversification is progressing. The group is moving towards a broader, more fast-growing segment of this market. And it is executing on this road map with very solid balance sheet. I will now hand over to Davide, who will take you through the financial performance of the quarter in more detail.

Thank you, Manuela. Good morning, everyone.

Let's start on Page 9 with the review of Q1 '26 financial results. As Manuela mentioned, the quarter developed in line with our internal phasing of the year. It is worth recalling that Q1 is structurally the smallest quarter in terms of contribution to annual profitability, historically representing around 15% to 20% of full year EBITDA. The year-on-year comparison should be read against a particularly high of Q1 '25 base, which was boosted by an unusual timing concentration of revenue assets spread across the year. On a normalized basis, EBITDA would have been broadly stable year-on-year. Gross revenue stood at EUR 120 million. The trend reflects the phasing effects I just mentioned, particularly in Italy.

Looking over a 2-year time horizon, gross revenue is up 24% versus Q1 '24, which better reflects the step-up in the platform following the Gardant acquisition. Net revenues was EUR 107 million, also reflecting the same top line dynamics. EBITDA ex NRI was EUR 35 million. The year-on-year trend mirrors gross revenue dynamics, mitigated by continued cost savings across regions. When adjusting for the unusual timing concentration in Q1 '25, the underlying EBITDA performance would have been slightly better year-on-year. EBITDA margin was 29%. This remains above the 26% margin recorded in Q1 '24, while the 26% margin in Q1 '25 reflected an atypically strong first quarter, driven by the same time concentration and accretion in a quarter that is normally low seasonality. Below EBITDA, net financial interest, excluding nonrecurring items, decreased by EUR 3 million year-on-year from EUR 13 million in Q1 '25 to EUR 10 million in Q1 '26. Net income, excluding nonrecurring items, was approximately negative EUR 1 million, reflecting the EBITDA trend, but supported by the above-mentioned improvement in financial charge.

Reported net income was negative EUR 10 million, including around EUR 9 million of below EBITDA nonrecurring items, mainly related to costs associated to new 2031 bond and employee exit costs. To summarize this page, Q1 developed in line with our internal phasing. The year-on-year comparison reflects a not fully represented to Q1 '25 base. Normalized EBITDA is broadly stable and the benefit of our refinancing are already visible below EBITDA. Moving now to Page 10.

We show the regional breakdown of gross revenues. Group gross revenue was EUR 120 million, down 15% year-on-year, reflecting the time effect I just described, which were concentrated mainly in Italy. Italy explained most the decline, reflecting the front-loaded contribution of disposals and value-added services recorded in Q1 last year. The Hellenic region was only marginally down, again reflecting phasing of disposals, while collection in Greece grew 14 percentage year-on-year, in line with expectations. Spain, on the other hand, grew year-on-year with NPL servicing more than offsetting the exit from Santander REO perimeter.

The contribution in absolute terms remains modest, but it confirms that Spanish platform is successfully repositioned towards a more focused NPL servicing model. The revenue mix also continues to diversify. Non-NPL revenues reached 43% of gross revenues in Q1, and this is before the consolidation of coeo from Q2. Outsourcing fees stood at 11.3% of gross revenues, driven by higher value-added service revenues, which are characterized by greater share of outsourcing costs. Moving now on Page 11. Operating expenses decreased by 7% year-on-year from EUR 77 million to EUR 70 million, reflecting continued cost discipline across all regions and the positive run rate effect of delivered synergies.

Staff costs were down by around EUR 4 million year-on-year with all markets contributing through efficiency measures. This confirms that the integration work and the cost actions implemented over the past quarters are translating into visible savings. IT and SG&A costs also decreased by 5% year-on-year, supported by cost initiatives across regions and accelerated synergies in Italy. The overall reduction reflects both structural efficiencies and lower variable costs in a lower revenue quarter with some variable costs expected to come back as activity increases.

Moving on to Page 12. EBITDA reflects the combination of the 2 dynamics we have just discussed. Reported revenues were affected by timing, while cost discipline helped to protect profitability. Group EBITDA, excluding nonrecurring items, was EUR 35 million with 29% margin. Hellenic region, EBITDA was broadly stable year-on-year.

Q1 '25 includes around EUR 3 million of disposal related contribution in Greece, a component that would normally materialize in the second half and the absence of this contribution this quarter was offset by cost efficiencies leading to 47% margin. In Italy, EBITDA was impacted by the same comparison base effect discussed revenues. Spain delivered positive EBITDA already in the first quarter, more than doubling year-on-year, driven by growth in NPL servicing revenues and cost efficiencies. Nonrecurring items at EBITDA level were very muted at a negative EUR 0.1 million in a low seasonality quarter.

On a normalized basis, group EBITDA would have been broadly stable year-on-year. Moving on Page 13, we show the bridge from EBITDA to net income. Below EBITDA dynamics reflect the benefit of the refinancing completed last year with net financial interest improving by EUR 3.4 million year-on-year. Depreciation, amortization and net impairment were broadly stable year-on-year at EUR 17.8 million, while net provision adjustments stood at EUR 4.8 million.

Net financial interest improved by EUR 3.4 million to EUR 15.8 million as Q1 '25 had absorbed the reduction costs on the senior secured notes due in 2026. Taxes decreased, reflecting the lower profit before tax and minorities were also down year-on-year, in line with the quarterly performance. As a result, net income, excluding nonrecurring items, was approximately negative $1 million with the EBITDA decline only partially offset by lower financial charges. Reported net income was negative EUR 10.2 million. The $9 million GAAP versus the adjusted figures reflect 2 distinct items below EBITDA, redundancy cost and the bridge financing interest on the bond issued to fund the coeo acquisition, which was classified as nonrecurring until closing of the transaction on April 16.

Moving to Page 14. Let's have a look at the cash flow dynamics. Q1 cash flow follows the usual seasonal pattern of our business. Q1 is structurally the weakest quarter in terms of cash generation, while the part of the free cash flow is generated in the second half and particularly in Q4.

To give you a sense of the magnitude in 2025 Q4 alone accounted for EUR 54 million of free cash flow out of the EUR 76 million for the full year. In Q1 '26, cash flow from operation was negative EUR 12.8 million, reflecting the lower EBITDA in the quarter and a temporary working capital absorption. Free cash flow was negative EUR 28 million. The EUR 35 million working capital absorption in the quarter is the mirror image of a particularly strong Q4 '25 when collection invoicing dynamics worked in our favor. It also reflects technical timing effects in the invoicing cycle, including legal expenses in Greece. Working capital movements can swing from one quarter to the next, which is why we manage and track this metric on a full year basis.

On that basis, we expect working capital to normalize with a material release over the course of the year. CapEx was EUR 3.9 million, up $1.7 million year-on-year, reflecting front-loaded investments in our digital platform and AI capabilities. This is in line with our internal plan, and we confirm the full year CapEx guidance. To summarize, Q1 cash flow reflects the normal seasonality of our business and the working capital absorption that is counterpart of a particularly strong Q4 '25. The full year trajectory remain on track, and we expect working capital to become a positive contributor as the year progresses. To conclude, let's now move to Page 15 and take a look at our financial structure. Net financial leverage at the end of March stood at 2.3x, reflecting normal Q1 seasonality, and we remain on track towards 2.2x by year-end. The group maintains a solid liquidity buffer of EUR 269 million, made up of EUR 122 million cash on balance sheet and EUR 147 million undrawn revolving credit facilities, providing significant financial flexibility after the coeo closing.

Fitch affirmed our BB rating with stable outlook in April after the coeo closing, confirming the sustainability of the capital structure for the larger group. Our bonds trade at around 5% yield to maturity, among the lowest in the industry, and our average cost of debt stands at 6.3%. The EUR 350 million senior secured notes due 2031 issued in November to finance cooe were released from escrow upon closing on April 16. Looking ahead, we continue to see opportunities to optimize our cost of debt as we deleverage. In short, leverage is seasonal and under control. Liquidity is strong. The rating is confirmed and the capital structure supports next phase of the group. This is all on our side for today. Thank you all for your attention. We will now take your questions.

[operator instruction]

First question is from Tommaso Nieddu from Kepler Cheuvreux.

The first question on my side is on coeo, which you said it did EUR 26 million EBITDA in Q1 alone, which seems a pretty good result.

But my question is how does it compares with the full year 2025 results that you talked about around EUR 55 million to EUR 60 million. So how can we compare it with today's number? And is the portfolio impact is different. Can you help us with some more details on that? The second one is on net working capital. Net working capital absorbed EUR 35 million in Q1, but you confirm the 2026 guidance also on cash flow. So does that mean that you confirm the EUR 15 million positive net working capital contribution for the full year? And when should we see this reversal in terms of phasing? And just a last quick one on portfolio sale on the EUR 100 million portfolio disposal of coeo.

Can you give us an update on timing and on where you are in the process? Also, is it a single block sale or multiple tranches? And what we should expect in terms of expected sale price relative to the book?

Thank you, Thomas.

I will take your first 2 questions. As you will see, very happy with the performance of coeo was very positive this first quarter. coeo grew 27% versus the Q1 2025. But we want to have to expect that Q1 is typically stronger for coeo. Collection related to Black Friday November period. So this tends to front part of the year performance and makes the quarter not fully representative of the rate. But however, if we were to extrapolate the good performance of the Q1 versus the EUR 60 million 2025 reference and align it to conversion would point to around EUR 8 million. But this is just a linear extrapolation of the first quarter, but as I say, the first quarter has been very strong and is usually stronger than the following quarters.

Going to the net working capital I confirm, the absorption is temporary is working capital. The assets are there. Our target is still to recover this amount and also to benefit for the fact that we still have on our balance sheet the backlog coming from the previous year. This is why we guided to have a EUR 50 million positive contribution from net working capital.

This will materialize mainly in the last part of the year.

Regarding portfolio timing, we are aiming for the sale to be completed by June. The approach is to sell it to fund that we are raising because in this way, compared to the sale to third party we would retain also the asset management fees and more control over the flow agreements that comes with the coeo business. So apart from the option to sell to a third party, this is even more efficient from a revenue perspective. And we are in line with the timing vis-a-vis this approach. It will be the old portfolio sold and also the transfer of the flow agreement. The numbers that Davide has mentioned for 2025, the EUR 60 million EBITDA are without already the portfolio sale and is comparable to the EUR 26 million of first Q that we have referenced.

Next question is from Simonetta Chiriotti from Mediobanca.

A few questions from my side. The first is on the trend of the group excluding coeo.

So is it possible to recover a positive growth rate for the group stand-alone? I mean you have confirmed the guidance, including coeo. Coeo is doing better. So the question is, do you expect to recover an EBITDA of around EUR 240 million that was the original plan for the stand-alone group? And in particular, do you see a positive growth in EBITDA in Italy after the first quarter?

Then if you could comment on shareholders' remuneration. In the past, the possibility of making a buyback has been mentioned. So do you confirm this possibility? And finally, if you could comment if it is possible on the move that, your major shareholder has made on Axactor.

So if there is any comments that you can share with us on this point?

Thank you, Simonetta. I'll take your first question, and then Manuela will take the remaining one. So first, our official guidance is and will remain EUR 300 million pro forma with coeo. That is the only number the company is guiding to -- on the legacy business, Q1 was softer than we would have liked, but it would not be serious at this time to revisit our full year guidance after a single quarter, especially one with limited predictive value for the balance of the year. So we will be very cautious. And we can't rule out at this time over performance in the coming months. So we can rule out that, and there is still a chance that we will meet the EUR 240 million target. Finally, and most importantly, the strong performance of coeo since closing significantly derisk our pro forma EUR 300 million target.

So our confidence in the guidance we have is reinforced right now. So you will remember the first quarter of 2025, which was really strong, but we didn't revisit the guidance at that time. And because it's just a quarter, it's not -- it's a less significant one. So let's wait for the rest of the year to see how this will develop. And we think that nowadays, the most important data that you should take on is that the EUR 300 million guidance is derisked overall. I'll let Manuela answer the remaining questions.

Yes. On the shareholder remuneration, we confirm the idea of activating a buyback in the second part of the year if the cash performance is in line with our expectation. We have also several other catalysts that will materialize in the next 3, 4 months, which we are working on, which supports our full year guidance. On the last point, I think the fortress move is driven by a trend in the sector.

You might have observed that some of the players are now acting later vis-a-vis what we have done 2 years ago of a rights issue to strengthen the capital structure. We did it in the context of an acquisition. They are doing it only for balance sheet repair because both Axactor and also Intrum have restructured the debt 2 years ago and are coming with new maturity next year that they realized they couldn't afford. So it was a timing very intervention of corporate that is entering at a very weak point in the story of Axactor to get control with little money to be fair. The other point is where is the trend of the sector. There has been very positive results on the small ticket side for the purchasers if you look to us and similar players. So the calendar provisioning is kicking in.

And this is driving an expectation of a material increase in the small ticket, both corporate and bank. And this is also why we have repositioned ahead of time in that already last year with the acquisition of coeo. And the market trends in terms of results of these companies as well as the balance sheet need of players like Axactor and Intrum to create capacity to purchase more is an indicator of that.

So there is a growth in that segment that they will capture through the purchase, and we will capture through the servicing as well as the fund that we are raising. I hope it explains the strategic angle.

Next question is from Antonio Gianfrancesco from Intermonte.

The first one is still on free cash flow because you confirmed the full year guidance also in terms of free cash flow. But if I understand correctly, this guidance includes pro forma coeo contribution. So I was wondering if you could help us understand how cash generation contribution should be split between legacy doValue perimeter and coeo. The second question is on new business because new business intake EUR 1.6 billion in first quarter with nearly half of new mandates related to non-NPL products. So I was wondering if you could provide some color on the current pipeline for the remaining 2026, so both in terms of volumes and mix and whether the pipeline is increasingly skewed towards UTP performing to performing loans and so on.

I will take your first question on cash flow. Just to clarify, the EUR 90 million guidance for the stand-alone cash flow value before coeo but the relief we have comes from the contribution of coeo which includes the positive contribution from [indiscernible] would be up to EUR 90 million to EUR 100 million, if we exclude [indiscernible]. If we deduct the EUR 24 million of the cost we are going to pay these months.

On the new business intake, you are right that in the first Q, apart from the flow that pretty much the EUR 700 million split between 80% NPL and 20% UTP coming from Eurobank and from BPER. The rest was -- the vast majority was more on the UTP and performing side. Actually, performing was the vast majority because of the Greek transaction and also the Italian transaction with an international fund. How we see the business in the rest of the year?

Probably apart from the flow that will remain with this mix, there is going to be a higher percentage, probably 70% to 80% on the UTP and performing side. And then on the small ticket that relates mostly to the business, but also to the corporate receivables -- it's with the incoming presence of coeo in Italy, in Spain and in Greece in the 4Q and also the pilots that we are doing in Greece with the 3 utilities, this will be the large driver of the growth in the last part of the year. To be clear that there's not a question of 1 billion of GBV, but even given the profitability and the type of collection is more around the number of files that you manage that is typical of the business rather than the Euro million amount.

But overall, the mix is pretty much skewed towards the performing for the traditional part and for the utilities and e-commerce for the new part.

Next question is from Davide Giuliano, Equita.

I have 2. The first one is on the NPE outlook and forward flow contracts. You reported inflows from forward flow contracts of EUR 700 million this quarter compared to EUR 1.1 billion in first Q 2025. Can you provide more details on the evolution of the NPE market? If are you seeing a reduction in the generation of NPEs by banks compared to last year? And how much of this difference is due to the loss of the UniCredit contract? And the second one, just a quick update on fiscal credit servicing.

Can you provide some details on the more than EUR 250 million of potential revenues from servicing of fiscal credits. Do you include tax credits from the central government as well as local ones in this estimate? And what are your expectation in terms of market share? And just if there are any updates on acquiring the license needed to operate in this segment?

The difference between the 1.1 and numbers of this year is 80% is driven by UniCredit and the remaining by a delayed in coming on the Santander new contracts of the new flows. As you know, we have given back at the end of the quarter part of the REO business, and we are getting the new in exchange NPL flow. So this will go up after clean up of the UniCredit effect. But from the second Q, we will also get the flows, which will add to the picture. And as a data point, we mentioned that on the dealer side, we have experienced a 20% growth of the flows quarter-on-quarter. On the tax credit, we have not included them in our budget despite we are working on it.

Because the timing of the government decision progress. As you know, in March, they were supposed to finalize all the new regulation. They are taking a bit more time. But the indication is clear in the public documents that AMCO will distribute this value across services. Our fair market share with AMCO is around 20%, 25% in general. Clearly, here is very much driven also by the new license. The understanding is that it's probably more -- it's better, it's more attuned to buy the license rather than ask for a new one because it requires the timing which is longer. And we would like to be ready.

We are with the system, but to be ready with the license as soon as possible. So we are working on that point with a few options. In terms of allocation to servicer, clearly AMCO, I think we will know only when the allocation will be made to them, which is in the last part of the year.

The next question is from Davide Rimini, Intesa Sanpaolo.

The first is just a clarification more on the reasoning why you decided to move forward the Capital Market Day in October. I do understand that you will be able to get more to talk about sort of coeo performance, though at the same time, you highlight how strong it's been so far performance this year and you also added a few more highlights on the business on the market that they are facing.

I just wonder whether you might confirm that given the potential M&A target you might have going forward, is anything sort of instead that might suggest that you will come up with a more enlarged perimeter by the time you will present the next 3 years plan. This is the first question.

The second question is more on the cash flow guidance for this year.

I just wonder whether you might give us a little more color in terms of geography contributions where we should expect the most on this EUR 90 million to come from? And the last question is just on Slide 6. And since I recall you put a slide in an earlier presentation on the pipeline. I just wonder whether these numbers might reconcile with the EUR 50 billion pipeline that you put in early presentation.

Yes, I will take your question. Now the timing of the buyback is not driven by M&A consideration because we have said that we have focused this year on the integration of coeo starting the revenue opportunities, which are always now less controllable than the cost ones that we did for Gardant that is now fully completed. And on the deleveraging because as part of the M&A, we are selling the EUR 100 million portfolio that we still have to complete. So our focus will be on the delivery this year and on the full exploitation of the coeo opportunity within our business plan. Consider that we have been able to work on the business plan with coeo for technical reasons, i.e., you cannot access that type of information only after closing that has happened in the second part of April. So on the other leg is the operating efficiencies. We want to be driving this sector by technology. And it's not just a dream, it's the need of the sector to reinvent itself. And therefore, we are working on a very detailed plan and action on the AI and to enable new revenues, but more to rethink about the processes and the way we do our business to extract as much cost efficiencies and productivity we can.

So we want to lay that in a very clear manner in our plan. On the cash flow guidance, the main contributor will be Greece because there is higher stock of working capital there vis-a-vis the other countries. The other countries don't have that stock accumulated and therefore, will be the normal conversion of revenues to credits. On the pipeline, we try to give a different picture of it. So it's consistent with the old one. It might be even larger, including coeo, but we wanted to give more data point given that we are progressing obviously with the Capital Markets Day, and we have done a thorough analysis of the future trajectory of the market in the next 3 to 5 years. So it was just a different way to show you the debt of the market.

[operator instructions]

There are no more questions registered. Sorry, we have one more question from Simonetta Chiriotti, Mediabanca.

Is it possible to have an update on Germany and in particular on the activity in the NPL segment in that market that was flagged in the previous call as an important opportunity. And second question, I mean, we spoke of 2026 guidance on a shorter term, is it possible to have some early guidance on the second quarter of the year?

Sima, we didn't understand the first one, the voice was not very clear. Can you repeat?

Yes. On Germany, Yes, it's possible to have an update on that market for your traditional activity?

Yes. definitely there, we have discussed it multiple times, so we didn't repeat ourselves, but we have set up a division. We have done the hirings. We have the new exposures for the NPE business, and we are managing now [indiscernible] banks. And we just bid for another RFP for a larger bank, one of the top 2 private banks in the market. And we expect another one in the last part of the year. So that division is up and running.

And in the 26% upside of coeo, there is also that performance included for the first client that started end of last year.

Okay. And on the second quarter performance, is it possible to have some anticipation already?

It is not common practice for the company to provide guidance on the sequential quarter. So we are still developing this quarter. It is developing. And as usual, the company will interact with markets in the due course.

There are no more questions registered at this time.

Thank you, thank you very much, everybody. Have a good day.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones.

Good morning. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the doValue Preliminary Full Year 2025 Financial Results Presentation. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Daniele Della Seta, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Daniele Della Seta, Head of Investor Relations at doValue. I'm joined by Manuela Franchi, our Group CEO; and Davide Soffietti, our Group CFO, as we present our preliminary full year 2025 results. Manuela will begin with an overview of our performance, including key insights into market and business trends.

Next, Davide will provide a detailed analysis of our financial results for the period. We'll conclude with a Q&A session to address any questions you may have. Thank you for joining us today. I will now hand over to Manuela.

Good morning, everyone. Let me start clearly and concisely - we delivered. We met our 2025 business plan targets for both cash flow and EBITDA, our seventh consecutive year of delivery on the 3-year business plan, and we reached several milestones even earlier than planned. And we achieved this in a particularly challenging phase of our industry while also executing 2 major M&A transactions that will shape the future of our company.

Before walking you through the results, which together presented solid and consistent picture, I want to thank all the people at doValue. Their commitment and hard work have enabled us to accomplish what many in the market doubted would be possible. Commercial momentum remains strong with new business intake closing at roughly EUR 15 billion, 1.8x the annual business plan target and a pipeline that continues to support the visibility into 2026.

Profitability strengthened with EBITDA ex NRI reaching a record EUR 217 million and margin at 37%, up 3 percentage points year-on-year. The near completion of the Gardant integration is now contributing to improved efficiencies across the platform, setting the strong foundation for the next year. Cash generation was also very strong with free cash flow at EUR 76 million, well above guidance. These results supported both deleveraging and the return to dividend payment in accordance with dividend policy.

On a recurring basis, free cash flow was EUR 93 million, bridging the gap towards the 2026 EUR 90 million target. Net leverage stood at 2x at year-end, fully in line with guidance, even after accounting for extraordinary payouts linked to the M&A activities, such as EUR 6 million cash out for Alba Leasing, which was not contemplated when the guidance was announced.

As for coeo, I know that just like us, you are eager to see the performance reflected in our numbers. The transaction is expected to close shortly with no execution issues. Coeo delivered another year of strong double-digit organic growth with files intake up 23% in '25 and well ahead of our buyer case but also seller case.

Altogether, we entered '26 with a stronger business, a clearer trajectory and the foundation to deliver our next set of targets, including coeo. If you follow me on Page 3, let me start from the bigger picture. DoValue today plays a system-level role in Europe's financial stability. We operate at a scale that very few players in Europe can match, managing over 4.3 million position across individuals and businesses, all of this before coeo, which will more than double the number of data points with a broader scope.

This gives us one of the largest behavioral and credit database in the market, an asset that allow us to anticipate patterns, tailor strategies and support the functioning of the financial system with evidence-based decision-making. This is the context in which our portfolio proves sustainable across cycles.

It is diversified by design and managed by specialized professionals operating in areas where AI alone is not enough. First, diversification. Our portfolio is no longer a single asset NPL story. Alongside NPLs, we manage a large UTP perimeter, about 1 million positions, where we act as a structuring partner to protect value early. And we are developing a growing reperforming base currently of 400,000 positions that extracts value from proactive debt management.

Second, runway and capacity. Look at '25 impact indicators at the bottom, 58,000 positions recovered from individuals, 21,000 from businesses, 12,000 positions restructured and 3,000 [ reperforming ] positions collected. All these figures show a substantial annual throughput. But when you said that against the overall stock of 4.3 million outstanding positions, it's clear there is ample embedded opportunity in the existing book, a lot still to convert, which underpins visibility for the coming years.

Third, AI resilience. 88% of our portfolio is made up by loans above EUR 50,000, typically complex, bespoke and legal intensive. Here, AI augments our execution capabilities, but outcomes are driven by highly specialized asset managers who cannot be replaced by AI-only models, also due to the proprietary nature of our data set, which encompass decades of data and is not available to third-party models.

In short, our scale, our dataset and the complexity we manage make doValue one of the few players that truly matter for Europe's financial stability, and they give us a long predictable and AI resilient path of value creation. With that foundation, let me turn to the '25 new business inflow on Page 4.

In '25 GBV from new business reached almost EUR 15 billion, 1.8x our initial business plan targets, confirming the strength of our commercial engine. New Mandates continued to grow in the fourth quarter by nearly EUR 1 billion, including around EUR 600 million from [ Banco ] Project in Italy and EUR 200 million from the new contribution fund launched in December by doValue through its asset management platform focused on state guaranteed loans.

Spain also added EUR 200 million in the quarter with mandates from a major banking institution. We also saw sustained forward flow from existing customers, which totaled EUR 4.3 billion for the year, covering around 80% of collections.

This performance was mainly driven by solid contribution across countries with continued acceleration in flows from Santander in Spain, up 60% year-on-year, which has been recently renewed for an additional year without any front payment. If we take a step back, the scale of what we have achieved over the past 2 years becomes even clearer. While bank boost NPE ratios and cost of risk at historical lows, we secured EUR 24 billion of cumulative new business, nearly EUR 11 billion of which from banks. This is not just commercial success. It's a tangible demonstration of the systemic role of our industry in Europe's financial ecosystem.

Banks, funds and institutions rely on our and our competitor platform through the cycle, and this is precisely what underpins the long-term sustainability of our business.

Let's now turn to Page 5. Here, we outlined our pipeline, already reflecting the broader scope and diversification of the group after the coeo acquisition. What you see on this page is not just the net flows of inflows -- the net wave of inflows, but the shape of a business that is becoming structurally wider, more diversified and more balanced across products and geographies.

The NPE pipeline is large and diversified. This pipeline amounts to EUR 50 billion, well distributed across countries and asset classes with almost 1/4 being UTP. I would like to take a moment to clarify the tax credit opportunity in Italy. As part of the '26 budget law, the government has introduced a new framework to recover unpaid tax and property revenues from local authorities with AMCO pointed to orchestrate the collection efforts. A decree expected in March will define the operational parameters, including the potential outsourcing to license operator, a key enabling step for volumes to flow.

We are currently working on obtaining a license in order to be among the selected subservicers. For now, the initial stock identified as recovered amounts to roughly EUR 20 billion, and we are prudently including EUR 4 billion of what in our pipeline as the share realistically attainable by the value. But it's important to be clear, these figures represent only the first phase of the opportunity, specifically the local authority receivables that were already assigned to the [ Agencias delle Entrate ].

If the model proves effective and scalable, the pipeline would expand materially, potentially including local authority receivables currently handled by smaller local operators, central government receivables today managed exclusively by [ Agencias delle Entrate ]. Parallelly, on the coeo side, the pipeline is extremely strong with potential for additional annual revenue of over EUR 250 million. This means that with the current dip in the market, coeo could effectively more than double its annual revenue and largely diversified customer base. Indeed, 2/3 of the pipeline comes from sector beyond e-commerce, including telcos, insurance and mobility.

All this comes from opportunities in markets where coeo is currently present. Once we look at expanding coeo into doValue, this opportunity further expands. We included a deep dive for Italy and Spain, and you can see there are plenty of sectors with small ticket receivables that coeo could tap with its highly automated digital recovery processes.

Let's now turn to Page 6. Here, we have shown the market backdrop. Insolvency have been rising across the EU with bankruptcy declaration up 18% year-on-year in '24 and the '25 run rate reaching the highest level since '19. In Q4 '25, seasonally adjusted declaration were once again up quarter-on-quarter, underscoring that the trends remain live.

By country, the picture is fully designed with what to be observed on the ground. Greece recorded an average plus 20% quarterly increase through 2025. Italy is expected to exceed the pre-pandemic insolvency levels. Germany started its upswing later, but is expected to continue. And Spain showed insolvency levels contained but higher versus 10 years ago across most markets.

Now an important point of context. Our business plan '24-'26 was built without assuming any macroeconomic shock or deterioration. Despite that, we have delivered new business significantly above expectation in both '24 and '25, even while banks were reporting historically low new NPE ratios and cost of risk. What this means is that in an already benign credit environment, doValue still capture strong inflows and commercial traction. And if the current insolvency trend persists or broadens, it represents potential upside versus the intake assumed in our plan with the usual time lag between filing and onboarding and with the same discipline on mix and pricing, guiding what we choose to service.

Now on to a more cheerful note, let's move to Page 7 for an update on coeo. '25 has been another really strong year for them despite management being largely involved with a long and complex sales process to doValue. Coeo grew New Files by 23% to 9.6 million files, reflecting both in-market client growth, notably in telco across Germany, Sweden and the U.K. and client-driven expansion into 3 new markets: Switzerland, Norway, Finland without M&A.

On the digital engagement and service quality, coeo is running AI-enabled interaction across Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Norway, delivering over 1 million customer interaction completely digital whilst maintaining excellent customer satisfaction metrics. On the financial side, coeo delivered around EUR 60 million EBITDA in 2025, excluding EBITDA coming from the hybrid model with a 35% increase in portfolio investments, which fuel future collection revenue growth.

It's important to note that this 35% increase in portfolio investment was entirely funded through the strong cash generation of the business, evidence of the sustainability of the hybrid model.

Moving to Page 8. We have initially hoped to close the coeo transaction by January. The closing is still pending without any issues. I'd like to give you some color on the process. The transaction is clearance by 4 major authorities in several countries where coeo operates. We are awaiting clearance from just one last authority in Germany. The time line was extended due to the document collection and examination requirements across multiple jurisdictions and counterparts and administrative multiparty review that simply taken longer than anticipated.

Importantly, there has been no change to the perimeter on terms agreed, and we remain fully engaged with the authority on the remaining steps. From an execution readiness standpoint, we are prepared to move quickly once clearance arrives. We have already agreed the integration plan structured along 7 work streams; governance, finance, HR, IT, procurement, AI and business expansion with clear owners detailed checklist and no disruption expected for clients.

The AI work stream is set to make coeo, the group AI app for small tickets, digital first growth while presenting our high-touch approach on complex exposures. We will close promptly upon receipt of the final clearance and are operationally ready to integrate from day 1.

First, we operate in 2 very different arenas. Now you can see it on Page 9. Here, we want to comment upon the recent noise about what the AI winners and loser will be, and we want to be very concrete about how AI touches our business. On the one hand, we manage mid-large secured loans. Our [ core ] book with an average ticket of around EUR 70,000, where AI mainly improves cost efficiency and workflow orchestration, but outcomes still require experienced asset managers.

Here, AI is an enabler with limited impact on economics, not a substitute for human expertise. On small and secured tickets, AI matters more because full automation is needed to make unit economic work. That is exactly why we choose to enter this segment through coeo, a digital AI-driven platform built for scale. In practice, we are already using AI where it moves the needle. Digital debtor portals and channels are live in Greece, about 30% of 0 to 90 days collection are handled digitally.

We are also using modeling and advanced analytics for segmentation and propensity to pay, virtual agents to support our teams on [indiscernible] responses and call wrap-ups and document analytics to extract facts from judicial and notarial files. The impact is visible. With the initial adoption of the digital platform in Greece, small ticket EBITDA margin increased from roughly 53% to 89%, a step change that illustrates how automation can lower the cost to collect without compromising governance.

It's equally important to explain why we are structurally protected as AI adoption accelerates in 3 ways. First, regulation. Our activities require licenses and human oversight. AI cannot hold a servicing license or assume legal responsibility under certain regulation. So human-in-the-loop is mandatory in our markets.

Second, data. AI needs domain-specific training data. DoValue owns one of the Southern most -- Europe's most expensive proprietary credit recovery databases, which is private and not available to third-party models.

Third, complexity. Corporate and secured recoveries are bespoke and legal intensive. Local courts filing, multiparty negotiations are at the heart of our business. Automation can manage low-value, high-volume cases. Experts drive outcomes on complex scales.

Our strategy is clear: automate at scale where automation wins small ticket by coeo and augment human expertise where value is created. Secured and complex claims add to value, all under a road map with a clear roadway. Regulation, data and complexity will continue to be durable moves as AI promises.

Let's now turn to Page 10 with an overview on the German market, which will become very important for us. Germany is now the #2 NPL market in Europe by stock held on bank's balance sheet at EUR 46 billion, up 24% versus 2019 and 21% larger than the current Italian size.

Importantly, this EUR 46 billion figure covers banks only. It excludes position held by investors, fintechs and debt purchasers and receivable from nonfinancial entities served by coeo. So the true addressable market is materially larger than on balance sheet number.

Yes, the servicing market is underdeveloped. It's highly fragmented with servicers typically specialized by client segments and not meaningfully consolidation to date, leading limited scale platform and clear scope for a consolidator to bring multi-client, multiproduct capabilities.

On execution, the regulatory bar is also a differentiator. Since '24, Germany requires a CSI license to operate in credit servicing. We have secured the license, established doValue Germany, onboarded project staff and identified key hirings, completed the first market analysis, upgraded system to run NPL workflows and onboarded an initial client, aiming to make profits already in '27.

All these are concrete tangible steps and not simple intention. Strategically, this expansion is the first synergy of the coeo acquisition. Germany is coeo largest market. Sweden ahead of closing. We are not standstill. We are leveraging coeo footprint and digital stack to accelerate entry, demonstrating that we are proactive and already putting the model in motion to scale quickly once consolidation is completed.

To sum up, a large and growing German NPL pool plus the fragmented servicing landscape creates room for a sizable opportunity. We are in markets licenses and building capacity using the coeo's first synergy of the deal to ensure that once consolidation is completed, we can scale delivery from day 1.

Before I hand over to Davide to walk you through the financials, let's turn to Page 11 and look at the progress made so far on the business plan horizon. This is our second consecutive year of delivering this guidance, and we are ahead on the 2024-'26 business plan. Cumulatively, we have already reached the full 3-year new business target in just 2 years, more than EUR 24 billion of GBV from new business in '24 and '25 only.

Engine 2 of growth is delivering. The digital platform is live in all countries. Our alternative asset management company is above EUR 1 million of fee-generating AUM with 2 new funds launched in recent months.

FinThesis has already intermediated 2,000 mortgage applications and our advisory unit continues to expand. With the consolidation of coeo, Engine 2 will become the group main business and represent the majority of group revenue from day 1, not over time, shifting the group revenue mix as outlined at the Capital Markets Day.

On capital structure, we delivered as well. We refinanced the '25-'26 bonds by summer '25. And in October '25, issued the 350 2031 notes at a coupon 160 bps lower than the February issuance despite the longer maturity. Our bonds trade at a yield to maturity around -- below 5%, sorry; the lowest in the industry, and we still see room to optimize interest costs through further refinancing.

Finally, financial performance is in line with guidance. GBV of EUR 136 billion, EBITDA of EUR 217 million ex-NRI, free cash flow of EUR 76 million, net leverage of 2x. So overall, we are delivering what we said. We are ahead on the transformation, and we are doing it with a capital structure and the financial profile that supports the next phase.

Actually, we didn't just deliver on the numbers, we overdelivered on our strategic position. We expanded our geographical footprint, strengthened our AI capabilities and broadened our product scope with an acquisition that will open a new chapter for doValue at the next Capital Markets Day. And we did all this while keeping leverage in check and delivering on every stand-alone target. I will now hand over to Davide, who will take you through the financial results in more detail.

Thank you, Manuela, and good morning, everyone. Let me start by saying that 2025 was a year of tangible progress and strong financial execution as is clear from the summary of our preliminary full year results on Page 13. 2025 stands out as a year where we delivered strong results and materially enhanced profitability with double-digit increases in both revenues and EBITDA.

Gross revenue in 2025 was EUR 580 million, showing a solid double-digit growth of 21.1% versus the prior year. Despite temporary timing effects related to the ramp-up of the collection process on the new Greek portfolios, the underlying momentum remained strong with growth sustained by non-NPL revenue, which continue to expand their contribution to the group's mix as indicated in our plan.

Net revenue rose to EUR 524 million, mirroring the gross revenue growth in the presence of a stable impact of outsourcing costs year-over-year. EBITDA ex-NRI reached EUR 217 million, up 31.8% versus 2024. Synergies expected for the Gardant acquisition are playing out exactly as expected in Italy with integration now largely completed.

Cost discipline across the other regions continue to support high margin, up by 3 percentage points from the 2024 level. Net income ex NRI increased to EUR 25 million, more than tripling from EUR 7 million in 2024 despite higher financial costs and higher D&A following the consolidation of the Gardant perimeter. This is fully consistent with our M&A philosophy. Every transaction must be EPS accretive, and the performance we are showing confirms exactly that. The coeo acquisition will show in our figures in 2026, and it will be a synergy.

Moving now to Page 14, we can find breakdown of gross revenue per region. At group level, gross revenue grew by 21.1% year-on-year, driven by continued growth in non-NPL revenues, both UTP and recurring with [indiscernible]. Non-NPL revenue represents now 36% of gross revenues, up 1 percentage point from 2024, in line with the group strategy shift towards higher growth, lower volatility segments.

This will expand further following the completion of the coeo acquisition. In the Hellenic region, as mentioned, revenues in Q4 accelerated due to timing effect in the ramp-up of new portfolios, which we expect to contribute fully to revenue in 2026. Other than that, the regions continue to show sustainable activity across all of the business segments with healthy collections underpinned by different markets.

In Italy, gross revenue grew 61% year-on-year, supported by the combined contribution of Gardant and the strong growth in non-NPL revenue, which will continue to expand even excluding Gardant. It is important to highlight that even on a stand-alone basis, both doValue and Gardant recorded low single-digit growth, confirming that the stabilization of GBV and the increasing weight of non-NPL revenues are already shaping a new positive growing dynamic even in a mature markets such as Italy.

In Spain, revenue declined EUR 41 million as weakness in REO was mitigated by circa 60% growth in UTP servicing. Revenue in the future will be driven by new business intake in a still fragmented market.

On Page 15, you can see the result of the continuous cost discipline efforts at the group level and of the successful integration of Gardant, delivering all the synergies promised 1 year ago. In 2025, operating costs increased only by 14.6% year-on-year, 6.3 percentage points less than revenues despite the inclusion of the cost base of Gardant. More in detail, HR costs grew 17.3%, leading to an incidence on revenues lower by more than 130 basis points, mainly thanks to effective release of synergies in Italy as well as cost savings across all geographies.

As for IT, Real Estate, SG&A expenses, we recorded an increase of only EUR 42 million with the incidence on revenues falling 170 basis points as the group listed savings in all markets.

On Page 16, we find by country details of EBITDA ex-NRI, which reached EUR 217 million at group level, up by 31.8% year-over-year and landing at upper end of our guidance for 2025. In Hellenic region, EBITDA ex NRI reached EUR 121.4 million with a reduction versus 2024 that mirrors the revenue dynamics, although partially mitigated by cost discipline measures. The region continued to be a key profitability driver for the group, contributing 56% of total EBITDA ex NRI with a solid 51% margin.

In Italy, EBITDA increased 50% to the contribution of Gardant as well as the effective release of synergies. Indeed, the Gardant integration has been progressing really well, and the synergies are evident. In Italy, the EBITDA margin increased by 13 percentage points year-on-year with more value extracted from the acquisition than originally expected. This remarkable results demonstrate the high value-creating nature of our M&A activities.

In Spain, we achieved a positive EBITDA as cost savings contributed to offset negative trends observed in REO. Nonrecurring items were limited to negative EUR 8 million, originating mainly from consultancy costs related to the coeo acquisition and cost to release Gardant synergies.

Moving to Page 17. We show very positive dynamics in net income evolution, which, excluding nonrecurring items, more than tripled to EUR 25 million and increased by EUR 19 million compared to 2024. Analyzing the most impactful items between EBITDA and net income, depreciation and amortization and net impairment on PPE & intangible increased EUR 36 million year-over-year.

The increase versus last year is mainly related to incremental D&A from Gardant and its PPA. Net financial interest and commission were higher, reflecting the normal impact of the larger gross debt following recent M&A activities. This includes the term loan paid in 2024 to fund the Gardant acquisition, currently circa EUR 300 million outstanding and amortizing EUR 53 million per annum, EUR 300 million bond due 2030 issued in February and EUR 350 million bond due 2031 issued in November and currently held in escrow until closing of the coeo transaction.

Income tax decreased on a recurring basis by 17% year-on-year, while reported tax increased due to adverse comparison effect related to an extraordinary EUR 20 million positive effect in 2024 from a tax claim won in Spain.

Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest increased EUR 6 million in 2025 to EUR 18.1 1million due to Gardant minorities.

Nonrecurring items for the period amounted to EUR 34 million, up by EUR 29 million, mainly due to the aforementioned EUR 20 million positive effect from the tax claim in Spain related to 2024 and the nonrecurring financial costs related to the 2 recent bond issuance and early redemption of the '26 bonds.

As a result, net income, excluding nonrecurring income items, reached EUR 25.3 million, up by EUR 19 million paving the way for dividend payout in line with our dividend policy.

Moving to Page 18. Let's have a look at the cash flow dynamics, which, as anticipated in our plan, improved significantly. We are pleased to see the group being back to its previous high cash generation levels with cash flow from operations up EUR 99 million to EUR 181 million in the full year, thanks to positive EBITDA contribution and working capital dynamics and tighter control over the change in other asset and liabilities.

Capital expenditure increased by EUR 11 million versus last year, higher than previously guided due to AI and automation initiatives to unlock efficiencies, investment in data strategy, investment to strengthening the group's cybersecurity perimeter as well as investments linked to the Gardant integration, namely the unification of system across the company.

Net working capital released EUR 32 million, mainly linked to the recovery of past invoices in Greece and some nonrecurring expenses related to the coeo, which will be paid on closing. Lease payments under IFRS 16 amounted to EUR 17 million, including Gardant perimeter, in line with previous messaging.

Payment for redundancy were EUR 11 million, slightly down versus 2024 as the group successfully limited redundancy by relocating personnel across the wider doValue Gardant perimeter, limiting the use of external asset managers. Other change in other asset and liabilities reflect the expected reversal of the MBO effect and include a positive effect related to the coeo transaction which will be reversed in 2026.

Minorities were unchanged versus 9 months results as expected. Investments in equity and financial assets accounted for EUR 18 million, mainly from nonrecurring payments for the earnout in Greece and investment in Alba Leasing.

Taking all this into account, free cash flow before debt repayment or dividend landed at EUR 76 million, above our EUR 60 million to EUR 70 million guidance range. On a recurring basis, excluding M&A-related effects such as earn-out for doValue Greece, Alba Leasing investment free cash flow for debt repayment would have been EUR 93 million, bringing the gap towards the 2026 free cash flow guidance.

Based on the results achieved, doValue currently trades at a free cash flow yield of around 18% or 21% on a recurring basis.

To conclude, let's now move on Page 19 and take a look at our financial structure. Net financial leverage at the end of December stood at 2x, down from the 2.4x level at December 2024, reaching the target for the 2025 despite an additional extraordinary M&A related to Alba Leasing. Even after the EUR 53 million term loan repayment, the group maintained a solid liquidity buffer of EUR 277 million, made up of EUR 145 million cash on balance sheet and EUR 152 million undrawn revolving credit facility, including a EUR 20 million new facility agreed in January '26, which remains completely undrawn.

Overall, we closed the year with a solid capital structure, BB credit rating, strong performance in the bond market with our bonds trading at the lowest yield in the industry, below 5% and no refinancing needs until 2030, given the recent November issuance to finance the acquisition currently held in escrow.

As we continue on our delevering path, we also see further opportunities to optimize our cost of debt by refinancing instruments issued at higher coupon. Importantly, this structure gives us significant flexibility in future capital allocation and shareholder remuneration; topics that will be addressed in detail as part of the next Capital Market Day. This is all our side for today. Thank you all for your attention. We will now take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Tommaso Nieddu of Kepler Cheuvreux.

I have a few. The first one on free cash flow, which was clearly the main positive surprise. On working capital, the EUR 32 million release in 2025 was, I believe, materially ahead of your prior guidance and our expectation. Can you help us understand with more details what structurally changed there and also beyond the EUR 5 million temporary benefit from coeo? And given the 2025 net working capital release, as we think about 2026, should we assume a broadly neutral working capital? Or do you see scope for further structural release?

The second question is on dividends. While you reiterated that the proposal will be in line with policy, could you give us more clarity on how you think about positioning within the 50% to 70% payout range? And for now, the last one on Gardant. You originally guided for EUR 5 million of synergies in 2025 and EUR 15 million at a full run rate. My question is, could you quantify how much has been realized to date and whether there is any incremental upside beyond the EUR 15 million target?

Tommaso, I will take your first question. Free cash flow, EUR 32 billion were coming as anticipated mainly from Greece as we guided EUR 15 million to EUR 20 million, the higher level of our guidance. Then we have also a contribution, as I was saying, from coeo, we have roughly EUR 3 million that has been included in the reported EBITDA that will be paid in 2026 at closing.

And then we have also positive impact from Italy, both on working capital and also because we were able to use our tax credit that has been transformed in tax credit has been used to pay related to the working capital. For '26, we still expect a positive contribution from working capital, we still need to recover advanced payment we made in Greece. So we would expect still a double-digit contribution of working capital in 2026.

On the dividend front, we will propose to be on the high end of our guidance in terms of percentage, probably rounding the numbers up. On the Gardant integration, about 2025, we closed between actual synergies of around EUR 9 million to EUR 10 million. We confirm still the run rate of EUR 15 million, hoping to do better. All the actions have been put in place. The technical aspects to be executed will complete by June. So by June, everything is really closed. And the team is running ahead of guidance on the cost efficiency side.

The next question is from Antonio Gianfrancesco of Intermonte.

Congratulations for these set of results. I have 2 questions. The first one is on new business because new business intake reached EUR 14.5 billion in 2025, exceeding already the cumulative business plan target, a very good figure. But I would be -- it would be useful to better understand your expectation for inflows in 2026, both in terms of volume and product mix and how confident you are in maintaining this commercial momentum in a market where NPE inflows remaining for sure, structurally low, but insolvency trends appear to be rising?

The second question is on coeo, because I understand that BaFin approval is the final step before closing. And you have confirmed your guidance for 2026, which includes coeo's contribution. So considering that the actual closing will now take place at least 2 months later than planned or something like that, it will be useful to understand whether you expect this delay to have any potential impact on execution in 2026?

And the third one is on the German expansion. You highlighted Germany as a fragmented and consolidated market with CSI licensing obtained and operations starting, if I don't understand worse in January 2026. So some additional color on the medium-term ambition in that geography, let's say, in terms of scale, investment intensity and potential margin profile would be very, very helpful.

Thank you for your question. On the business volumes, clearly, there were major transaction this year that we had embedded as probability in our pipeline. But obviously, they all realize in a positive manner that probability will become 100%, and this has brought to doubling the level.

Clearly, the level of primary transaction across the core markets, the Southern European one, we see them less in the traditional NPL business, while they will be mostly focused on the UTP and Early Arrears part. And also the pipeline regarding nonfinancial claims from there is quite big given that it's a market we don't touch today or at a very limited extent in Spain and that for us is an open opportunity.

So we confirm -- we reiterate still what we had in the business plan of EUR 8 billion. Clearly, this EUR 8 billion is composed by forward flows and the new contracts. On a positive note, the forward flow this year only contributed more than EUR 4 billion. Clearly, this includes UniCredit that has finished in terms of forward flow last October and that is replaced by Sondrio that obviously it's smaller that will start after April.

And the renewal of Santander, which this year has done more than EUR 1 billion over our budget. So this brings us to positive expectation also on the forward flow contribution of 2026. If you remember, our original mix in the EUR 8 billion was EUR 2 billion from forward flow and EUR 6 billion from the rest and also this component is much higher. This is without coeo.

Obviously, coeo has an end market which is different. And in that sense, is a growing market. And this is all assuming in our core business still not substantial increase in the default rates, which is instead happening. So we prefer still to be conservative on this front. Also because you might remember that the time between winning the contract onboarding and the actual pickup of the activities takes a bit of time. And so it has a more dilutive effect over time.

Now on the coeo side, the -- in terms of execution of the integration, we don't see impact on the execution. Why? We have already defined the integration plan, and we are already moving ahead with the business opportunity without waiting the closing. So coeo team has built a division to manage NPL and has already deployed a system which allows them under our guidance to manage our traditional NPL.

And they already got new clients from January for which they are managing NPL bank. So we are talking to banks. I was actually in terms of for a conference with banks just 2 days ago because the regulator is telling them to prepare themselves for this increasing weight because they have not used those internally to manage more NPL. And to do it more efficiently based on other models and Italy was portrayed as a reference model for the servicing industry.

So that activity is developing. On the other side, we are deploying in Italy and in Spain, the coeo models and system. And we can say that already from April, we will start managing 2 of the major clients in our jurisdiction. So this is major results. Then if you look from a pure accounting standpoint, clearly, the figures we have given are pro forma, and it depends on the timing of close, we will consolidate from that point in time.

But in terms of free cash flow generation and the targets, we feel confident given that the contribution of coeo in '26 was pretty much somehow offset most extent from the transaction costs, while the full effect on the free cash flow side is from the year after. So because we already achieved this year, clean for the extraordinary elements, the EUR 90 million guidance, the target for the EUR 2.2 billion, it's pretty much sustainable despite this delay.

Now going back to your last question on the German expansion. Clearly, our history in Germany is different now from Southern Europe, where we bought a legacy platform that we will go to make more efficient, more modern. In Germany, we start with a model which is extremely light doesn't have legacy, and we would like to grow our market share, keeping that approach.

So we will look to M&A in a very thoughtful and selective manner, but we prefer the organic growth strategy in that specific sector, given that it has proven very successful and the AI-driven collection model in the German market has taken a lot of market share from traditional players in the small ticket business, and we hope to do the same also for the NPL. Obviously, adding the more human-intensive piece that we have explained is critical for when you manage larger tickets. But on that front, as I said, the team has already hired a few people, has already [indiscernible]. So -- and all of this is -- all these costs are included already in the guidance we have given.

The next question is from Davide Rimini, Intesa Sanpaolo.

Just a few. One is on cash flow. I was just wondering, you mentioned already your guidance in terms of working capital contribution for this year. I just wonder whether you might mention a few other building blocks to get to a rough guidance for this year versus the EUR 76 million reported today?

The second question would be just a clarification on the pro forma confirmed guidance for this year. I just wonder whether you might add on coeo business, whether there is any seasonality in the business that we should be aware of within the year? And that might affect sort of this message?

And the third question, still on coeo. I noticed that you put sort of a slide on the potential pipeline in the 18 months forward on EUR 250 million. And at the same time, you highlighted the opportunities in extended the business in countries like Italy and Spain. I just wondered whether the EUR 250 million is including these opportunities or is excluding those?

Davide, I will take your first question. '26, as we mentioned already in 2025 shows that we are able to -- excluding nonrecurring items to be at EUR 90 million. So in 2026, we still have CapEx that will be quite in line with this year, probably around EUR 30 million. We will have a positive contribution from working capital between EUR 20 million and EUR 25 million.

We'll have change in other asset liabilities that are always the IFRS EUR 70 million plus redundancy that expected around EUR 60 million. We have tax income to pay around EUR 30 million. Financial charge expected roughly EUR 36 million, EUR 38 million. And we still have the earnout to the grid that is the last one we need to pay this year is EUR 12 million. The next one will be in 2030 of EUR 60 million and minority that is quite in line with this year, so roughly EUR 8 million.

On coeo, as Manuela was mentioned, we get free cash flow that will be mainly compensated by the transaction cost and by higher financial charge. But from 2026, we will benefit from the cash flow. This is why we are confirming EUR 90 million. Then we will have the benefit of the proceeds for the portfolio sales that this is in line with our guidance. So we reduced the gross debt.

On the guidance for '26, if I understood the question correctly, -- this year, we closed for the doValue Group at EUR 217 million. In terms of EBITDA, we indicated in the guidance last year that the EUR 300 million included the bottom end guidance we had given before of EUR 240 million to EUR 250 million.

And in coeo, there is no seasonality effect. There are some mild effects related to [ an uptick ] of e-commerce transaction around Christmas and the like, but nothing as typical as the [ core ] activity in the traditional business.

In relation to your last question, if you're looking to Page 5, the pipeline of the EUR 250 million does not include the expansion to Southern Europe.

And if I may just have a follow-up sort of on the CapEx that you mentioned, the EUR 30 million is -- could you give us sort of a sense why sort of it should be off versus the EUR 35 million sort of spend this year?

Sorry, can you say it again?

I just wonder, if I picked up correctly, sort of you are pointing to EUR 30 million CapEx this year off versus the EUR 35 million reported today. I was wondering whether there's any reason for...

The main [delta ] this year we included all the costs mainly related to the Gardant synergies that was a one-off to integrate platform to have the positive effect of the synergies. So from next year, we will save this money. So we continue to spend our Gardant CapEx plus investment in technology...

Yes. Just to be clear, we don't expect a lot of cost from the integration of coeo because it's a different platform. So we will have some integration of unification of back-end platform, but it's more deployment and it's much more contained than in the Gardant case, which included a significant, obviously, FTE reduction effort and related integration of in-market platforms that in this case, we are not going to have.

Clearly, you have some costs related to the development of the -- of their platform in our countries and of our platform in their country. The second one has already been expanded in their P&L in 2025, given that we moved ahead just after signing. So this impact of integration is much less.

Another important point is differently from -- with an increasing trend vis-a-vis the past, the component of development, new technologies, AI projects as part of the CapEx has materially increased. Last year it was probably around 30%. This year will be more than 50%. This is obviously a function of bringing better processes, better technologies in our core system rather than integrating what we had.

The next question is from Davide Giuliano of Equita.

I have 4. The first one on gross revenues. Revenues were a touch below your guidance, but more than offset by remarkable efforts on costs. Can you give us some color on the like-for-like trend in revenues? And are you seeing a more pronounced slowdown in recent quarters compared to your guidance? Where do the difference come from?

The second one on Greece. In the release, you reported that there are still slowdowns in the onboarding of portfolios, I guess, still related to the Alphabet tranches. In addition, we have also seen a market drop -- a marked drop, sorry, in the collection rate compared to last year. Why are you experiencing these difficulties in onboarding? And in general, what trajectory do you expect for the Greek business going forward?

The third one on tax credits. Has there been any relevant developments for state tax credits? And can you give us your expectation on profitability of local tax credit servicing, which will be assigned to AMCO? And the very last one is just a quick comment on coeo results were very good in 2025. And I was wondering in light of Klarna's recent results, if your long-term assessment of the coeo business model or concentration risk with Klarna has changed?

Davide, I'll take your first question on revenues. As we anticipated in Greece, the reduction is not a -- tax reduction is mainly correlated to the -- as you mentioned, we have onboarded a huge amount of portfolios in 2025, very big, more than EUR 5 billion. So all the portfolio are onboarded, and we are managing those portfolio.

The only difference is when you onboard this big portfolio, you need to work on those portfolio to have up and running revenue. So the expectation was to anticipate revenue during 2025, but because they are very, very big portfolio, we need to work on those portfolios, start the judicial action to also reach an autologous agreements with the borrower.

So this created a temporary delay of those revenues from 2025 to 2026. And this is also impacting the collection rate you were mentioned because for sure, we [ existing ] portfolios that are still not having a run rate collection rate. So the first year will be lower, then we will pick up and go back to the previous collection rate. So we will consider this only really temporary effect that will not be any more in 2026.

And then we have also, as I mentioned, in Spain, the reduction of revenue arrears, but that one has been also a choice for us because that part is not high margin. So we prefer to reduce these revenues, increasing other type of credit to manage that have lower revenues, but higher profitability.

On the tax credit, we are waiting or waiting the operating metrics and that the laws to be published by March will indicate on how to execute what was in the budget law. So based on that, they are defining the operating model on which the services they will use will work on.

And we assume that after June, that type of business will be moved to them and they will allocate to subservicers. We have, as you know, a good relationship with them, given that we even increased last year or we even doubled the amount of portfolios that we were managing for them after they reassessed the number of services they work with.

So we are keeping ourselves for -- to manage that business, which is not included in our budget estimates. And the margin we are hoping for is driven not by the type of receivable, but the operating model that we want to create on the back end on our side, we should be a digital model. So to confirm the margin we have on the rest of the business in Italy.

Now on the coeo results, maybe Daniele can comment.

Klarna results, you mean?

Yes.

We watch very closely the quarterly results of Klarna, of course, because it is a key customer of coeo. First, let me begin by saying that as you have seen from the pipeline, coeo is diversifying much from Klarna. Nevertheless, it is still an important customer. What we watch for in the quarterly results of Klarna is the growth in the transacted volume.

And this is growing very healthy across all of the regions where coeo operates. Specifically, the most important are Germany, U.K. and Sweden. In those regions, Klarna is already very profitable with its flagship product which is Pay in 3 installments.

But a good news is that they launched recently the Klarna card. It's a debit card that sits in your phone and allow you to purchase in normal brick-and-mortar shops, with buy now pay later installment. And this is already producing an increase in purchase frequency by 8x in Germany. And this is driving a solid growth of transacted volume in U.K. by 40% and in Germany by 20%.

So we are happy about Klarna growth. Of course, their profits are suffering from expansion in other products such as consumer financing in the U.S. We think that there's a clear rationale in expanding in those products. And we hope that at a certain point, coeo will be able to expand its product offering towards the more profitable products.

The next question is from Simonetta Chiriotti of Mediobanca.

Looking at the guidance for 2026, excluding coeo, you projected growth from EUR 217 million to EUR 240 million. Could you elaborate a bit more on the trends in the various markets? So should we expect growth in the Hellenic region, for example, and a further growth in Italy? And my second question is on tax receivables. In the past, I think that you have mentioned that there is an opportunity also in Greece on this segment. Could you just give us an update on this?

On the Hellenic front, we see 3 type of growth. One, the full action on the EUR 7 billion new portfolio onboarded in 2025 will have a collection effect on certain younger vintages that we didn't have before. And this was what Davide was explaining that you need to put activities in place before you see the actual results.

On the other side, don't forget that Greece is probably the country where we are diversifying more the product offer. We have the real estate company, the mortgage broking company, the advisory company. We are offering a data proposition out of the advisory company from this year.

We have created another company which they manage small ticket unsecured starting from next year, which is called doServe and will open the market for nonfinancial receivables and also the tax receivable opportunities you were mentioning where the process shall start next month. But this is as an upside is included in a very small amount in our budget given that it's a public tender process, and it might take a bit longer.

On the Italian front, the extra value perimeter, but also the Gardant one have been growing this year, mildly vis-a-vis last year. And we are now deploying at full speed also the revenue synergies that we had in the Gardant perimeter. Then in Italy, we have the asset management company. So that falls under that perimeter where we have developed now 2 new funds recently actually 3, and we have a pipeline for next year, too.

And last, on the data side, we think we will increase significantly the product offer to noncaptive clients. We have already developed the products. And remember, we also are launching in Italy the Stage 2 product, which has now might be -- we might be closing with 2 banks contract. So this is in our assumption. So it's exploring as much as possible the stocks we have and the inflows from BPM, doValue and Sondrio, but also to grow these other revenue lines.

While in Spain, apart from the fact that we have developed digital collection now in all the countries with the marginality increase, which is very strong. We mentioned -- I think Davide mentioned that on the 0 to 90 days past due, the margin on the digital channel is more than 80% versus less than 40% before.

There, we are deploying a JV, but we will discuss in more details in the next call on the legal servicing side because the structure of the legal services in the Spanish market allow us to develop this type of proposition. So it's really professional services type of revenues, which -- where we are going to use the capacity we have inside with strong lawyers with expertise in this sector for other sectors, which are not NPL related.

Mr. Della Seta, there are no more questions registered at this time.

Thank you all. We wish you a good day.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones.

Good morning. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the doValue 9 Months 2025 Financial Results Presentation. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Daniele Della Seta, Head of IR of doValue. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Daniele Della Seta, Head of Investor Relations and M&A at doValue. Today, I'm joined by Manuela Franchi, our Group CEO; and Davide Soffietti, our Group CFO, as we present our 9 months results. Manuela will begin with an overview of our performance, including key insights into market and business trends. Next, Davide will provide a detailed analysis of our financial results for the period. We conclude with a Q&A session to address any questions you may have. Thank you for joining us today. I will now hand over to Manuela.

Good morning. Building on last week's successful bond issuance to finance the coeo acquisition, I'm delighted to share the strong momentum behind our 2024-2026 strategic plan. Today, results reaffirm the strength of our foundations with consistent performance across all key metrics and a clear path towards our full year guidance. The first 10 months of '25 have been marked by solid profitability and continued cash flow generation. Non-NPL revenue continues to drive diversification and represent 57% of gross revenue, fully aligned with our strategic vision.

EBITDA ex-NRI grew 43% year-on-year, supported by accelerated synergies and disciplined cost management and representing a higher percentage of full year target performance compared to 2024. New business intake already exceeds the revised full year target at EUR 12.4 billion, reflecting continued strong flows from locked-in contracts in the third quarter, evidence of the stability of our business.

Operating cash flow more than doubled year-on-year thanks to a threefold improvement in cash conversion, in line to reach the full year guidance of EUR 60 million to EUR 70 million free cash flow in 2025. Finally, the recent successful issuance of EUR 350 million senior notes due November 2031, eliminates any financing risk for the coeo acquisition, reinforces our established position in the capital markets and it does at an excellent fixed rate of 5% with a first time 6-year maturity for doValue and the sector.

The regulatory approval for the acquisition are progressing smoothly, and we remain on track to close by January 26. This timeline allows us to demonstrate continuous delivery on our full year guidance on a stand-alone basis, something we are fully confident in achieving given these 9 months results. If you follow me on Page 3, you will see the tangible results of our commercial efforts. In the first 9 months, we have already reached the revised full year target of more than EUR 12 billion with EUR 12.4 billion in new business GBV. The positive momentum in new business continued in the third quarter with new mandates from a leading Spanish bank and new UTP flows in Italy, further strengthening our UTP segment.

We foresee for the full year up to EUR 14 billion. UTPs now account for 8.5% of our GBV, confirming the progress we are making in diversifying our portfolio and capturing opportunity beyond traditional NPL. GBV inflows from locked-in contracts with banks, which we normally refer to as forward flow, continue to deliver solid flows in the third quarter. And once again, they were able to cover 85% of collections. This performance was driven by sustained contribution across countries with Spain showing a remarkable plus 46% increase in flows from Santander alongside continued inflows from Italian and Greek banking partners, which fits very well with the potential renewal in the short term of the Santander contracts.

These flows confirm the recurring nature of our NPE franchise, which remains a cornerstone of our strategy and a source of stable visible cash flows. The new business inflows over the first 9 months, together with those secured in '24, further underscore the long-term resilience of our traditional NPE servicing model, even in periods of economic strength and healthy bank balance sheets. Building on our latest commercial milestone, the extension of the BPER partnership to include the Banca Popolare di Sondrio Perimeter, we anticipate an even higher contribution from forward flows going forward, net of the exit of UniCredit from the perimeter from November 1.

Our current pipeline comfortably exceeds the annual new business target of EUR 6 billion, excluding forward flows, providing clear visibility on delivery. Looking ahead, we see an estimated EUR 45 billion of mandates in the market over the next 18 months, with significant opportunities in Italy and Greece and promising prospects in Spain, particularly in the banking sector. Nonfinancial receivables remain a major growth avenue, further enhanced by coeo's specialized expertise, technology and client relationships.

Let's move to the next page. Page 4 provides further proof of this trend through the expansion of our strategic partnership with BPER Group announced last week. This agreement follows BPER recent acquisition of Banca Popolare di Sondrio and significantly announced the scope of our existing joint venture, which is 70% owned by doValue and 30% by BPER. The JV currently manages approximately EUR 2.7 billion of NPEs and benefits from long-term servicing rights until December '33, including 50% of new UTP inflows and 90% of new NPL inflows generated annually by BPER and Banca di Sondrio.

We are proud to announce that we successfully extended this rights to the enlarged perimeter of BPER Group, which has aggregated customer loans of around EUR 126 billion, an increase of roughly 40% compared to BPER premerger. This expansion, which was not contractually provided for, significantly increases the potential inflows under the existing contracts and reinforces the sustainability of our forward flow model. Beyond the servicing rights, we expect the partnership to contribute stock in mid-'26 from the enlarged BPER Group perimeter.

In addition, doValue will acquire a minority stake of 5.1% in Alba Leasing, Italy fourth-largest leasing operator with total assets of EUR 5 billion and NPE ratio of approximately 5%, the investment was made at very attractive valuation with a limited cash outlay of EUR 6 million that does not impact our leverage targets for '25. The small acquisition will give us a board seat in Alba Leasing and could open further opportunities to service NPEs from Alba Leasing given the servicing partnership with its 2 largest shareholders, BPER and Banco BPM and the portfolio with an NPE ratio of more than 4% on EUR 4 billion of assets.

This proactive approach confirms doValue positioning as BPER Group trusted partner, one of the most dynamic player in the Italian market and underscore the strength of our value proposition for banks. Moving to Page 5. We would like to provide a status update on the integration of Gardant, which remains firmly on track to deliver all promised synergies, reinforcing our ability to execute complex projects effectively. It's important to highlight that despite the recently announced acquisition of coeo, we have been fully focused on the integration of Gardant and consequent release of synergies.

As you probably remember, we guided up to EUR 15 million of annual pretax synergies with approximately EUR 5 million already achieved in '25. These synergies are primarily cost driven for 80%, complemented by revenue synergies for 20% from cross-selling opportunities and enhanced service offering. The integration plan is structured around 17 projects grouped into 8 work streams covering critical areas such as business model optimization to drive workforce efficiency and streamline corporate functions. Merger of master servicing platform, doNext and Master Gardant, unlocking savings in back-office operation and improving scalability.

HR savings through voluntary exits, optimized outsourcing practices and reducing hiring needs, thanks to a more stable workforce. IT and process harmonization, ensuring operational consistency and cost efficiency across geographies. On the revenue side, synergies come from the extension of doValue services to Gardant mandates, including offerings such as Data master legal and real estate services. These initiatives allow us to leverage our specialized capabilities and create incremental value for clients across both platforms.

To date, we have achieved EUR 13 million on a run rate basis. And by '26, the full effect of the promised EUR 15 million will be visible, supporting margin expansion. On Page 6, we go through our most recent achievement, the successful issuance of EUR 350 million senior secured notes due November 2031, confirming our strong and proven access to the capital markets. This is our second bond issuance in '25, following the February transaction that effectively reopened the bond market to our sector, a clear testament to our credibility in financing vis-a-vis comparable companies.

The new issuance was upside from EUR 300 million original offering on the back of exceptionally strong investor demand, over 3x initial offering, highlighting the confidence of the market in our strategy and financial profile. The notes carry a fixed coupon of 5.375%, significantly below our underwriting assumption and 163 basis points lower than the February issuance with a longer tenure that extends our maturity profile, removes near-term refinancing risk and spreads out the maturity of the 2 bonds, which are now 21 month apart. This established access to capital markets give us strategic flexibility.

We can optimize our capital structure further by refinancing higher cost instruments, including the 2030 bond, which became callable in 2027. This action could allow us to lock in lower rates and increase cash flows while maintaining a competitive funding profile over the medium term. The successful transaction reinforces investor confidence and underlines doValue ability to secure attractive financing conditions, supporting our long-term growth ambitions and diversification strategy. Addition, with issuance, we optimized financial costs by avoiding the drawdown of the bridge facility to finance the acquisition of coeo, which we expect to close by January 26.

I will now hand over to Davide, who will take you through the financials.

Thank you, Manuela, and good morning, everyone. On Page 8, you can see a summary of the first 9 months financials. Overall, in the first 9 months, we registered very positive results across all key metrics with solid growth in EBITDA, once again triggered by our non-NPL business. Gross revenues in the first 9 months of 2025 was EUR 404 million, showing a solid double-digit growth of 28.9 percentage versus previous year. A trend once again driven by non-NPL revenue, which determined more than 50% of growth at group level, continuing on the positive momentum of the recent quarters.

Net revenue rose to EUR 364 million, 28.9 percentage higher versus the 9 months of 2024, mirroring the gross revenue growth in the presence of a stable trend in outsourcing costs on a year-on-year basis. EBITDA ex-nonrecurring items was EUR 137 million, growing 43.2% versus the 9 months of 2024, supported by the successful release of synergies in Italy and cost savings in Spain. EBITDA ex-nonrecurring item margin stood at 34% up by 3.4 percentage points from 31% on a year-on-year basis, thanks to continued cost discipline alongside the impact of synergies related to the acquisition of Gardant.

Net income ex-nonrecurring items, more than doubled to EUR 12 million from EUR 5 million the prior year, thanks to the growth in EBITDA, which more than offset the increase in financial expenses and minorities. Moving now to Page 9, we can find a breakdown of gross revenues by region. In the Hellenic region, gross revenues was stable, down minus 0.7% year-on-year as solid dynamics in non-NPL revenue were offset by lower disposals in the 9 months, which impacted revenue.

In Italy, gross revenue grew 81% year-on-year, driven by Gardant contribution and by very positive trends in non-NPL servicing and recurring value-added services. In Spain, revenue declined only by EUR 1.7 million year-on-year as the third quarter was stable year-on-year, while in the first half, declining REO's were mitigated by improvement in all other categories. On Page 10, we show how we continue to successfully contain the natural increase in operating costs from the consolidation of Gardant. Thanks to continued cost discipline, which allows us to unlock savings across functions and markets.

Indeed, cost containment remain a key focus for the group, even in the current context of business expansions. In the first 9 months of 2025, HR costs were up by 25% versus the same period in 2024, linked to the effect of Gardant consolidation. The increase slowed down versus first half of 2025, thanks to the initial effects of synergies. HR costs increased in Greece due to the onboarding of new portfolios in the first half of the year. This effect was effectively mitigated by cost containment measures in Spain and Italy.

When it comes to IT, real estate and SG&A expenses, we recorded an increase of only EUR 5.4 million year-on-year, thanks to already achieved EUR 5 million synergies that mitigated the effect of Gardant Consolidation. On Page 11, EBITDA ex-NRI for the group was EUR 137.2 million, up EUR 43 million versus the first 9 months of 2024, thanks to the continued positive performance of recurring value-added services driving revenue and the acceleration of the synergies, which more than offset the lower disposal in Greece.

EBITDA ex-NRI margin increased significantly, thanks to the accretive impact of government and non-NPL servicing and continued focus on cost containment. The EBITDA for the Hellenic region decreased by 5% year-on-year to EUR 74.5 million as positive trends in UTP and value-added services WERE more than offset by the year-on-year decrease in disposals in the first 9 months with an improvement in profitability in the third quarter. The region delivered EBITDA margin of 46.7%, generating over half of the group's profitability. In Italy, EBITDA rose to EUR 71.1 million, excluding group costs, an increase of EUR 46.2 million versus the first 9 months of 2024, thanks to Gardant on which we are accelerating the release of synergies as well as to positive contribution of value-added services to gross revenue.

Gardant continues to contribute proportionally to our full year expectations. In Spain, EBITDA delivered a positive growth, albeit on a small contribution, thanks to continued cost efficiencies and new portfolio onboard. Nonrecurring items were limited to minus EUR 4.4 million despite the cost of integration of Gardant, mostly related to fee linked to coeo leading to an EBITDA reported of EUR 132.8 million. Moving to Page 12. We show very positive dynamics in net income evolution, which, excluding nonrecurring items, more than doubled year-on-year despite the higher financial costs and the new minorities related to BPER and Banco BPM inherited to the Gardant acquisition.

Breaking down the number, we start from a higher EBITDA driven by positive momentum across key products and markets. Write-downs on property, plant, equipment, intangibles, loans and equity investments were EUR 67.4 million, in line with our expectation, including also Gardant portfolios. Financial interest and commissions increased to EUR 43.7 million, driven by the interest on the new bond issued in February, which amounted to EUR 14.7 million, including amortized costs, the interest on the new term loan funding the Gardant transaction, which amounted to EUR 20.7 million, including amortized costs and the residual interest on the 2026 senior secured notes redeemed in February of EUR 1.3 million.

The line also includes EUR 7.3 million nonrecurring costs related to the early redemption of the 2026 bond and of the portion of the term loan dedicated to refinancing the 2026 bond, which was not utilized. Income tax for the period was higher due to the one-off effect in the 9 months of 2024 from the tax claim in Spain. If we adjust for that, tax is only slightly higher on the back of the higher EBITDA and the consolidation of Gardant's profit-making legal entities in Italy.

Finally, minorities increased due to Gardant's partnership with Banco BPM and BPER Banco. The nonrecurring items at the net income level amounted to negative EUR 19.3 million, mainly due to the one-off costs related to the refinancing of 2026 bond as well as the EUR 8.8 million cost related to the exit of employees as part of the integration in Italy. Moving to Page 13. Let's have a look at the cash flow dynamics, which improved significantly. Cash flow from operations in the first 9 months increased considerably to EUR 101.4 million, up a staggering EUR 77.8 million increase versus the first 9 months of 2024 as cash conversion tripled over the same period. This positive result was achieved, thanks to continued reduction in net working capital, thanks to improved control of the invoicing cycle for the securitization and positive dynamics in advanced payments.

We confirm our target of EUR 50 million positive effect from working capital in the full year. CapEx was EUR 15.5 million, with acceleration expected in the fourth quarter in line with historical seasonality as well as full year guidance. Lease payments slightly increased versus previous year to EUR 14.2 million due to Gardant's offices, mitigated by real estate efficiencies carried out by the value. Redundancies decreased slightly year-on-year to EUR 8 million in 9 months, mainly from the effect from the voluntary exit program part of the Gardant integration, which is expected to continue in the fourth quarter.

Other change in other assets and liabilities was slightly higher, driven mainly by payments for legal cases and circa EUR 9 million temporary impact of the 2024 MBO paid in 2025, higher than the 9 months 2025 MBO accrual. This negative effect will be offset by year-end. Free cash flow was significantly higher than the previous year at EUR 41.5 million, up from negative minus EUR 15.5 million in the first 9 months 2024.

The EUR 57 million increase in free cash flow was a notable result, in line with our ambition to return to the historical levels of cash generation. The slightly decrease in free cash flow in the third quarter was expected due to the tax down payments and the coupon on the new bond, both paid in the third quarter. Minorities of EUR 7.7 million linked to BPER and Banco BPM were unchanged versus first half and no further significant payments are expected to minorities in 2025. Investment in equity and the financial assets includes the earn-out for [indiscernible] paid in January 2025.

We confirm our full year guidance of EUR 60 million to EUR 70 million free cash flow before debt repayment. Based on this, do value currently trades at a free cash flow yield of around 13%, which is exceptionally high and underline the attractive valuation of our stock. To conclude, let's now move on Page 14 and look at our financial structure. Net leverage at the end of September stood at 2.3x on a pro forma basis with 12 months of Gardant EBITDA, decreasing from the 2.4x level at December 2024 and exactly in line with the level reported at the end of the first half. This is a very positive result when considering the typical seasonality of Q3.

Historically, leverage tends to increase in this quarter due to concentrated cash outflows before declining again at the year-end. For example, last year leverage moved from 2.9x in June to 3.1x in September before closing at 2.4x in December. Maintaining 2.3x in the first 9 months despite the seasonal dynamics and extraordinary cash outflows related to earn-outs and minorities confirms the robustness of our deleveraging path, progressing steadily towards our targets. We also maintained a solid liquidity buffer of EUR 257 million, including EUR 135 million of undrawn revolving credit facilities. Even after the payment of the first tranche of the term loan amortization and the interest on both term loan and the 2030 bond.

Our corporate rating remains stable at BB with a stable outlook affirmed both Fitch and Standard & Poor's following the announcement of coeo acquisition and the recent bond issuance. Overall, this set of results confirms that we have continued to deliver on our targets with discipline and consistency, strengthening our foundations and positioning -- due to achieve its full year guidance and long-term strategic ambitions. This is all on our side today. Thank you all for your attention. We will now take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Tommaso Nieddu of Kepler Cheuvreux.

The first one is on your shareholders. There have been some market rumors suggesting a potential overhang linked to the position of your anchor shareholders. So could you please comment on this and whether there have been any discussion or signals regarding possible changes in their ownership and then if you can provide reassurance about their continued commitment to do value. The second one is on new mandates. You have already surpassed the EUR 12 billion target on new mandates for 2025, targeting as I -- if I understood well, around EUR 14 billion for the end of the year. So looking ahead to 2026, do you expect a continuation of this momentum and still on forward flow agreement, do we have any news on Santander's contract renewal? And the last one on net working capital. Over the last 3 quarters, you have had a positive release of around EUR 24 million. And do you still expect for the end of the year around EUR 10 million, EUR 15 million? I think you already answered this, but I wanted to be sure. So implying around EUR 10 million absorption in Q4. And if you can give us more color for 2026.

Thank you, Tommaso, for your question. On the first point, we have no indication from our shareholders of any intention to sell their stake, and we have not been involved in any such process. Given the strategic nature of their investment and our tight partnership in servicing, a relevant amount related to their investment in NPs we strongly believe that the shareholders are more interested in the strategic nature of the holding in value rather than short-term monetization.

Moreover, given the current valuation levels and the growth prospects, especially after the coeo acquisition, in which our shareholders are strong supporters, it wouldn't be financially reasonable to sell at these prices for sure. On your second question on new mandates, yes, I indicated that I foresee -- we didn't increase the guidance because, honestly, we are at the end of the year, it didn't really make sense to upsize it twice. But I see that we will close the year probably at around EUR 14 billion.

For 2026, we are finalizing our budget. Our original guidance was EUR 8 billion per annum, including the EUR 2 billion forward flow. Clearly, on the forward flow side, we have positive element, which comes from the Sondrio agreement. And also to your other point, we see also positive news on the Santander side that we will communicate more officially in the next couple of weeks, while we were already estimating the exit, obviously, of the forward flow from UniCredit. So overall, the outlook on the new business is positive. I don't feel like giving today an upsized guidance for '26. Probably -- we can give it as soon as we announce the full year '25 results and finalize the budget estimates. also looking into the current market dynamics and opportunity we foresee in all the countries as we are today.

And going to your question on Working Capital, I confirm that our guidance for the full year to have a Working Capital impact of roughly EUR 15 million. This is because in the last quarter, we are growing a lot in terms of revenue EBITDA as always happened in the -- according to our historical trends. So we will have this absorption of roughly EUR 10 million. Going forward in 2026, we see a normalization in the working capital dynamics. So probably we will have still a positive impact, but of a lower amount, probably around EUR 5 million of positive contribution from Working Capital. From '26 onwards, we expect to have a normalized Working Capital impact with 0 impact in terms of contribution to the cash flow.

The next question is from Simonetta Chiriotti of Mediobanca.

A couple of questions from my side. The first is on coeo. In the last call, you shared with us the progress of this company in the first 5 months. So I'm wondering if you can provide us an update on this front. And second, looking at the third quarter trends in isolation. So it is visible a lower revenue growth year-on-year, while EBITDA continued to progress at around 30%, 35%, which, if I remember when was your target for the year. So if you can explain the trends, maybe giving some color also in the different markets. And finally, tax receivable were flagged in the past as an opportunity in Italy and in Greece. Also on this side, if it is possible to have some color and updates?

Thank you, Simonetta, for your question on coeo, I just visited them last week. They are progressing well ahead of their seller plan. So they will close the year much above our buy-side case, probably in the area of EUR 85 million to EUR 90 million EBITDA, so both in terms of new business opportunities, they are adding new clients and enlarging the perimeter of the current clients they service with -- especially on the banking clients they serve like Santander, consumer finance, they are enlarging the size of the tickets they manage while adding more on the utilities and telecom space.

In terms of your last question, and then I'll leave to Davide the second, clearly, now the opportunity is more clear on the side of the budget law. So what the government seems to have created a project whereby they will tackle for beginning of next year, the local receivables, while they will then tackle in the second phase, the central receivables. The local one will be supported for the recoveries from AMCO as a sort of master servicer. There, the size of these claims are around EUR 40 billion, EUR 45 billion spread around the different regions.

So obviously, we are in contact with AMCO to support them in these activities. These are mostly small ticket unsecured. So the capabilities we have tried to develop organically for the small ticket for corporates as well as the competencies and the operating platform of coeo will definitely help for this type of claims. While for the central tax receivable, the one of the agency they didn't tried to be clear, these are more close to the larger loans, both secured and unsecured that are closer to our traditional model. So I would say that the market is moving -- opening to the servicing, and we are there to tackle both opportunities with all the instruments in place also thanks to the latest M&A.

On the question, we don't see a reduction in revenues. So we -- the only reason why the Q3 was weaker because of lower secondary sale in Greece, but this was expected from us because we will recover the sales in the last quarter. We have a good pipeline with already process in place to be finalized by December. On the other revenues, we saw a continued growth in the non-NPL in the value-added services. The third quarter is not always a strong quarter, as you know. But if you look at the 9 months, we are exactly in line with the expectation in terms of growth and also in terms of the full year target.

Also taking into account that the new portfolio onboarded, especially in Greece at the beginning of the year, most of them were coming from PQH, which was the bad bank of Greece. So they were not actively managed. So what the team has done in the last 6 months is to activate the legal procedures and the more aggressive approach servicer traditionally have to be able to have the effects of those on collection by next year.

The next question is from Davide Giuliano of Equita.

The first one on the contract extension with Popolare di Sondrio. Can we expect contract extension to start generating revenues in 2026? Or can we see something already in 2025? And the contract with BPER included the one-off transfer of some NPEs, can we expect something similar with Popolare di Sondrio? The second one on indemnity fees, what contribution do you expect from indemnity fees in Q4? And regarding value-added services, can we expect a similar performance in Q4 as last year was pretty solid on this front? And third one on Greece.

Over the last 2 quarters, we have seen a decline in servicing year-on-year with declining collection rate despite higher average gross book value. What trends are you seeing in the region? And on the cost side, we have seen a significant reduction in personnel costs in Greece. Can you give us a little more detail on the underlying dynamics? And can we assume this level at run rate? And another one, if I may, do you see room for further synergies with Gardant beyond the EUR 15 million announced? And how much of the EUR 10 million synergies already achieved in 2025 are included in 9 months results?

So on the contract extension, we will see the impact in 2026 from Sondrio addition so because the merger will technically happen next year. And we see a contribution that will be of NPE stock at the beginning, which will be assessed on the basis of the numbers at time of closing, but we estimate in the -- of around EUR 500 million or just above that number. In terms of your question on Greece, the reality is that it's a little bit linked to the point I made before, so that the new portfolio onboarding, given the origin of this portfolio will have most of the effect next year. So you see this year more the effect of the stock, which -- the original stock that was declining. And you don't see the effect of certain secondary sales that are expected this year more in the 4Q and not in the third Q, while you saw them on the collection side last year in the third Q.

So on an organic basis, also without the portfolio, new portfolios and without the secondary sales transaction, the collection rate is improving. In terms of cost, we think we can do in Greece much better. Remember that Greece was a carve-out of a bank plus an original company that Eurobank already had. And therefore, as any carve-out, it leaves space and headroom for efficiencies along the way. We haven't done too much effort on the efficiency in Greece up until this year because of the growth of the market, we didn't want to create any potential negative knock-on effect on collection.

But now I think the company is quite stable to be able to be more efficient on that front, too. Also another big project we are going to complete by January in Greece is the detachment from Eurobank in terms of systems. We still had some legacy infrastructure connected to that, that we are going to exit completely has been a major migration of portfolio from some of the legacy Eurobank systems to ours, which will also bring IT savings. In terms of Gardant, we had indicated that as of today, we have already locked in EUR 13 million run rate savings of the EUR 15 -- so we are around EUR 7 million as of today. So it will be higher by year-end in terms of the EUR 5 million. And we are very close to the EUR 15 million. So we shall be more positive for the next year target.

On the sales fees, we have a pipeline to have in the last quarter roughly EUR 15 million to EUR 18 million. This is why we also gave a range as a target because the secondary sales mostly are already locked in. So we need just to execute the process, but there are some sales that could happen at the end of December or January but we will have this number that will help us to reach our target or even a higher range of the target for this is only for the 4Q, the EUR 15 million is for the 4Q.

In terms of ancillary and value-added services, we will continue the path you have seen in the last -- the first 9 months. As always, the fourth quarter is also a good quarter for these services, mainly the one that are related to the volumes like legal services and admin services that will grow always in the last quarter of the year.

[Operator Instructions] We have a follow-up question from Davide Rimini of Intesa Sanpaolo.

Actually, follow-up questions since have been already posted. The first is on Greece. And I was wondering whether out of what you described in terms of better development in terms of top line expected next year and the actions on cost that you just described in terms of efficiency, whether you would commit to be back to 50% level margin in 2026? And the second question would be a follow-up. I noticed that you put a slide on the pipeline, the 18-month pipeline. which is now envisaged at EUR 45 billion. If I'm not mistaken, it was EUR 49 billion at the first half presentation. You could have a breakdown between countries. So I was wondering whether you might expand a little bit more on that one.

Yes. On the Greece, maybe to clarify, we actually said that the trend will be positive overall in terms of revenue, both because of the legal action activity on the new portfolio that will yield the results in 2026 and also for the growth of all the new services that we have developed in Greece over the last 3 years. Taking into account that for us, Greece is not only servicing, but it's a real estate company, advisory company, synthesis, which is a mortgage broking company, and we have just set up a new company to serve small ticket unsecured for utilities, corporates and state receivables given that new auctions and RFPs are coming to the market in the 4Q and in the first Q of 2026 and the required dedicated company given that in Greece, the main company regulated by Bank of Greece can only manage banking receivable by regulation.

On top of it, the efficiencies on the cost side will definitely confirm the margin that we are seeing in the country. In terms of pipeline, clearly, there are some transaction in and some out in the pipeline. So some of the mandates have just been assigned to others have been dropped by the seller, while new ones have been added. Where we see new mandates more active has been in the Turkey, in the Spanish market, where we are working actively with the funds on for projects that we will know, I mean, if they are one or not by the end of the year on top of the enlargement of the scope for nonfinancial receivables given that our platform there is becoming more solid. So it's just a trend of new projects in and out. Taking into account that our pipeline is built bottom-up with the names and size of a single project. It's not just a percentage of market estimate. So it's quite detailed.

Mr. Daniele Seta, at this time, there are no questions registered, sir.

Thank you very much, always, for your time and your attention to us. Have a good day.