DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the DWS Q1 2026 results with investor and analyst conference call. I am Shari, the course call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Oliver Flade. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, operator, and good morning from sunny Frankfurt. This is Oliver Flade from Investor Relations, and I would like to welcome everybody to our earnings call for the first quarter of 2026. Now, before we start, I would like to remind you, as usual, that the upcoming Deutsche Bank analyst call will outline the asset management segments results, which have a different parameter basis to the DWS results that we are presenting now. I'm joined also, as usual, by Stefan Hobbs, our CEO, and Markus Kobler, our CFO. And Stefan will start with some opening remarks as well as some closing remarks, and Markus will take you through the main part of the presentation. And for the Q&A afterwards, please could you limit yourself to the two most important questions so that we can give as many people a chance to participate as possible. And I would also like to remind you that the presentation may contain forward-looking statements which may not develop as we currently expect. I therefore ask you to take note of the disclaimer and the precautionary warning on the forward-looking statements at the end of our materials. And with that, I will now pass on to Stefan. Thank you, Oliver.

So for the second time in a row, our head of investor relations muted me just after my thank you, Oliver. So thank you, Oliver. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our Q1 2026 earnings call. It is not easy to describe the environment we are in right now. It is clearly a difficult environment for the world and an unpredictable one. I mean, who would have thought a couple of months ago that the U.S. would block the Strait of Hormuz? The best description I've heard was this. It feels like we're currently living through what will be the toughest part of the history exam for the class of 2085. Now, for asset managers, this environment is highly relevant for two reasons. First, it is fertile ground for active asset management. The more volatile and dispersed markets become, the stronger and more opposing views tend to be. And honestly, if you cannot create alpha in this environment, then when? That is why I'm pleased with our investment performance over the last few months, particularly across our large retail funds. Our top dividend fund, for example, was up 8.46% as of 31st of March, which is ahead of major indices. That has supported nice inflows and higher management fees through above-market growth in assets under management in this fund. Other flexural funds like Accumula and Vermögensbildungsfonds E have also performed well, while concept Kalde Morgen has managed volatility effectively and has moved into performance-free territory in Q2. Second, in an environment like this, it is critical to operate at a low cost-income ratio. This is exactly the kind of environment we have prepared for and work towards. As I said, when I walked you through the logic two years ago, the cost income ratio for an asset manager is similar to the leverage ratio for banks. It is a measure of how well you are prepared for a weaker environment. A high earnings per share with a high cost income ratio is dangerous because volatility can impact the bottom line very quickly. That is why we focused on maximizing earnings with a binding constraint of a low cost income ratio. Operating at a comparatively low cost-income ratio leads to more earnings stability and allows us to keep investing in growth, organically and potentially inorganically. Markus will come back to that in more detail. Against the backdrop, we delivered a solid first quarter. Earnings per share came in at €1.32 and above consensus, although this was largely driven by the timing of our P2 performance fees. Revenues were 821 million euros, up 9% year-on-year, while net income increased to 265 million euros, up 33% year-on-year. Our reported cost-income ratio improved to 54.1%, down 8.1 percentage points year-on-year, and our cost base of 444 million euros was encouraging, underlining that cost discipline remains firmly in place. To summarize, costs were a bit better, flows were a bit weaker given a tough March, and performance fees came in earlier than expected. Markus will go through that in more detail. For the full year, we reconfirm our target. Markets have shown a V-shaped recovery over the course of April. This means that our assets under management are now back at broadly the same level we were at the end of February. At the same time, there's still a revenue impact from the interim volatility. The AUM dent in March and April amounted to around 40 billion euros, which translates into a revenue gap of about 20 million euros. And of course, we need to remain mindful of the current environment. The level of uncertainty remains elevated, warranting a degree of caution. Fortunately, If you recall our last quarterly earnings call, we had full focus on additional cost levers, and that has now paid off very nicely. We are ahead of plan, following the actions we took earlier in the year, allowing us to tighten our cost guidance to around 1.80 billion euros for the year, helping to offset the revenue gap. At the same time, performance fees have already been delivered on a large part of PIV2, giving us confidence that we will be at the upper end of our 4% to 8% of revenues guidance range. So taken together, we reconfirm our target of 10% to 15% EPS growth for the full year, assuming markets remain constructive. Now, before I hand over to Markus, I'm pleased to tell you that Markus has just extended his contract at DWS and will be my partner for at least another three years. Now with that, over to Markus. Thank you, Stefan. It's a privilege.