Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A.

Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call Conference operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Generali Group first quarter 2024 results presentation. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, let me signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Fabio Cleva, Head of Investor and Rating Agencies Relations of Generali Group. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Generali First Quarter 2024 Results Call. Here with us today, we have the Group General Manager, Marco Cesana, the CEO of Insurance, Giulio Terzarioli, and the Group CFO, Cristiano Borean. Before opening the Q&A session, let me hand it over to Marco and Cristiano for some opening comments. Marco, the floor is yours. Thank you.

So, good morning, everyone. Our first quarter result confirmed the group delivery and the positive effect of commercial action implemented in 2023 to address the macro context challenges. In life, we are very pleased by the return to positive net inflow. The first quarter figures confirm what we told you throughout the second half of 2023, that the situation was under control. It also demonstrates our ability to meet customer demand for protection and unit-linked products. Protection net inflows reached €1.5 billion, while unit-linked net flows were close to €1 billion. Protection continues to generate over 40% of our new business value. Outflows from saving were limited, a significant improvement compared to last year, and were very much related to low-value products. In fact, the commercial action implemented since 2023 underpinned the strong production seen in life overall. Our business units have adapted to meet changing customer appetite and preserve market competitiveness by continuing to update existing products and launch new products that are more attractive in this new market condition. The strong live production also reflects positive seasonality in the first quarter, especially in China. As such, we expect some moderation in the coming quarters. We maintain our strong focus on new business underwriting discipline for protection and health businesses and on capital live products announced by protection riders. The share of capital life products has remained stable, while the average guarantee of the European life business has continued to decline. In line with our planned ambition, our strategy will continue to be oriented to bundle solutions that address multiple customer needs within a single product. As overall market conditions continue to normalize and improve, we plan to gradually scale back some of the commercial incentives introduced last year to support production. This is expected to have a beneficial effect on margins. Moving now to P&C. So P&C business growth in the first quarter confirmed the trend seen in 2023 with gross return premium growing around 11% or over 6% when excluding the impact of hyperinflation in Argentina. At the full year 2023 presentation, we disclosed an increase in the average premium in our retail and SME book of 6.1%. At the end of the first quarter 2024, the average premium was up 6.3% compared to the same period of the last year, with growth supported in particular by the motor segment. Tariff strengthening above market inflation remain a key management focus, especially in Germany, Spain, and Italy. We are also continuing to implement technical measures aimed at pursuing profitable growth, especially in terms of portfolio enhancing and claims management. The strategy on pricing and technical excellence is bearing fruit, with the first quarter attritional current year undiscounted combined ratio confirming the positive trends already visible in the fourth quarter. We are also seeing a stabilization in frequency and a moderation of claims inflation, which serve well the trend in technical profitability. Let me, however, flag that at the start of the second quarter, we had a specific man-made accident in the GCNC book with a preliminary estimate in the range of 25-30 million. Returning to the first quarter, we saw the consolidation of the Liberty Seguro into our number, and integrating Liberty in an efficient and effective way will further strengthen our platform as we enter into a new strategic cycle in 2025. Asset management saw its recurring revenues increase by 3% year-on-year thanks to the higher average asset under management. These numbers do not yet reflect the consolidation of conning since the closing of the transaction took place in April. In the press release, we have provided some element to assist the comparison to the first quarter 2023 from an operating and net result basis, given the difference in timing in the booking of variable cost, cost related to conning transaction, as well as tax payments. When you neutralize for this effect, the operating result was basically at the same level of the last year, and the net result reduction would be between 4% and 5%. Moving now to investment. So our investment yield remained very good versus the enforced book at around 3.7% in LIFE and 3.5% in PNC. Looking at the different asset classes, on listed equity, we maintain a prudent approach. In credit, we confirm our conservative approach with low exposure to more cyclical sector and high leverage company. We experience negligible rating downgrades in the portfolio. On private debt, we have been more selective in terms of new commitment, balancing attractive opportunity, especially in private debt valuation with ILM constraints. In conclusion, our first quarter results confirm the group's continued ability to deliver solid growth and execute on our strategic plan, in line with our lifetime partner purpose. As we move forward through the last year of this strategic cycle, we are very confident about the direction of the group. Now, Cristiano, over to you.