Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A.

Good afternoon, this is the Coral School conference operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Generli Group half-year 2026 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, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Fabio Cleva, Head of Investor and Rating Agencies Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our first half 2026 results call. Here with us today, we have the Group CEO, Philippe Donnet, the Deputy Group CEO, Giulio Terzariol, the Group General Manager, Marco Cesana, and the Group CFO, Cristiano Borean. Before opening for Q&A, let me hand over to Philippe for some opening remarks.

Thank you Fabio and thanks to all of you for joining this call. Generli's excellent financial results for the first half of 2026 demonstrate the strength, profitability and very solid capital position of our group once again. We have now reached the halfway mark in the execution of Lifetime Partner 27 Driving Excellence and these results reinforce our confidence in our ability to successfully deliver our fourth strategic plan in a row. I am going to focus on five key messages. First, we recorded a strong performance across all key metrics thanks to the robust contribution of every business segment. Gross return premium reached 53.4 billion euro up 5.8% from half year 2025 driven by both life and property casualty. The operating result achieved excellent growth to 4.5 billion euro up 11.2% again thanks to all business segments. This led to a 13.7% progress in the adjusted net result to 2.5 billion euro leading to an adjusted earnings per share growth of 14.3%. And thanks to our sound capital generation, we closed the second quarter with a very solid solvent C2 ratio at 216%, notwithstanding the impact of the 500 million euro buyback and the end of the subordinated bond grandfathering regime. Second, our live business maintained a very positive growth trajectory with the operating result increase to 2.2 billion euros up 8.8%. Net inflows were very strong, exceeding 8.3 billion euros. This is a record first half figure achieved thanks to the positive contribution from all business lines. New business value grew significantly by 21.1%, reaching €1.9 billion, benefiting from both higher volumes and improved overall profitability. Our new business margin expanded materially to 5.86%, mainly thanks to the positive impact of a more favorable new business mix and enhanced product features. Third, the property and casualty operating result rose by 4.7% to over 2.1 billion euros. This was achieved despite an additional 425 million euros in both natural catastrophe and man-made claims compared with the first half of 2025. The combined ratio stood at 91.5%. from 91% at half-year 2025 with a 3.6 percentage point impact from NatCat. The natural catastrophes we witnessed this year, including the recent severe wildfires in Spain and France, further highlight the importance of closing protection gaps and improving climate change preparedness across the world. In July 2026 alone, our preliminary assessment is that Natcat impacted our business for around 300 million euros, with around 60 additional million euros related to man-made events. Beyond large loss events, the current inflationary trend is another factor that we will reflect in our pricing, in particular in non-motor. Fourth, the operating result of asset and wealth management recorded healthy growth of 31.3% year-on-year. This was driven by the robust underlying performance of both asset management and Banca Generale. The segment generated around 16% of the group operating result underscoring the benefit of a diversified and integrated business model. Moving to my fifth and final point, as the execution and delivery of our plan remain our top priorities, we also continue to expand our capabilities in key strategy growth areas. In this context, I would like to say a few words about Radion, the new brand for our global care platform. Radion brings together leading capabilities across employee benefits, assistance, health and mobility, Serving multinational companies, financial institutions and millions of customers around the world. It generates annual business volumes of over 5.8 billion euros with more than 12,000 employees and operations in over 190 countries. Radion is one of the very few truly global players in this field being the leading employee benefits network and the second largest player in travel insurance and assistance. Our mission is to further leverage these leadership positions and become the world's premier care partner. Radion stands out for both its skill and technology. It's a data and AI driven insurtech platform that combines Generli's reach and strength with the agility and innovation of leading digital players. Building on this, we are now scaling embedded insurance, a new B2B2C growth engine that distributes seamless protection within our partners' digital journeys from travel and e-commerce to financial services. This allows us to turn our global distribution relationships into a new and increasingly valuable source of profitable growth. Our business model benefits from long-term structural growth drivers, a rising demand for travel insurance and assistance, employee benefits and embedded and integrated service ecosystems. This is why we are truly confident and excited about the opportunities for Radion and we will of course provide regular updates on its progress. In conclusion, the quality of our performance in the first six months of this year reflects the disciplined execution across our three key strategic priorities. Excellence in our customer relationships, in our core capabilities, and in our group operating model. Furthermore, the insurance sector trends on which we build our plan are proving increasingly relevant, with some of them even accelerating. This is particularly true when it comes to new needs deriving from major long-term social and environmental trends, including an aging population and insufficient public health care, the protection gap related to the increase in extreme weather events due to climate change, as well as changing customer expectations driven by market and technological shifts. It is a constantly evolving environment that requires us to be agile, innovative and forward-thinking, to lead and to deliver lasting value to our customers as their lifetime partners and to all our stakeholders as a standalone group. The three foundations that underpin the plan are key to this. Our talented people and the structured implementation The Financial Times recently recognized us as one of Europe's climate leaders, while Time and Newsweek included us in their rankings of the world's most sustainable and greenest companies. We are proud of these important recognitions which make us even more determined to keep driving profitable growth while supporting a green and just transition and strengthening societal resilience. Finally, before we open our Q&A, I am pleased to inform you that we will be holding an investor day on November 18th in London. This will give us the chance to further update you on the execution of our plan as well as to showcase in detail some of our strategic initiatives. You will receive all the details in the upcoming weeks and we look forward to welcoming you there. I thank you very much again for your continued interest in Generli and with all my colleagues we are now happy to take your questions.