Helvetia Hldg Ag Unsp/Adr

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Helvetia Healthcare Results 2025 conference call and live webcast. I am George, the chorus 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 a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and 1 on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and 0. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Mr. Peter Elliott, Head of Investor Relations at Helvetia. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, and good afternoon, everybody, or good morning to some, and welcome to Helvetia's conference call on our 2025 half-year results. We appreciate your time on what we realize is a busy day for you. We regret any clashes, but we've tried to manage those as well as possible. We have on the call today our group CEO, Fabian Rupprecht, and our CFO, Annelies Lucia-Hemmerle. Fabian will start by going through the development of the business before Annelies then takes us through the financials in more detail. There will then be an opportunity for Q&A. So with that, let me hand over to Fabian.

Thank you, Peter, and welcome everybody from my side. We're pleased to present our half-year 2025 results to you. The focus today is, of course, our standalone results. However, we remain focused on completing the merger we have announced with Paloas. This remains on track, and we're excited about a potential combined future together. We will come back to you in due course when the deal completes, and with a capital market day at the same time as our full year 2025 results to outline our new strategy and targets as a combined group. Let me now start on slide five with the highlights. We're delighted to report a 5% increase in our underlying earnings and a 7% increase in our underlying earnings per share. Improvement has been largely driven by our technical excellence initiative, and we see a strong underlying improvement in our combined ratio. The year-on-year improvement comes despite the first half of 2020 for already providing a very strong comparative. We consider we are fully on track to achieve our three-year targets, to which we remain committed. We'll, of course, come back on these if our intended merger with Baloise completes in light of the additional opportunities that the merger will provide. Of course, one significant event impacting our earnings in the first half of the year was the horrific landslide and flooding in the Valais village of Blaten. This is a good example of how important it is to us as Helvetia to be there when it matters for our customers. and we are very proud of our speedy response to the affected customers there. Despite this significant event, on a group level, we are well within our normal expectations for nutcuts, and we have made a material improvement in our underlying underwriting profitability. Our balance sheet remains in excellent shape. Our SST ratio is estimated to be at broadly the same high level that we enjoyed at the end of 2024. We continue to enjoy high ratings and low external financing costs. That AMBEST's rating is under review is a natural consequence of our possible merger with Paloas. We expect this to close in the fourth quarter of this year, so the under review rating will continue until AMBEST has assessed its impact on Helbizia's credit rating fundamentals. We have again demonstrated strong growth supported by our non-live business. Here, we are observing contrasting trends in our different markets. In our retail lines, we observe a continuation of the recent hard market. We're continuing to grow our profitable lines in this environment. As part of our technical excellence initiative, We've also reviewed our other segments and been ruthless at pruning the portfolio where necessary. We, for example, deliberately lost low double-digit million Swiss francs at Kassel and in Germany combined. Our reported growth in retail is lower than it might have been due to some one-time negative effects. For example, in Switzerland, we changed the policy due date for motor policies And because of Brexit, we temporarily did not have a B2B2C license, but this has since been restored. These two temporary effects combined account for further mid-double-digit million Swiss franc. Going forward, we expect the market trends to continue with a further hardening of the retail market. For example, the Swiss press has recently commented extensively that industry consensus is for motor premiums needing to rise significantly further. Our top line will benefit from this, even though we will also likely do a little bit more pruning in some areas. Longer term, we see significant growth opportunities. In our specialty and reinsurance businesses, we're seeing more competitive pressure. We've responded to the market pressure in specialty and reinsurance especially in property, engineering, netcat, and energy for reinsurance and corporate risks. We will already be aware of our decision to stop our UK marine portfolio. And we are shifting our business mix. For example, during the last 12 months, our active reinsurance cover has significantly shifted from proportional to non-proportional, where we see higher profitability and less complexity in the underlying risk. and we're expanding our share in life reinsurance. In specialties, we have increased our share in construction, where profitability remains high. So, in the short term, with a softening market, our focus will be on margins rather than top line. As announced in the CMD, we see nevertheless new opportunities for growth with the expansion in the mid-market in Europe and new lines in our global business. Now, in half-year 2025, our specialty volume growth is inflated by some one-off impacts like a new policy management system. And for the reason just mentioned, I'm more cautious on the top-line development going forward. Turning to slide six, we see strong improvement in margins consistent with the higher earnings. At group level, our underlying ROE is already well within our target range. There is some first half year seasonality in the numbers, but it remains a very solid result on which we can build. Our combined ratio has also recovered and for the first time is well within our guidance range of 92 to 94% with a very strong improvement of 1.2 percentage point in the current year claims ratio, excluding net cuts and discounting. We think this can improve further, as I will explain shortly. Our live new business margin is maintained, despite a 13% increase in new business volumes. Annelies will later provide you with many more details on these results. Starting on page seven, over the following few slides, I will provide an overview of our strategy implementation. I will begin with a brief reminder of the key points which we presented at the end of last year. We have defined our four strategic approaches. In the medium to long term, our goal is to leverage our customer access to achieve further profitable growth. As part of this, we focus particular on the 50-plus target group. We summarize these strategic initiatives in the retail market under local customer champion. A second mid- to long-term approach is to grow globally in selected lines of the specialty and commercial business by adopting a smart follower approach. At the same time, we intend to promote these lines of business more strongly in our European markets. We call this initiative Global Specialist. Our short-term focus is on margin improvement. We're committed to improving this through enhancing our technical capabilities and via efficiency gains. On the following slides, I will show you what we have achieved in these four areas so far. I will start with the local customer champion on slide eight. In order to achieve our long-term ambitions in our retail markets, we have established an ambitious group-wide target picture that defines how we want to use data and technology to maximize the value of our own customer base. The aim of the target picture is to make full use of our direct access to customers. To achieve this, we intend to adopt even more state-of-the-art practices in customer knowledge, advice, and experience across all market units. We're currently developing locally tailored pathways in each market unit in order to achieve our target picture. We can draw on a large portfolio of initiatives to strengthen direct customer access. You can find some examples on the slide. As mentioned on the previous slide, the age group of over 50 is one of our areas of focus. This group is becoming increasingly important. We already have many customers in it, and we're seeing greater demand for insurance and pension products. We've also implemented initial initiatives in the market units to provide this group with an even better service. Examples of initiatives from Switzerland, Spain, Austria, and Italy, can be found on the slide. Our goal is to learn from successful initiatives and to scale them across market units. Now I would like to talk about the implementation matters in the global specialist area. So let's move on to slide nine. As mentioned previously, we're pursuing two main strategies here. Firstly, we intend to continue growing within our existing global lines using a smart follower approach. This approach enables us to prioritize profitability. We achieve this through rigorous cycle management. As mentioned at the beginning of my presentation, rates have come under pressure in some lines. In such cases, we are very selective when it comes to underwriting the business. Thanks to our lean structure, we have no pressure to underwrite additional business. Nevertheless, we have ambitions to grow in the specialty business, and as the slide shows, this has been possible in certain areas. Secondly, our goal is to achieve a leading position in the local market for specialty and commercial lines in our European markets. We have laid a solid foundation in Spain and made good progress in other units. Key enablers such as dedicated technical support, capacity, and access to an international network are being put in place. Establishment of an underwriting and claims academy will further enhance capabilities. Define gross written premium targets across markets, support ambitions, and set the stage for future growth of market units. Turning to technical excellence on slide 10, I would like to emphasize that measures are already visible in our results with a significant improvement of 1.2 percentage points in the current year claims ratio, including NAPCATs and discounting. Our focus within the field of technical excellence is on portfolio management, non-life pricing, and claims. For portfolio management, we have established a set of common standards for all market units and lines of business. We've implemented virtuous circles and common guidelines in all market units, aligned the prospective portfolio steering approach, for example, using loss ratio works, and developed an annual portfolio management review framework between the group and market units. Finally, we rolled out an updated net cap budgeting process. Our portfolio management is based on this framework. One example of this is the adjustment of tariffs for underpriced subportfolios, which we are prepared to lose if the targeted profitability is not achieved. Another example is general tariff adjustments in motor and household insurance to compensate for adverse cost developments. All measures are defined in advance, and their success is regularly monitored. The second area of focus is pricing non-life. Here, rate changes are reported quarterly according to a new group-wide methodology, which allows for a view on exposure-adjusted rate development. Furthermore, we rolled out common group pricing software and implemented a technical risk price framework. With regards to claims, we conducted a benchmarking exercise and compared four market units with the wider market. As a result, we have increased the proportion of claims that are actively managed in our partner networks in certain markets. This has led to a further reduction in claims costs. We've also expanded our systematic fraud detection capabilities, thereby increasing our earnings. Finally, we're using AI in our market units to implement applications that will increase efficiency. And many more things to come. I will now move on to operational efficiency on slide 11. In our capital market day last December, we announced plans to improve operational efficiency by over 200 million Swiss francs between 2025 and 2027. To achieve this goal, we have defined more than 360 initiatives. Many of these initiatives are already underway. For example, Spain implemented an internal sourcing model leading to an annual run rate reduction of 1.4 million Swiss francs Group IT optimized capacity in relocated workloads, achieving a similar reduction of the run rate. France optimized the office space utilization, which resulted in a reduction of the run rates by almost 1 million Swiss francs. In Austria, we have reorganized the structures and processes of the regional sales force. As a result, the annual run rate will be reduced by 0.4 million Swiss francs in 2025, and by 1 million Swiss francs by the end of 2026. As I said before, these are just a few examples. For all initiatives, we have established a group-wide, rigid tool-based tracking process to ensure that goals are met by each market unit and group function. We guided that 20% of the savings would be achieved by 2025. Progress in the first half of 2025 is in line with that. We will continue working hard to deliver on the remaining savings, which of course will sustainably improve earnings at the expense of some one-off costs. You see these in the half-year numbers in respect of these operational efficiency improvements, our Spanish integration and MA activities. We expect more of these one-off costs at the full year. One of the measures we have taken to increase operational efficiency is the planned integration of our two companies in Spain. Here, we have made good progress during the first half of 2025. The merger of Casa and Helvetia Seguros has been approved by the local general shareholders meeting. Minority shareholders, who will remain shareholders, albeit with lower participation, have also expressed their support. And we have submitted the merger application to the Spanish regulator. Approval is expected by the end of this year. We have defined the target operating model for the merged company and selected and communicated the members of the new executive board. The following slide, slide number 12, will provide a brief update on the planned merger with Baloise. We're extremely confident that this merger of equals is the right step for Helvetia's future. Following the announcement and approval by both extraordinary general meetings, we are working on obtaining the necessary approvals from supervisory and antitrust authorities and regulators. In August, the European Commission approved the planned merger of Helvetia and Baloise. Further approvals are still pending, including at European level and from the Swiss Competition Commission. We are confident that we will receive all the necessary approvals in the coming weeks and months. enabling us to complete the transaction towards the end of the year. Until the closing, as you all know, we operate under the restrictions of the antitrust law and continue to behave like independent companies. We're well on our way in the preparation for post-closing day one, readiness through a structured approach. Degraded teams are actively engaged in this process. A comprehensive plan has been prepared to facilitate a seamless transition post-closing with full adherence to all local and regulatory obligations. As soon as the formal merger has been completed, we will implement the new group structure and functional organizations. We're very confident that by closing, we will have determined candidates for all positions down to a level of group executive committee minus three. This discipline planning process underscores our commitment to operational continuity, compliance, and long-term value creation. We'll provide an update on the financial targets of Helvetia Valois at a capital markets, day together with our full year 2025 results. We would like to remind you that we promise that both IFRS and cash remittance will remain important KPIs. To conclude my presentation, I would like to give a brief outlook on slide 30. Firstly, Helvetia has reported strong half-year results for 2025. Above all, we are proud to have supported our customers, particularly those in Blatter. We're continuing our track record of sustainable and earnings growth. All key metrics are improving. We have further enhanced our diversification and maintained our excellent capitalization and liquidity. Despite pruning and some more difficult markets, Helvetia reports further strong non-life growth. Secondly, we're successfully implementing our new strategy. We made good progress on local customer champion and global specialist. Our initiatives to improve technical excellence are already having a significant impact and we're seeing the early signs of improved operational efficiency. Integration of our two entities in Spain is underway. Overall, we remain very confident that we will achieve our targets including the underlying earnings per share growth of 9 to 11%. Thirdly, we're working hard on the intended merger with Baloas. We're all excited about the new opportunities it will offer our customers, employees, and shareholders. We're making progress according to the plan we previously communicated. Subject to regulatory approvals, the closing is expected to take place towards the end of the year. With this, I hand over to Annelies, who will present the financials in more detail.

Thanks, Fabian, and welcome also from my side to our call. I will explain our financial performance in half year 25, starting on slide 15. We have made a few changes to the slide set, to try and lead you better through the results, so we hope these help you. Arvetia generated underlying earnings of 301 million Swiss francs, up 5% on the already very strong prior year, driven by an excellent technical result. At the net income level, which includes the volatility from capital market developments and other non-operating effects, The result is up 24% to 320 million Swiss francs. The main reason for the increase in the underlying earnings was a better non-life underwriting result. Non-insurance business also showed a big increase, but that is largely due to a change in methodology. Intercompany interest payments within the same legal entity are no longer paid. This has transferred 12 million Swiss francs of earnings from non-life to non-insurance, and this has no impact at group level. A major feature of the H1 results, as Fabian has already mentioned, was the tragic landslide in Blaten here in Switzerland. In this half year, we therefore again benefited from our diversification with improved water segments. In the case of our second and third markets of Spain and Xi'an, the improved underlying earnings were driven primarily by very strong improvements to the attritional loss ratio. Other than blotting, the first half of the year represented a relatively benign period for NASCA. This means that overall, we consider it to be close to a normal first half, bearing in mind that H1 is typically lighter than H2. Overall, the underlying return on equity was 14%, bringing it already well within our target range. There is some seasonality in this number from both the numerator and the denominator, but we remain confident of further improvements. Outside underlying earnings, we again benefited from a very strong performance by our investment funds, supplemented by positive real estate revolutions and realized gains. AFRIX also contributed positively. This last point may surprise some, given the strong devaluation of the US dollar. Economically, we are fully hedged. However, we experienced some P&L volatility due to IFRS hedge accounting rules, which can result in some shifts between OCI and P&L. The key message you should take away is that our economic hedging strategy has proved very effective, as can be seen in the consistently high hedge ratio in the appendix slide. Now let's turn to slide 17 on volume. The business volume was up 1.6% at constant exchange rates to 7 billion Swiss francs, again driven by non-life. which grew at 4% currency adjusted. Balkan has already explained the drivers of this non-life growth, our pruning actions and the various one-off effects. There were also some FX headwinds, even within the reported adjusted number. We are therefore very pleased with this growth, which was supported by strong renewals. More than half of our growth in business volume stems from rate increases, reflecting our solid pricing discipline across markets and key lines of business. Our online insurer Smile also continues to perform well and grew its business volume by 7.8%, proving the benefits of this unique digital business model. Life volume overall was down 2.5%, mainly coming from Switzerland, where we continue to shift our business from full insurance to semi-autonomous solutions with lower premiums but higher capital efficiency. In Swiss individual life, last year we had a successful Helvetia Value Trend product with single premiums. However, this year the change in interest rate and volume did not suit this product as well and we are adapting. However, in Europe, especially in Germany and Austria, we have already had significant success, showing that our diversification continues to pay off. Spanish growth looks low only because of a large one-off in the prior year. I would add that the low interest rate environment in Switzerland does help our fee business via our real estate offerings. Because it is no longer a target, we don't dedicate the slide to the fee business anymore, but I can confirm that we continue to grow the fee and commission income at 8% currency adjusted. Slide 19 is one of a few new slides in the presentation this time. Elsewhere, we have also given a bit more detail on our investment portfolio and given some additional disclosure on our hedging costs. Here we show the change in underlying earnings from last year. The main improvement comes from the operating insurance result via a better combined ratio. The operating finance result is lower only due to the change in methodology on intra-company charges I mentioned earlier. We'll look at both lines in more detail in a second. The operating other results suffered due to the default of a business partner. Normalized taxes are higher given the better pre-tax result, and we have a slightly higher tax rate this year due to the distribution of earnings. Moving to slide 20. Let's dig a bit deeper into the combined ratio, which has improved strongly and is back in our guidance range of 92 to 94%. If you exclude net cuts and discounting impacts, then the current year claims ratio shows a strong improvement of 1.2 percentage points. This underlying ratio does have some volatility. especially with respect to large losses, so we don't expect improvement to be fully sustainable, but we are clearly on a good trajectory. We have seen an especially strong impact from technical excellence measures in Spain and Germany. The other components of the claims ratio broadly offset each other. A lower discounting effect should not be a surprise given the interest rate developments, and the higher NACAT ratio is driven by the tragic landslide in Blachen, which costs us mid-double-digit million Swiss francs. These two headwinds are offset by a higher prior year development, which is always going to have some volatility. We do not change our previous statement that we expect the sustainable PYD levels to be below 4%. By segment, we see a combined ratio improvement everywhere except in group reinsurance. This shows a higher combined ratio as group reinsurance carried a greater claims burden due to the group's claims distribution. More claims were ceded to the group without being passed on externally. It's probably a bit early to expect an improvement in the cost ratio, and it anyway tends to exhibit some volatility. Nevertheless, it fell by 10 basis points in the first half of 2025 from a prior year level that was already quite flattering. Within this, the acquisition ratio looks very strong, but especially here, there is volatility. In particular, our Swiss B2B2C business including embedded insurance, has a significant impact on the acquisition cost ratio and can be lumpy with a different business mix causing some volatility in this number, and this period was quite good. When it comes to the administration costs, we did have a bit more seasonality last year with less project expenditure in the first half, making it difficult to compare. The full year 24 numbers are a better benchmark in that respect. We will remain very focused on cost discipline and implementation of our efficiency program from 25 to 27. Now let's look at the final result on slide 22, which was again very strong. The investment results from last year was The investment result from last year was already at a high level, but the first half of 2025 would have beaten that substantially if it had not been for a change we have made to the methodology on intercompany interest payments. This is worth 12 million Swiss francs in the first half of the year, and you should expect this to double for the full year. This makes the comparative current income and direct deals on the right-hand side of the slide become a tough benchmark. The operating insurance finance result is, I think, a bit higher than consensus was expecting. The historical discounting is unwinding with a bit higher drag this period than in the past. However, all equal in the current environment and with the current interest rate curve, we consider that this unwinding has now peaked. In 2025, we also see a higher H1 weighted seasonality than in the past. The number we have reported for the first half of the year is about two-thirds of the total we expect for 2025. This greater seasonality than normal is due to both the claims patterns that we observed in 2023 and 2024 and due to the shape of the interest rate curve. Given the market volatility we have experienced this year, We think it is worth reminding you that we hold our assets at fair value through OCI where possible. This includes all direct equity investments and, of course, all high-yield bonds. This has not always been the case in the past. Our equity hedges are non-linear and significantly kick in once markets are down 5% to 10%, so any further falls are well protected. Turning to slide 23, we consider the life result to be broadly flat after adjusting for some normal volatility. The CSM release has increased slightly and we benefit from the non-repeat of a drag from owner's contract that was in the prior year numbers. The operating fines result is within normal volatility. The main reason for the year-on-year decline comes in the other result. Last year was a bit better than normal, as we have previously indicated, and this year was a bit worse. There are very small effects in here, including project efficiency, implementation costs, higher other non-fulfillment expenses, and some small reallocations. We used to show a slide on the life interest rate margin. The introduction of IFRS 17 made consistent disclosure more difficult, so we did not show this for the last two years. However, there has been demand to reintroduce the slide, so we have included it in the appendix. The small difference to the old basis is caused by CASL, which is distorted by acquisition accounting effects. This has slightly increased both the average guarantee and investment income. You will see that the margin remains stable apart from an increase in half year 24. This is due to high reinvestment rates at the end of 2023, lower average statutory reserves, partly caused by the higher interest rates and by the H1 seasonality in investment income. Moving to the CSM development on slide 24, we have a strong contribution from new business offset by a lower expected in-force return due to the lower interest rates. Together with the CSM release at an annualized release ratio of 8.3%, this gives a normalized growth rate of 0.4%. This is in line with what we reported last year, and we consider a strong result given the interest rate headwind. As last year, we expect some adverse seasonality in the second half, due to the profile of new business. We continue to focus on creating value outside of the CSM. We had positive economic variances of 214 million Swiss francs. This comes from realized gains on real estate and on fixed interest assets, and also from economic assumption changes because of the twist in the interest rate curve. Offsetting these were negative operating variances of 192 million. The two largest drivers of this negative variance related to reserves and to a tariff change. On reserves, the model assumes that we increase reserves to take advantage of the gains we have realized. We have not actually made such an irreversible reserving decision. We may end up doing some reserve increases over the course of 25 years, but not necessarily for the full amount that you see in the H1 numbers. The other part was due to the tariff on group life policies. We made a small upward revision to the interest rate assumptions in our group life policies. That change on its own means that customers are now charged slightly lower premiums than before. It brings us from being less competitive than the industry to more in line with the industry. We gave more detail on new business on slide 25. We now use the interest rate curves in force at 31st of December 2024, while in the prior year we used those at 31st December 23. The rise in the new business volume to 1.8 billion Swiss francs is largely due to those lower interest rates and therefore less discounting. However, we have been able to offset the drag that lower interest rates have on the margin with our improved business mix. As well as continued focus on capitalized products, we benefited from a greater share of group business. Given the H1 seasonality of this group business, we may not see the margin fully maintained at the full year. However, you might argue that our reported margin is understated as it includes the implementation cost of efficiency improvements, while the benefits of these measures will only emerge in future years. The margin in each segment has remained fairly stable other than in specialty markets. Here we grew the new business volumes through a combination of the addition of new treaties and the replacement of material expiring single-year treaties with multi-year. Changes in business mix also yielded an improvement in the new business margin compared to the same period in 2024. On slide 26, we show an improved non-insurance result. This is largely due to the reallocation of intercompany interest income I mentioned earlier. However, we are also reporting a sustainably lower level of costs in part due to IFRS 17 project costs falling away. Then on slide 27, we have the walk from underlying earnings to net income, so the non-operating effects. Market fluctuations were very positive. Last year the positive performance of our investment funds was largely offset by negative FX effects. This year the investment funds repeated their strong performance but this time we had a positive FX effect as I explained earlier. Threats of real estate and positive real estate revaluations were also very helpful. Restructuring costs this year should not come as a surprise considering that we have made progress on the Spanish integration other efficiency improvements and have had AMD-related costs. We should highlight that we expect more of these in the second half of the year. Zero impairments and other one-off effects are welcome and group charges are in line with the usual run rates and net zero across the group. Our cost of funding has fallen due to the redemption of an expensive or a more expensive hybrid last year and due to FX reducing the cost of our euro debt. The half-year 25 number is even slightly above the ongoing run rate due to some pre-financing activity. We always expect a small tax positive in the life division, but this was a little larger on this occasion than usual due to the real estate sales. Together, these items resulted in our IFRS net income rising by 24% to a very satisfying 320 million Swiss francs. Turning now to our capitalization on slide 29, which remains excellent. Not much has changed here other than the under-review rating from AMBEST. As Fabian has already said, it should not be a surprise given the announcement of our intention to merge with Balwaz. AMBEST says that its rating is expected to remain on the review until the transaction is completed. And AMBEST has assessed its impact on Herveza's credit rating fundamentals. Otherwise, our Suissonsi test ratio remains at an outstanding level, similar to that at the end of last year. Our financial leverage has changed only due to timing reasons with the refinance actions in January when we took advantage of the supportive market conditions and issued two new bonds of 250 million Swiss francs combined with coupons of 0.8% and 1.1% respectively. We continue to enjoy a diverse funding base with a varied maturity profile. With that, I hand back to Peter.

Thank you, Annelies. So, we'll now move on to Q&A, and if I could ask you to limit yourself to two questions in the first instance. So, operator, if we could start the Q&A session, please.

Absolutely. Thank you so much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode and eventually turn off the volume from the webcast. Anyone who has a question may press star and 1 at this time. Our first question comes from Simon Fosmeyer with Fontobas. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. So really good results, 25% need of consensus. I'm wondering if this has any impact on the merger exchange ratio. And I assume your answer will be no. And then I'm wondering why did you not delay some of the unusual items to next year? And the second question, you mentioned in your introductory remarks that you are cautious on top line growth. Could you be a bit more specific? what you are referring to. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much, Simon. So I think those are probably both for Fabian. The first one, does this have any impact on the exchange ratio and why did we not try and be a bit more clever on the timing? The second one, what are our, we said we mentioned cautious on the top line. Can we elaborate on that a little bit?

Thank you. Thank you, Simon. Let me start with the top-line growth. So I was referring to two different trends. So we see a hardening of the – a continued hardening of the retail markets, and there we are convinced that we will see further growth. And we are slightly more cautious on the commercial and reinsurance. because there we expect that the cycle is or we expect we see the cycle turning and that's where we say, look, we will focus on margins. Of course, we will grow where we can grow, but our focus will be on margin and that's why we are more prudent on predicting top line growth in the short term. That's a key message. I've said as well that we're working in parallel on growth initiatives. That's under the global specialist and that concerns mid-market reach in Europe and further growth in additional lines globally in the specialty business. Then on your first question, so first you're right, it will not change. And, you know, our standard is that we report things as they come. I speak here under the control of Annelies. We always include anything to our best knowledge and at the right time. So I can't say more at that point, but that's basically what's driving us. Thanks for your questions, Salman.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Naseeb Hamid with QBS. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Two questions. Firstly, on remittances, can you give an update on the remittances in the first half from life versus non-life and the different business units? Second question on life insurance reserve releases. There was an offset in the CFM, but also talking a little bit more about that and what happens in the statutory accounts. What's your reserving philosophy? You had a peer report today and they do reserve releases, but you guys seem to be a little bit more conservative. If I can add on another question to that, it's reinvestment yield. What is your reinvestment yield today on the Lifebook?

Thanks. Okay. Thank you very much for those. I think they're probably all for Annalise. The first one was on the remittances. We don't usually say a lot at the half year, but... let analysts say what we can on that front.

Yeah, sure. Hi, Nancy, from my side. So the remittances we get from our daughter companies, so that the collection of the remittances is proceeding exactly as planned, as a and planned as part of our strategy that we communicated last December. So, usually, at half-year, we do not report any number. But, yeah, to add that, the remittances, they flow in perfectly as planned. So, this is great year from the remittance side until now.

Yeah, and the second question, I guess, was on reserve releases, if we can give a reminder of our philosophy there and what we expect.

Yeah, so our philosophy has been for a long time and continues to be that we are a big supporter of very steady reserve releases, so with the role of roll off or yeah roll off of the portfolio we also release these reserves and as we have said in the past these are mid double digit million reserve releases we expect every year what we do not like to do is is make big jumps in real reserve releases so let's say hectically follow any interest rate development in the external world, but our philosophy is really to have a good reserving on life and then release over time. The third question, I don't have the number at hand. Eventually, we have to come back to you. I'm not sure about this number. Is it because you said on life only? Yeah, life only is on the life portfolio.

Yeah, the 2.75.

My team is showing me page 38, but this is total, huh? Oh, sorry. Yeah, on page 38, you can actually see it. Sorry for the confusion. The reinvestment yield on page 38 is split between non-life and life and also total, and for life, it's 2.7% direct yield.

Lower than the current investment yield? On 37, you have 2.75, and then 2.7 on slide 38.

I'll have to check that.

The scope will be very slightly different. Okay, no worries. I can come back.

Yeah, we'll come back.

As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, you may press star and one. Our next question comes from Ian Pierce with PNB Paribas. Please go ahead.

Hi, afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one was sort of a clarification and a question. Just trying to think about the, firstly, do you expect to be in the 9% to 11% underlying EPS growth range this year? And if you do, just trying to understand what you see as driving the acceleration from the 6.8 that you've done in H1 into the H2 performance to get into that range. And the second one was just a comment you made on the attritional. Now, sort of pleasing results to see the attritional improve so much and that some of these technical measures sort of running through already. But I think you did say something about some of the attritional improvement not being sustainable in H1. So if you could just talk about how you expect the attritional to develop into H2, that would be very useful. Thank you.

Thanks a lot, Ian. So the first question then was, you know, we were a little bit below the targeted 9% to 11% in the first half of this year. How do we move up to that 9% to 11% over the term? I think Fagin will take that one first.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Ian. So we gave the 9% to 11% for the three years as an average. So there is a little bit of backloading because some of the measures just take longer, take the expense, the efficiency measures where we said 20% in 25, 40% in 26 and 27. But I say it's a little bit of backloading. We're very proud that there's not a lot of backloading because we're not a big fan of that. And then we gave the 9% and 11% based on the full year 24 results. And what you now compare when you look at the 7%, you compare it to half year 24, which was a, you know, compared to the full year, relatively strong first half year. We had quite some net cap then in the second half year. So that is the reason why, you know, we're speaking now about 7%, but are fully confident about the 9% to 11% over the period as we discussed it. And then I hand over for the other question to Annelies. Is that okay?

Yeah, so thank you. Some comments on you asked for the attrition. So what we show and what I commented on page 20 is so we take our current year claims ratio and we deduct discounting effect and NATCAT ratio. So what is left is we call current claims ratio without net cut and discounting. So there is, I would say, not a pure attritional loss ratio left. But in this amount that is left, there is also volatility from large losses. That's what I wanted to make clear, that that number can have a little bit of volatility and will not developed in an absolute straight line from half year to half year.

Okay, understood. And I guess what you're saying is that there were some benefits in nutritional in H1 of this year from low large losses in that number.

Not huge benefits, but I just want to make sure that you understand that that this number is not without volatility. So in a year where we have a lot of large losses or exceptional high large losses, the benefit will not show so strongly. But of course, we will inform it if that would be the case. Regarding large losses, I would say it was more or less a normal year. Maybe you want to add, Fabian?

No, just that I think the key message here is We're not saying that the rate is too high or too low. We're just saying watch out. There might be some volatility coming, and we will not have a point-to-point lending every time we now report that ratio. But you know that from the business, and that's due to, you know, volatility that could come through large losses. Is that clear? I think sustainability is a little bit misleading. I think it's more volatility.

Okay. No, no, no. Understood. Thank you.

Our next question comes from René Locher with Odoo. Please go ahead.

Yes, good afternoon. And so just first questions on the market, and especially the Swiss non-life market. So you have a growth of roughly 4%. Smile is at 7.8%. Shurik is at 6.4%. And let me see, Vodwa is at 7.2%. And at the underlying market, according to FINMA, it's growing like 2.3% in 2023, 3.7% in 2024. So I'm just wondering what's going on in the Swiss non-life market where everybody which reported so far is growing above market average. So perhaps you can elaborate a little bit, you know, what's dynamic in the Swiss non-life market. the second question it's interesting to see that like three to four years ago there was a lot of talk about FinTech InsureTech younger clients and now all of a sudden I can see that you are launching targeted 50 plus initiatives so here as well a big picture you know so it's now 50 plus much more in focus than the younger generation and if I may Just one additional question, but we can also take it offline. I was just wondering, in Blodden, that cadiment, what was the claims burden before the natural perils pool came into play, and what was the claims burden afterwards? If you've got a number, I was just wondering, you know, because I read so much about it in the new steps, I was just I'm wondering what is the impact of these natural patterns on your company? Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much, René. So I think the first one, how is it that everyone's reporting above market growth in Swiss non-life? The second one, why the switch from younger to older clients? And the third one, can we give any more details on Platin? I think Fabian will take all of them.

Yeah, I will take all of them, of course. So let's start with Platin. So what we, you know, so the elementary pool is very hard to guess at that moment. So we currently just assume a net zero for us on that one. We only know at the end of the year because they calculate that reciprocally towards the end of the year. So it's very hard to guess because it depends on so many factors. What we said is that the overall claims burden which we got was in the midst of a two-digit million figure. That's what we said. And that, by the way, is before and after reinsurance the same because our reinsurance kicks in only at 70 million. Then on your question, where are we with the non-life market? So what you see... Of course, it depends, you know, the individual growth of company just depends as well on, you know, how many premiums increases they did do in a year. What I can say for us is that there is part of that growth is coming from what we call effective rate changes and part of that growth is coming from real volume growth. As you said, Helvetia in its overall business grew 4%, excluding Smile, and we consider that close to the market, so not significantly above the market, but rather around the market. Then Smile is with 7% clearly above the market. And that's why as well we love Smile because it's profitable and it's growing above the market. But of course, we just don't go for growth. That's important to say. We always make sure that this business stays profitable because that's the idea. And it's meanwhile quite a substantial business. So we really want it to yield as well. And then your question on 50+. To be clear, we're not forgetting about the younger generation. And that's often a misunderstanding when we speak about that initiative. What we want to explain is that now when we look into our portfolio, we see already that more than half of our customers worldwide are more than 50 years old. So this share just in our portfolio is increasing. And what we want to make sure is that in our offer to those customers, We make sure that we respect their specific needs, which of course change over lifetime. And we consider this group as, you know, in our share in the portfolio that will be a growing group because that's just the demographics in Europe. And therefore, we want to make sure that we serve this part of our client base well. That is what the initiative is about, which doesn't mean that we don't continue, of course, being attractive for our younger customers. through the different products and sales channels. Okay. Thank you very much.

Our last question comes from Anne Chantal with Octavian. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good day, everyone. I would have a question first on your operating improvement and initiative You set all this initiative in December back before the merger, so I wanted to know if your four pillars have been influenced since April by the merger or the expected merger, if you had any slight deviation or revaluation of your initiative, in particular in Switzerland, where the merger will be more affecting your business. And maybe also... Looking at the full year reporting, can we expect that the combined entity will also report an underlying approach in addition to the FRS results?

Thank you very much, Angela. So the first one, different to Fabian on the strategy, has that been impacted by the plan merger at all?

When we announced the merger, we said that one of the reasons why we think that we're a good fit, Paloas and Helvetia, is that we have a very similar vision on strategic priorities. And for that reason, I don't expect significant changes to the approach which we already have, because it is very similar to the one of Paloas. and therefore you know of course we will announce more details at the capital market day and of course there's beyond the strategy there's as well opportunities but that's you know as a guideline you can assume that that will not dramatically change now we have you know we're of course we are committed to our strategy so we have started implementing it and that's why I gave as well an update on where we stand now what is clear with the planned merger, we will have probably some priority conflicts on things which we originally planned to implement as part of our strategy and which we might need to prioritize against some activities of the merger because we might not be able to do everything. And, you know, any of those impacts we will as well report on the capital market day. But with that, I want to still emphasize that we were very clear on what we expected, that the individual plans of both companies will still be fulfilled and then even beaten by the positive effects of the merger. So with that, I'm not at all announcing that we that we go back from or that we draw back from any of our commitment. Just it's natural that those reprioritizations need to happen once we have a clear planning of the merger and those activities. I hope that was clear. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And then the second question was on the full year 25 disclosure, which Annelies will take.

Yes, so the full year 25 disclosure will already be on Helvetia Balwas. If everything goes as planned, was what we currently expect with a closing towards the end of the year. Regarding the exact way, let's say, the new company will be steered, of course, this is too early to confirm anything. You can imagine that the new government then of the new company has to approve all these concepts. For Helvetia now in the past years it has proven extremely helpful to have a measure for earnings power like this is the underlying earnings and this measure is like a common language for all our market units because If we would only look at cash generation or at cash, we would be in many different languages, with languages I mean in many different local accounting regimes. And the beauty of underlying earnings under IFRS is that we have a common language to talk about profitability, which at the end of the day is the driver of value generation for the company. So that's the way how we think about it, but it's very clear that the governance of the new company, of course, has then to approve all the concepts of how the new company will be steered.

Yeah, I was just thinking since the closing is in Q4 and depending if it's at the beginning or end of Q4, that would leave you very short time to react effectively for the for the full year disclosure and also the date has not been confirmed. So do we have any target when you expect to report the full year reserve?

I think Fabian will comment on that last point quickly.

Yeah.

So we're not yet communicating a date because we wait for the merger approvals and the antitrust approvals. Once this is clear, we can announce a concrete date. Just assume it will be rather towards the end of Q4. We always, I think, said that as well than the beginning. And, you know, we're very positive and confident, but we want to wait until we get you know, certain approvals so that we can as well be sure that we communicate the right day and it's all feasible, yeah.

Yeah, very well. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Michele Bellatore with KBW. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you for taking my question. Anything you can say about the SST ratio development in terms of, you know, market impact and capital generation. Thank you.

Yeah, certainly. So, I mean, the SST ratio development, we've obviously said that it's been fairly stable overall across the first half of the year, but I'll pass down the lease in case we can add anything.

So... At half year, we only show an estimate, but our estimates proved to be quite accurate in the past. And yes, there was not really a lot happening in the acidity ratio. So compared to end of the year, it really stayed stable with different effects. So with the effects being rather small and sort of compensated each other, so market effects and business effects, dividend payments and so on.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this was our last question. I would like now to turn the conference back over to the management for any closing remarks.

No, that's great. Thank you all very much for attending on this busy day. I wish you a good afternoon. Thank you.

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