Storebrand Asa Unsp/Adr

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Storbrand's first quarter result presentation. As usual, our CEO, Odarel Grefstad, will present the key highlights of the quarter, followed by CFO Lars Lødesøl, who will dive into the numbers. At the end of the presentation, participants in the team's webinar will have a chance to ask questions. Details on how to join the webinar are found on the Investor Relations website. But without further ado, I give the word to our CEO, Odarel Grefstad.

Thank you, Johannes, and good morning, everyone. Let's look at the first quarter's highlights. Storbrands Group's cash-based earnings amounted to 1,082 million in the quarter, whereof the operating result was 688 million. This is a 31% increase since the same quarter last year. The results are driven by structural and market growth in asset under management, driving the fee income in pension and asset management, improvements and growth in insurance, and an increase in return on net financial assets. Furthermore, we continue to deliver a robust solvency ratio, which was 191% in the first quarter. During the quarter, we completed 0.4 billion in share buybacks. And last Friday, we received a new approval from the FSA regarding additional share buybacks amounting to 1.1 billion. The program will be executed continuously throughout 2024. This means that we deliver on our ambition of increasing dividends and 1.5 billion in share buybacks also in 2024, and that we are on the right track to deliver on our 2030 ambition of 12 billion in buybacks. Let me now turn to how we deliver on our strategy. As some of you are well familiar with, Storbrand aims to take three commercial positions in the market we operate in. A, to be a leading provider of occupational pension in both Norway and Sweden. B, to be a Nordic powerhouse in asset management. And C, to be a fast-growing challenger in the Norwegian retail market for financial services. These positions are strengthened by our strategic enablers, people, sustainability, and digital frontrunner, together unlocking additional growth. Let me turn to how we have succeeded in developing our commercial positions in the quarter. We continue to deliver strong double-digit growth across all business lines. Within UnitLinked, we see strong structural growth with 19% growth year over year. The volumes have grown by 30 billion in the first three months this year. The strong long-term growth in asset management has picked up the last quarter with an increase of 70 billion in asset management. Year on year, the growth rate was 15%. Within insurance, we continue to gain market shares and we see the effect of increasing prices in premium volumes with a growth rate of 14%. Lastly, the loan balance in retail banking is growing 13% and Storbrand is gaining market share. To further fuel our growth, we view the public occupational pension market to be an attractive opportunity, both by extending our existing corporate pension offering to public sector customers and by cross-sales to the retail market. The public sector is a total addressable market of 800 billion in asset under management. The market is dominated by one provider. In addition, there are some smaller public pension funds. It is a large market, which is growing and profitable. However, few public entities have been tendering their occupational pension. It is therefore promising to see EFTA's surveillance authority, ESA, supporting Storbrand's case that public entities must tender occupational pension plans. Altogether, ESA estimates that around 370 public entities have extended their agreements with the provider in the market in breach of their procurement rules. Norway has until June 15th to respond. We believe ESA's conclusion will increase the transfer market significantly, and Storbrand is well positioned to capture this as we already have 100 percent hit rate in all municipality tenders since we entered the market in 2019. Now, turning to our important work within sustainable finance in the Nordic. We are pleased to see that our strong growth in the Nordics is recognized in a sustainable manner by our customers and industry players. In the first quarter, Storbrann Asset Management was honored with the award as the best asset manager in Denmark by Morningstar. SPP was selected as the most sustainable player within investments by Søderberg and partners in Sweden. And lastly, we are proud to once again be placed as number one in the Nordics on the Ski Index for equality and diversity. And with that, I leave the word back to you, Johannes.

Thank you, Odariel. Now, let's take a closer look at the numbers. Lars, please go ahead.