Catella AB (publ)

Good morning and welcome to Catella's Earnings Call, where we will present the year-end report for 2025. I'm Rege Luege, the CEO of Catella Group, and joining me today is Michel Fichet, our CFO and Head of Investor Relations. I will begin with a brief overview of Catella, cover the main points for 2025 and Q4, and then we will review the financials, summarize, and then open for Q&A. Catella is a pan-European investment manager and real estate advisor managing 155 billion SEC in assets across 16 countries with a revenue of 2.7 billion SEC and 470 employees. Our operations span three property-focused business areas, investment management, principal investments, and corporate finance. Despite recent challenges in the real estate sector, Our operations span three property-focused business areas, investment management principles. Catella is a pan-European investment manager and real estate advisor, managing 155 billion SEC in assets across 16 countries with a revenue of 2.7 billion SEC. Our operations span three property-focused business areas, business areas, investment management, principal investments, and corporate finance. Despite recent challenges in the real estate sector, we are positioned for long-term growth as portfolio allocations to real assets continue to rise. Over half of our income comes from fixed revenue, reoccurring revenue, which stabilizes our business. Growing AUM to boost to boost fixed fees and shareholder value is a key strategic priority and KPI. We consider sustainability essential to our business, reflected in our long-term client relationships and our approach to fund investments and investment projects. We manage institutional capital via funds and asset management mandates through local teams with deep market experience, making us a fully integrated pan-European firm. Catella, with nearly 40 years of history, has built a respected brand and pan-European platform for expansion. I'd like to share our key highlights for 25. After Q2 results, I made my debut as Catella's group CEO, sharing initial impressions in our Q3 call. I'd like to revisit those reflections and connect them with Catella's progress in 25. After spending my first months meeting Catella's colleagues across Europe, I found Catella to be a people-focused company with strong talent and expertise in various markets. We have a solid local and group position backed by good liquidity and a stable capital base. Our main areas for improvement are alignment and organizational structure. A milestone along the way was Daniel's appointment as corporate finance Europe lead and Dominic assuming the position of head of investment management after Timo's retirement at the end of the year. The merger of the two German platforms in the beginning of 25 achieved significant cost savings and created a single front office for capital raising and client relations across the German speaking areas. As emphasized last time, Cartella will use its balance sheet to invest in real estate via partnerships, funds, and co-investments with minority stakes rather than undertake large projects alone. This lies firm. Instead of taking on larger development projects on our own, we will utilize our balance sheets to invest in real estate through partnerships and the funds as mentioned. This deconcentrates standalone exposure and thereby risk and fuels growth of AUM and reoccurring fees through development and value-add mandates and Catella-established funds. In 2025, we divested Cactus Towers in Copenhagen, generating liquidity and reducing risk with a sizable shareholder profit contribution. In turn, we've made minority investments, example of Vega alongside Barings, which met our return targets and secured a long-term development mandate with associated fees. At the start of this year, the principal investment business area was incorporated into core operations. This integration enhances transparency regarding Catela's reoccurring revenues from development mandates, whether or not co-investments are involved within investment management. Additionally, it provides shareholders with a clear perspective on the returns generated from balance sheet investments. Catella's financials remain strong with a solid balance sheet and robust liquidity despite the industry's biggest downturn since global financial crisis. For the entire year, we achieved an EBIT of 277, which is an increase of almost 150 million compared to last year. When adjusting for comparability items, the improvement rises to 238 million. Significant factors affecting comparable results included our decision to impair the Kerr Tower investment, resulting in a negative EBIT impairment of 151 million. Meanwhile, the sale of valuations in France added a positive 51 million, along with restructuring costs recorded in both 24 and 25. The board proposes a dividend of 50% of the net profit, consisting with our policy and adjustments for non-comparable items. Although we have sufficient liquidity for a higher payout, The board believes in debt reduction and reserving funds for future market opportunities when they arise. This remains a priority of the board. Looking ahead to 26, Catella, the management team, and I remain committed to growing AUM to increase fixed fee revenue. expanding corporate finance market share and capitalizing on transaction market recovery, launching new products and investment vehicles, and continue to focus on optimizing operations and clarifying roles. By focusing on these areas, Cattell will drive profitable growth for shareholders in 26 and beyond and build a solid foundation. The transactional market has begun to demonstrate signs of recovery since the low observed in Q3 2023, following a pronounced two-year downturn in transactional volumes. Transactional volumes are key for Catella, generating variable revenues in investment management beyond fixed fees. They're especially crucial for corporate finance where most revenues come from transactional advisory services. We remain optimistic about rising activity as market data shows an upward trend. Lower interest rates, accessible financing, and stable values at appealing yields also support increased market activity. However, we cannot predict the future and remain mindful of possible setbacks. Catella delivered solid results during the fourth quarter. A large contribution stemmed from the divestment of Catella valuation in France, which contributed positively by 51 million. But more importantly, investment management operations increased bottom line despite lower net revenues. This underscores the work that we have done in Catella to increase cost efficiency, where the merger of our two German fund platforms, CRIM and CREAC, was instrumental in this journey. If we look at investment management specifically, we would like to mention as earlier discussed as well, that the market is still in recovery with a gradual increase of European transaction volumes to support this. In this market, we are encouraged by continued growth in AUM, not taking into account currency impact. For the year, investment management grew AUM by nearly 1 billion euro and was broadly unchanged during the last quarter. The currently lower interest for investments in the property funds is well balanced by our offering in asset management services, where we provide local know-how and competence for external investors on how to reposition and enhance value of their holdings through active asset management. The two business lines within investment management have provided a good balance and stability through a business cycle. Even though interest for investments in property funds is starting to increase, we at the same time see continued demand for asset management mandates. When turning to principal investments, as mentioned during our last call, we have, as of the beginning of this year, integrated the business area into our core operations. In this quarter, we continue to report on principal investments. But from the next quarter, you'll see a different reporting where the fees we earn from developments will be part of investment management and separately will show the returns we achieve on our balance sheet investments. Michelle will briefly walk you through what you should expect further in this call. Looking ahead, we continue to focus on finalizing and exiting the existing development project portfolio, where all projects are progressing according to expectation and plan. At the same time, we are evaluating new investments that fit the criteria for balance sheet investments, i.e. making use of our own balance sheet to grow AUM, and by doing so, increasing our reoccurring fixed fee revenue base. As we're used to in corporate finance and also mentioned during our last call, we expected a significant increase in executing transactions during the last quarter of the year. In our industry, the transactional market is seasonally stronger in Q2 and Q4. This is also what was shown during the last three months of 25, and especially in Sweden and Finland, which substantially increased the revenues year on year. Looking into 26, we have an interesting pipeline of transactions to be carried out and expect that the increase of transactional activity that we are seeing in the market will benefit the corporate finance business area, founded on the competencies and strong market positions we have in our five markets with that said i will now hand over to michelle we'll take you through some of the key financials of the business areas and the group

Thank you, Ricke, and good morning, everyone, as this will be my last earnings call for Catella. I would like to share some thoughts, reflections, and summarize my nearly five years with the company. When I came through the doors of Catella, it was a company in transition, a transition from a financial conglomerate with retail funds, a bank, and a systematic arbitrated macro fund. And during my years, we have managed to exit these non-core operations and at the same time, refine and focus to that Catella that you're used to seeing today. Worth highlighting is that through the largest downturn in the real estate market since the global financial crisis, Catella has remained steadfast, maintaining a strong liquidity and delivering positive operating results. The solid financials enabled us to maintain and invest in the development portfolio. And in the case of Cactus, exit the investment at a time when the market was right, resulting in good profits for Catella and its shareholders. To summarize, it's been exciting and developing years for myself and Catella, and I will definitely miss the engagement and interaction with my highly skilled colleagues across Europe going forward. At the same time, and as a continued shareholder in the group, I look forward to seeing Catella taking the next steps in profitable growth under Ricke's leadership. With that said, moving on to the court of financials, starting on page 10 with investment management. As you all know by now, investment management is our largest business area and has since inception shown an impressive average annual growth rate of 15%. Despite the more cautious market and lower interest for core fund investment, inflows continued during the year. As already stated, the main driver behind the inflows during the year was the onboarding of new asset management mandates. Our offering continues to meet market demand for advisory service to refine and reposition assets. We have also been successful in maintaining AUM in our funds over the slower period in the industry. Last 12 months, AUM growth amounted to nearly 9 billion Swedish krona, with limited growth in funds, but with the growth stemming from asset management mandates. The largest growth was seen in Denmark, followed by the UK and Finland. In the quarter, AUM remains stable when adjusting for FX movements. And let's just be clear, when I said that we had grown 9 billion over the last 12 months, I of course meant that that was currency adjusted. If we then move on to page 11, Fixed fees have remained stable over the last four quarters, north of 200 million, and when taking currency effects into consideration, it showed a small increase year over year. Variable revenues showed an uptick compared to last year, once again, when adjusting for currency movements. The increase was driven by an increase of transaction and property funds. The quarter also delivered one larger performance fee. This stemmed from our French investment management operations, where they invested opportunistically on behalf of investors in the beginning of the year and exited the investments during the last quarter, yielding substantial returns to investors and realizing a performance fee as the returns exceeded thresholds. As commented over the last quarters, efficiency improvements carried out in 24 and 25 have lowered IM's investment management's operating expenses. And year over year, these were down by 5%, resulting in an increased bottom line of 12 million, despite a flat development in net revenues. Turning to page 13 for an overview of principal investments. We continue to have 1.1 billion invested, where 0.8 billion is in development projects and 0.3 billion in funds. As Rikke initially mentioned, a decision was made to impair one of the projects during the quarter, the development project of Köthaur, an office building under construction in central Düsseldorf. The project is progressing according to plan and cost, but the outlook based on the current value has been revised downwards. The impairment amounting to 150 million, 151 million does not have an impact on cashflow and does not affect Catela's capacity to distribute dividends. By end of quarter, all current investments were progressing according to plan and expectations. And based on the year end valuation or development projects. At the same time, as a write down was made on the Kötöver development, previously recognized impairments of the Maltings development was reversed based on increased expectations on the forthcoming sale of the project. Mark to market value of our fund investments also contributed positively in the quarter, albeit lower compared to the same period last year. Altogether, the business area EBIT contribution amounted to nearly minus 100 million. For the full year, principal investments realized an EBIT of 140 million, which despite the impairment of Cat Tower, is a substantial increase compared to 24, where, of course, the divestment of Cactus was the main value driver. If we continue to corporate finance then, Page 15, thank you. The business area showed a substantial increase in net revenues compared to last year. The largest driver behind the increase was the divestment of valuation in France, which also contributed with 51 million to the quarter's EBIT. But when adjusting for this item, the business area showed a healthy increase in top line revenues. All in all, when adjusting for one offs, including a reversal of provisions with a positive impact amounting to 11 million last year and restructuring costs, we show an EBIT increase of 15 million year over year. If we then move on to page 17 for a view of the consolidated income statement. I've already walked you through the larger financial movements in the business area in a quarter, and therefore I'll focus on the items below the line. As the Swedish krona appreciated during the quarter, these currency headwinds led to a negative effect of 26 million in net financials. Compared to last year, where we saw an appreciation of the Swedish krona, The delta year over year reaches nearly 60 million in effects driven by FX movements. For the full year, this corresponding effect amounted to negative 150 million. And to reiterate what we've said previously, these effects come from translation effects. when our cash and cash equivalents, as well as internal loans, are translated into Swedish krona, which is our reported currency. Excluding FX movements, financial net, this is significantly below last year, and this is both an effect of lower market interest rates affecting the coupon on our bonds, and also the repayment of the senior loan on Cactus, which significantly decreased debt and thereby interest costs. The net profit for the year ended at 48 million, which is an improvement compared to last year. And when taking items affecting comparability and FX headwinds into consideration, the underlying performance of Catella shows a solid improvement. If we then continue to page 18, to give you some additional color on what you should expect from our reporting going forward as principal investments is now integrated into core operations. The way we see how Catella creates value is through recurring and variable revenues in investment management. Transactional driven revenues in corporate finance, and the returns we receive on our own balance sheet investments. This has always been the case, but by realigning our reporting, we aim to make this clearer for you as investors to follow going forward. In investment management, you will continue to see the revenue stemming from property funds and asset management mandates. which include then fixed fee revenues, variable revenues and performance fees and fees received on fund administration. What is new is that the fees we receive on development projects will also be recognized in the business area on a separate line. By doing so, you as investors will be able to see the fees we generate in, for example, the Vega development in Copenhagen and the other projects we're engaged in in Germany. Also, all of Catela's balance sheet investments will be reported separately. In this reporting, we will present how our investments perform as we divest them and those valued to market, how they perform according to market valuation, and also affirming the book values at cost for development projects. We believe that this reporting will clarify on how we deliver on reaching the targeted 15% of balance sheet investments. We turn to page 19, and we are in the midst of realigning reporting. So this is highly illustrative, but this is what you should expect to see going forward. And we aim to get back to you with comparables as we implement these changes in reporting. But simply put, you will learn more straightforward way, see how all parts of Cotella contribute to creating value. Investment management, now including revenue and profit contribution from long-term development projects, long-term development mandates, and the contribution of all balance sheet investments and the performance of corporate finance. As mentioned, we will start this reporting as of Q1 and at the same time share comparables for the previous year. And with that said, I'd like to hand back over to you again.

Thank you. So. Thank you. And prior to concluding and commencing the Q&A session, I'd like to provide a concise summary of this presentation. In 2025, we delivered strong results. In addition to divesting Cactus and Valuation France, investment management achieved growth in assets under management. and offset a lower top line by increasing operational efficiency. Corporate finance has enhanced its underlying profitability, and the outlook for 2026 is promising with a robust pipeline. We're making progress in principal investments by integrating the development arm into investment management, and our balance sheet investments are proceeding as planned. Throughout the year, Catella has taken meaningful steps to refine and refocus the company. In 2026, we aim to advance even further on this path. By prioritizing the strategic use of our own balance sheet to boost AUM and attract leading investors, we will be well positioned to expand fixed fee revenue and increase shareholder value. Another key area of focus is improving alignment across the group and strengthening core functions and leadership to fully leverage our pan-European platform. We have a strong balance sheet giving us operationality and flexibility to take advantage of future market opportunities to grow. I'm confident that our solid financial foundation With that, we will continue to develop and grow our company throughout 26 and beyond. Thank you all for your attention. I'd like to now open up the floor for questions.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. To enter the queue, if you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Emile Johnson from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thanks for the presentation. Just a couple of questions from my side. First off, on the net outflows of around $1 billion in the quarter, were these driven by either having sold assets, which then turns into cash and is no longer counted in the AUM figure, or Was this driven by investors actually pulling capital out of your funds or your asset management mandates?

As you know by now, I mean, there is redemptions in the funds as well. These are new investments in the funds. And in this quarter, we adhered to redemptions that we received 12 months ago. So you will see these kind of fluctuations between the quarters.

Okay, that's helpful. And based on redemption requests that you've had so far since 12 months ago, what's your expectation regarding the pace of redemptions in the coming, say, one, two, three quarters?

I mean, generally speaking, what we've seen and our experience is that we've moved past the big redemption that was driven by the downturn in the real estate industry.

Okay. But do you think that the redemptions that have been flagged, are they of sufficient size that we could potentially see another quarter of net outflows?

I mean, yes, I mean, you can always see, I mean, redemptions coming in at a higher level in a specific quarter, as well as you have seen asset management mandates being terminated, realizing outflows in the quarter. But, you know, the long term trajectory is positive. And as the market now returns we see continued interest or renewed interest into investments into property funds at the same time as we see continued interest in asset management mandates but there will be some volatilities over the quarter okay uh that's helpful uh the my last question

in principal investments. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I understand it, you've now done external valuations across the project portfolio. This is kind of difficult for us to analyze from the outside, so any color on this would be helpful. What I'd like to ask is, if we imagine that the sort of true valuation of your projects, the valuation found through the external valuation process, If these valuations were to drop, say, 5%, would we then see additional write-downs of the book values of any other projects in the portfolio?

Now, so what we did now at the year end was to obtain external valuations on all of our projects. And as you know, we value our development projects at cost. So even if the market value is above cost, that is not, that's not resulting in a write up. However, if the market value is below cost, that results in an impairment of the project. So specifically then for Kötower, the current valuation with few comparables in the Dusseldorf market indicated a lower value on the project. as it currently stands in the current market in Germany, compared to what we had in our books. And that was the reasons behind the impairment. At the same time, we received external violations on one of our UK development projects, where we did make an impairment last year, but we now revise that taking it upwards and that we can do but we can never go above the value at cost that we have in our in our in our books but we can reverse impairments that have previously been done okay but but the other projects whose book values did not change in the quarter are would you say that their external evaluation figures are

sufficiently high that they could theoretically drop by 5% with unchanged book values?

No. So, I mean, we took in external valuations on all our development projects and where we saw a need for impairment, that was done. I hope that answers your question.

Okay. But you can't tell us whether you know, how big of a margin the external valuation figures are versus the book values on the other projects?

No, I mean, no, that's not something that we can disclose as we value the cost either to the highest of, you know, value at cost or the highest of the market value. So otherwise, I mean, that's, that would be, you know, a difference compared to our accounting standards where we would revise, uh, you know, value all the development projects at a market value, which would lead to increased volatility in our earnings. And that's, that's not the accounting standards, um, that Catella works by.

Okay. Um, That's fair enough. Those were all my questions, but thank you very much.

Thank you, Emile.

The next question comes from Patrick Bratellius from ABG. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Can you hear me?

Yes. Good morning, Patrick.

Good morning. Yes. A few questions from my side. If we look at the net cash from the last slide in your presentation, I guess it's slide 24, that level is almost the same level as the current market cap. So how do you view that?

I don't understand the question. We view it as a solid base and a good position and a strong balance sheet.

One way of interpreting it is that you view your assets as kind of low valued. So do you have any plans how to visualize value going forward, given that the market basically values the whole company at the cash level, despite you have investment management and corporate finance. Is it any plans to try to visualize value more clearly the coming years?

Well, if we start with the projects that we have in the development projects, those will, of course, materialize in cash as we finalize those and exit those according to the schedule that we have for them. I can't really, and we cannot comment on, we're not even allowed to comment on how the market values Catella, but I agree in your analysis that the cash is near the value of the market value, market cap of Catella.

If we say it like this instead, that you highlight in your presentation here on some occasions that you want to address attractive opportunities going forward. So given that the market cap is almost at the same level as the cash, how do you view than potentially doing share buybacks as a way of creating value for the shareholders?

Thank you for your question. It is important to the board that we are able to have an operationality and a flexibility to take advantage of future market opportunities to grow. We're not just sitting around, you know, on our cash. We're actively looking into opportunities. These opportunities we see both as co-investments into funds and products as well as M&A opportunities. we believe it's a good market to look into M&A opportunities. We are actively reviewing opportunities. However, it is important for us that we do clever investment and do not stress over our balance sheet. Our focus is to grow the company in an efficient and profitable way and making sure that in a market where it is a good opportunity, there are some real opportunities potential investments to be made at good value for the company, that we have the opportunity to do that. Right now, we focus on making sure that we can redeem our bonds by the end of the year and that we can and are able to grasp the opportunities as they come along for co-investments and M&A opportunities. that is currently the focus of the board. To grow the firm in terms of AUM and utilizing our balance sheet for such growth.

Thank you. And this redemption of the bond, is that 100% of the bond that will be redeemed at the end of the year in your plan?

Well, we have the opportunity to call the first bond, the green bond in September, but it is to be decided at a future point if we're going to exercise that call option or not.

can you i can of course look uh in my notes uh but can you remind us how much that green bond is i don't have it on top of my head yeah i mean the total issues was 600 where we've report purchased approximately 75 so 525 is outstanding thank you and then uh My last question is regarding the market environment. You highlight in the CEO wording more optimism around transaction activity picking up and we saw investment management a little bit of a step up here in Q4. So could you elaborate a little bit what we can expect or what you expect in terms of investment management progressing in 2026? You don't need to give any guidance or so forth, but more of how you view this segment to progress in a more active transaction market and what is reasonable here.

I mean, in both investment management and corporate finance, we expect the activity to increase in 26. We have a very strong pipeline for corporate finance. So we do expect to, over the coming quarters, to have a very profitable and interesting growth in corporate finance. In terms of investment management, we do foresee that asset management mandates will continue to grow. that we will utilize our balance sheet to co-invest alongside international blue-chip investors in development projects across larger parts of Europe. So we expect AUM to grow in investment management. That said, as Emil just said, about redemptions, we do have some redemptions coming up in fund management. So our expectation will be a growth in AUM in terms of asset management and development mandates, but offset a little bit by some redemptions in the funds that we have currently on our table at the moment.

Thank you. A former CEO commented earlier that one could be able to think that in a normal environment, investment management should be able to deliver at least 200 million in EBIT per year. So I will not hold you to it since you are not the one commenting on it, but does it seem reasonable also in your view?

I am not going to comment on any previous CEO's comments that I have not the background for the reasoning as to why this comment was made, if you will excuse me.

Okay, that is fair. That was all for me.

Thank you. There are no more phone questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.

We did receive some questions from Robin and Rasmus, and I hope that we stay in touch going forward as well after my departure from Catella. I think those questions have already been answered, but I'm happy to follow up following this call if you want to.

Okay. Okay. Then I hope you will indulge me all just for one minute because, Michel, even though that you are with us for another few months, I would like to take this opportunity to, on behalf of Catella and myself, to thank you for your services throughout the year and the valuable impact you've had on the company.

Thank you.

No, we're not ready to say goodbye because we'll do that and see you soon. I will do that at the end of April as you are going on a hopefully long summer holiday to enjoy the summer a little bit prior to starting up new adventures. And to the rest of you, I'd like to thank you for listening in and your engagement throughout the call. Thank you.