Anima Holding SpA ($ANIM)

Welcome to everyone connected. Our apologies, my personal apologies for the delay in the start of this conference call due to some technical glitches that we are hopefully worked over. Now let me give the floor to our CEO and General Manager, Saverio Perissinotto, for his comments and illustration of the first quarter results. Go ahead, Saverio.

Yes. Good afternoon to everyone. Very welcome to this conference on the first quarter results of Anima Group. You should have received a short presentation on the title is keeping up the pace. And let me make a very short agenda. We are going to give you a short overview of where we are. We are going to zoom further on the breakdown of OM and the main distribution channels. We will zoom later on, on revenues, cost and financial position, and we will consequently draw some conclusion. On the first slide, which is Page #2 of your presentation, we have sum up the main highlights of this quarter. Useless to say that market conditions have been quite challenging, and we have been facing some -- especially during the March -- the month of March and end of February, some headwinds. But I mean, at the end of the quarter, we have a situation which remain still quite comfortable. As I was mentioning before, we have faced, let's say, some challenging numbers as far as net inflows are concerned because we were recording the outflow of the mandate of Etica SGR. You know that this is something which was completely foreseen and announced since more than 1 year ago because the first announcement was made in January 2025. But of course, we recorded these outflows during the month of March. The total revenues are up 5% compared to last quarter '25 at a level of EUR 140.6 million. We were having a total EBITDA adjusted, which is in the range of EUR 101 million. And of course, we are having a net profit, which is EUR 69.9 million adjusted to the extraordinary item that we were cashing in the last quarter of 2025, which, of course, this year, unfortunately, was not present. These are, let's say, the main activities that we are going to further zoom after in the presentation. The other important thing is probably worth mentioning the fact that since we are historically having a net asset allocation, which is less tilted to the equity portion of the portfolio, our results have been a little bit better than the average of the market, which is something which is satisfactory even if the number is, of course, in the negative territory since market condition. Let me remind you on Page 3, where -- who we are and where we are exactly in our structure. Anima Holding, which is the listed company is controlling 4 major SGR companies. The major part of the assets, of course, is in Anima SGR. Anima SGR, which includes the main distribution contracts with distributors and of course, with the major number of products available to distribution. We are now fully consolidating Kairos SGR. You probably remember that Kairos was acquired quite recently by Anima. Kairos is active in asset management activity and also offers wealth management practice to limited numbers of high net worth individual in Italy. And we -- what we consider having, let's say, an alternative investment unit is the sum of what we do in Anima Alternative, which is mainly active into private credit fields, plus what we do in Castello SGR that you know that Castello SGR is mainly active into the real estate asset management space. Of course, as I was mentioning at the beginning, we have less than EUR 6 billion in the unit of alternative investment, a little bit more than EUR 10 billion on Kairos. And of course, the largest part of the pie is in Anima SGR, which is something below EUR 188 billion of assets. The total sum of all those assets bring us to the EUR 203.3 billion of total assets. And of course, we have also EUR 800 million of assets under advisory, which are included in this slide. I remind your attention that you probably know that we have 80% equity stake for Castello and is still active a put and call option between Castello and Oaktree, which was the original owner of Castello from which we bought the company 2 years ago, if my memory is correct. On Slide #4, we give you a very clear representation on how our total assets are split at the end of March. The biggest part of the pie is, as you already know, between the retail, which is waiting for more or less 1/3 of the total assets, 46% are on the institutional and the channel B2B2C, which is mainly the unit-linked related to Poste and to Banco BPM is accounting for 30%. Let's zoom on the retail side. Retail side means for us the main distributors, what we consider being the strategic partners, which, of course, are Banco BPM, which is now having 89% of our company; Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which is accounting for another 28% of this total EUR 65 billion. Credit Agricole, Italy, which is the result of the acquisition of Credit Agricole of Credito Valtellinese with whom we were having a strong distribution agreement. And the balance is between the financial advisers network present in Italy, [ Banca ] [indiscernible] less than 1% and some private bankers and others. The total amount of this first retail channel is EUR 65 billion, EUR 27 billion is Poste activity funds, exception of the with-profit insurance contract and the unit-linked, which is for 2/3 and 1/3 is insurance unit-linked related to Banco BPM for 90% and 10% is related to the distribution of the same product unit linked to Monte dei Paschi di Siena with AXA. The institutional side is EUR 93.6 billion is mainly with profit insurance contract. The biggest part is, of course, with Poste Italiane, which is having 70%, a bit less than 70% of this EUR 93.6 billion other 12% of with profit contracts, pension funds and fund user is another 12% and the alternative investment we put it in this bracket because this is institutional. Of course, we have to add 9% of the total asset, which is accounting for EUR 17.5 billion, which is what we call duplication. Duplication, as you know, are the products are -- which invest in retail and institutional classes of Anima products. And of course, the sum of all these channels goes back to the EUR 203.3 billion that we were mentioning before. Slide #5 is giving you a bigger clearer picture on what I was mentioning at the beginning in the highlights, -- you see the Assogestioni breakdown by category. This, of course, is on average, is having an exposure of a bit more than 1/3 into equity portfolios. And of course, we have to add flexible and balanced portfolio for another quarter, 25% more or less. If we look at the same numbers compared to our average asset allocation of our products, you see that we are 21% in a pure equity, a bit less on the flexible and a bit more on the balanced funds. But this probably is the major reason which explain the difference of better performance compared to the average Italian industry. Page 6 is, let's say, a slide which, of course, I do not like very much because it's showing you the breakdown in the quarter on the mutual funds. And of course, you can see that bond funds, flexible and equity all recorded negative net asset gathering since the beginning of the year. Of course, we consider that this, let's say, tepid and not very hot attitude in investing into asset class is very much related to the geopolitical situation and what's going on in the Middle East. And of course, this is the main reason that principally is, let's say, cutting confidence into the mind of the retail investors. And this is the first things that we witnessed in this case. Slide #7 is quite interesting because at the end of the day, is probably this is the reason because even if we are facing negative numbers in -- as far as Assogestioni is concerned. Fortunately, the withdrawal of funds are concentrated on the less profitable bracket of products that we manage. So we face a bit less than EUR 1 billion of outflows coming from with-profit product, which is called insurance with profit. We are facing, of course, of the Etica SGR that we already have mentioned and the wrapping side, as you know, in Italy, we are perceiving -- cashing in only the excess fee compared to the mother fund respectful of the underlying funds when there is the possibility. So at the end of the day, also the wrapping is having a very small impact as far as our profitability is concerned. I imagine that you could ask me eventually what will be the impact on the profitability of the well-known outflows of related to Etica to give you a number, we expect to have the full impact for the months to come for the totality of the 2026 year, probably having less than EUR 6 million of total impact of the revenues related to this withdrawal of Etica mandate. The other numbers, we have the few numbers of inflows that we have them. We have them fortunately on the retail clients, B2C, the fund user and the part of the institutional mandate with the exception of Etica. I think that Page #8 does not add too much information to what I have already told you in the formal slide. So I will not comment it. I will now go to the elements of the P&L, which are quite interesting in this, as I was telling you at the beginning, still challenging and better environment. As you can see, total revenues are up 5% compared to the first quarter of 2025, reaching the level of EUR 140.6 million. We have been able to cash in more or less the same level of performance fee of last year, which is in the range of EUR 29 million. And the net revenues with exclusion of the performance fee are up 6% compared to last year, which is quite good because we were capitalizing of the positive market effect, which was at the end of last year and during the month of March. Total costs are 1% less of the same amount of last year in the range of EUR 39.5 million, which is quite good. Our cost income is in the range of 35% -- 35 basis points before performance fees. Of course, if we are able to cash in some performance fees, we are in the range of 28%, which is quite a good number and is worth mentioning. The EBITDA is following the same, let's say, direction than our revenues, more or less, we are up 7%. And we are, of course, the big difference between last year is the fact that we do not have this year the one-off price adjustment for one of our distributor, which was able to give us result before financial income and taxation of EUR 109 million compared to the EUR 88.6 million that we realized in this year. Income tax -- taxation is in the range of 31% for the quarter. So we have to cut down EUR 27.2 million, and we arrive at a net income accounted net income that, of course, is the number that we consolidate in our quarter of EUR 51.4 million, which is less 14% of the number of last year, which was staying at EUR 71.8 million. But of course, which we consider adjusted for the nonrecurring item, we are up 13% at EUR 69.9 million compared to EUR 61.9 million of last year, which is a quite substantial and positive number, especially according to what we have been living in the first quarter of 2026. Rapidly going to the split of the revenues by quarter at Page #10, not too much to be told to be honest. Net recurring fees are having the biggest part of the pie, of course, EUR 86.4 million. Net placement fee, which I remind to everyone is the portion of the fees that we are able to keep inside the SGR perimeter, which are distributed by the networks and other income is mainly related to what we are able to negotiate with the depository banks and all this chain related to this activity. Personnel expenses are a bit higher than last year. You can see the color is related by company. The big difference in the EUR 2 million that you can see the EUR 2 million more compared to last quarter is essentially related to the tail red that are the variable, the bonus provision related to the portion of the performance fees our team were able to cash in the first quarter. So the EUR 6.6 million have to be compared to the EUR 4.6 million of last quarter, which is mainly related to the fact that in this quarter, the performance fees were, let's say, a bit more relevant compared to last year. Not too much to be at as far as Kairos is concerned, which is more or less on the same level and Castello SGR, which is a huge smaller than last year on the variable component. If we move to Page 12 is a very clear zoom on our consolidated financial position. And you know that we still are paying interest on the 2 bonds, one which is maturing in this October and the one which is maturing in '28, EUR 283 million, the first one and EUR 299 million something, the second one. Of course, we have interest expenses for EUR 6 million, IFRS 16 for EUR 20 million. We have the put and call option cost related to the activity of Castello and the Kairos activity, which is accounting for EUR 20 million, and this give us a position of EUR 630.6 million of debt, which is faced on the other side of the balance sheet with cash and equivalent for EUR 744.7 million. And we have a large portion of securities, which are, of course, the MPS Monte dei Paschi stake at market value, which is a bit less than it was at last -- the year end of 2025 plus, of course, the time deposit that we have. So this gives us a total cash, which is close to EUR 1.189 billion, and we have a net financial position, so net cash in hand, which is in the EUR 558.3 million compared to last year. Last year, the difference is related to the fact that the value of Monte dei Paschi was a bit more important than it is today as far as market is concerned. Total net return on liquidity by quarter is probably less relevant, but it is, of course, an information that we give you. At the end of the day, in the first quarter, we have nothing to particularly to announce you because our -- the total sum between the pluses and the minus is close to zero between interest expenses and own portfolio result. So I will not stay too long on this slide. And -- going -- try to draw some conclusions. Of course, I think that the most relevant things that I can tell you is that we do not have particular changes in the business model, in the strategy and in the commercial activity to announce you today. We try to keep, let's say, our road map in a very clear way. As we told you, P&L has been very satisfactory. Performance of the products are okay in a challenging environment. Of course, we expect the next quarters to come to have some rebound in the net asset gathering activity. What we do with Banco BPM, we will start a new commercial activity into the managed accounts, which are, let's say, instructed by Anima but powered by Kairos as we consider having a good attraction as brand in front of the private customer, the retail customer of the Banco BPM. Of course, we try to propose according to market condition, products that allow the customer gradually to have an exposure into equity market, and this is something which is generally very much appreciated by distributors. And of course, we consider that our priority stay into the commercial space of trying to revitalize the numbers, the negative numbers we have seen with Monte dei Paschi di Siena in the first quarter with Credit Agricole and with the different additional distributors that we have. But the day that we are speaking today, as you know, markets, especially equity markets are back to almost record high, and this is something which is going to help us to factor the high watermark effect. So hopefully and keep our finger crossed, if the situation is going to see, let's say, a better market condition in the months to come, this could be also an opportunity for us. As I was telling you, we do not expect that the [ outs ] of Etica mandate is not going to have substantial impact on our P&L. We try to remain focused on the pricing that we are able to put on our products with satisfaction with our distributors. And of course, we also will witness in the next quarter a strong dividend, which is going to strengthen our net financial position coming from the stake of the 1.7% equity stake we still have into Monte dei Paschi this year. I will stay here. I hope to have been able to give you a clear view of what has been our first quarter of 2026. As we told you at the beginning, we entitled this presentation, keeping up the pace because I think we have all the elements to be able to deliver substantial results in our business model and in our business, which, of course, is very much related to what's happening on financial markets and as we were mentioning shortly. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Saverio. And now I would open the line to any questions from the audience. Operator, please help us.

[Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from [ Andrea Levy ]

I was wondering if you can provide us some detail of the trend of flows in April? And what are you observing, expecting in the current market environment? So how is the macro uncertainty affecting inflows? And second question is clearly quite tough to say, but which trend of performance fees should we expect going on? And a very last one, should we expect some new institutional mandate tenders in the coming months to positively impact the flows?

Okay. Thank you very much for your question, and I will answer this question very clearly. The net inflows of April, I mean, the number will be published later this week because we still wait the last numbers to come in. What I can anticipate to you is that we do not see yet a change of the trend to be very clear and very transparent with you. As far as performance fees are concerned, I mean, your question is very good. It's very sharp. I mean no one has the crystal ball to imagine how markets are going to behave in the months to come. What is relevant for us is the fact that we have to be over our high watermark. And this is something which, of course, one of the preconditions, we are not very far from that. And this is something which makes me, let's say, have a positive and constructive attitude. Now of course, I have no idea what's going to happen in financial markets in the months to come. But let's see what is important is that should we have the opportunity related to the financial markets, we are going to take this opportunity, and we have to ride it strongly and very firmly and try to deliver the best performance on the sake of our customer and consequently being able to cash in some possible, let's say, performance fee. As far as institutional mandate standard is concerned, you asked me a question that I have to confess, I do not know by heart how is the calendar of the tenders to come. But we have an institutional mandate team, which is following this very closely and very, let's say, carefully. So I expect that we are going to tender as much as we can. And of course, if our condition will be competitive and according to market standard, I do not see any reason because we are not being positive considered by the institutional investors.

The next question today comes from Alberto Villa.

We cannot hear you Alberto Villa.

Alberto, can you hear us? We have one question comes from chat. The question is from Elena Perini. Can you please briefly elaborate on your exposure to the private credit? Do you see any risk?

I'm not sure to have listened correctly to the question. The question is regarding private credit, I'm correct?

Correct.

Okay. No, definitely, we can assure Elena Perini, that we do not face any critical point as far as our private credit exposure is concerned. You know that we do not have huge numbers on that, but except that we have 100% of this private credit is Italian lenders related. So we definitely do not consider to face critical point on our private credit exposure. And by the way, since it's 100% into the hands of institutional customers, we do not face any request of withdrawal at all.

Currently, we do not have any question queued, so we'll wait just a few moments.

Okay. As a reminder to Alberto Villa, who might or might not be trying to reconnect and to anyone else who might have questions after the call, the IR contacts are, of course, always at your disposal. I'm just trying to buy some more time. But if we don't have any sign of live from Alberto, we might close the call here as far as we are concerned.

I confirm that currently, we do not have any questions in queue.

Okay. So at this point, we would like to thank everybody who attended, and we'll speak to you on the half year results call in early August.

Thank you very much, everyone, and I look forward to welcoming you on the next conference call. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.