Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. (G) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

March 12, 2026

Borsa Italiana IT Financials Insurance earnings 73 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Good afternoon. I’m the conference operator for Chorus Call. Welcome, and thanks for being with us on the Generali Group full year 2025 results presentation. Just a reminder that everyone is in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, there will be a chance to ask questions. If anyone requires help during the call, they can signal an operator by pressing * and 0 on their phone. At this point, I’d like to hand the conference over to Mr. Fabio Cleva, Head of Investor and Rating Agency Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#2

Hi, everyone, and thanks for being on our call about full year 2025 results. Joining us today are Group CEO Philippe Donnet; Deputy Group CEO Giulio Terzariol; Group General Manager Marco Sesana; Generali Investments CEO Woody Bradford; and Group CFO Cristiano Borean. Before we open things up for Q&A, I'll pass it to Philippe for a few opening remarks.

Philippe Donnet

executive
#3

Thank you, Fabio. Good afternoon, everyone, and I appreciate your joining us today. These results represent a successful first year for our strategic plan, Lifetime Partner 27: Driving Excellence. The strength and consistency of our performance make me very pleased. This clearly shows that the strategy we have is the right one, that we are carrying it out with complete conviction, and that we are creating value for our stakeholders. We are also continuing to strengthen our already solid balance sheet, and that will matter even more in a world with greater geopolitical uncertainty. In addition, these numbers reflect the key initiatives being rolled out by our expert teams across business lines and geographies, with hands-on guidance from head office and from the fantastic management team that presented the plan with me last year, and that is here with me today: Cristiano, Giulio, Marco, and Woody. I would like to share five key messages with you that underline the strength, quality, and momentum of our results. First, the group has delivered a very strong performance in 2025. We achieved a record operating result of €8 billion, with a 9.7% increase year on year. Our adjusted net result exceeded €4.3 billion, also reaching a new record high.

Philippe Donnet

executive
#4

That produced growth in adjusted earnings per share of 16.2%, which is well ahead of the 8% to 10% compound annual growth rate target we set. Because of this strong performance, at our upcoming Annual General Meeting on the 23rd of April we will propose a dividend of €1.64 per share. That is almost 15% higher than last year and fully in line with our commitment to grow the dividend per share by more than 10% per year over the plan horizon. When I took the role of Group CFO, the dividend per share of Generali was 80 cents, and I'm very proud that we more than doubled it since then. We will also propose a €500 million share buyback reflecting our strong capital position. We will implement it this year once we receive the relevant approvals. All of these highlights are clear commitment to profitable growth, disciplined capital management, and increasing shareholder remuneration. My second message is about the excellent performance of our property and casualty business. Excellence in our core capabilities is one of our three key strategic priorities, and it translated into a 20% increase in property-casualty operating result. Such strong growth clearly demonstrates the positive effect of our disciplined strategic focus and of the many technical actions we have implemented in the last 18 months across pricing, risk selection, pruning, and claims management optimization.

Philippe Donnet

executive
#5

Through these steps, we managed to deliver quite robust underlying technical profitability, improving our undiscounted combined ratio by 1.6 percentage points. That came alongside reserving that was highly prudent. Looking ahead, property-casualty has three main priorities for us: 1. We'll keep expanding our non-motor book so that our mix tilts toward business lines and products carrying stronger underlying profitability. Our franchise sits in a very strong position to seize growth opportunities across the countries where we operate. 2. Our focus will be on safeguarding the excellent loss ratio we have in our key geographies, making sure it holds up through the cycle. We'll also keep driving the turnaround in Switzerland and at Genertel in Italy, along with the integration of Liberty Seguros, which is moving ahead very successfully. And 3. We'll enhance the expense ratio via efficiency and productivity, backed by rolling out AI and automation widely throughout the insurance value chain. My third key message concerns life. Net inflows climbed to €13.5 billion, the highest levels witnessed anywhere in the European insurance industry. That mirrors how appealing our product offering is, how effective our distribution is, and the substantial investments we've made toward improving customer experience.

Philippe Donnet

executive
#6

In 2025, our retention rate came in at just about 90%. The reason our customers are so loyal is that they have faith in us, and they genuinely like the services and products we offer. Most of these inflows were generated by our preferred business lines, with €4.5 billion from protection and health and €6.6 billion from hybrid and unit-linked. We managed that while keeping our underwriting discipline fully intact, as capital-light products made up a very high 84.5% share of our new business production. New business margin rose as the year went on, going from 4.75% in the first quarter to 6.88% in the fourth quarter. That produced a full year new business margin of 5.66%, which is near our 6% target for 2027. Right now, the interest rate environment is highly favorable for the life business, and customers are clearly drawn to what we offer. That makes us confident we can keep delivering growth in new business value, which leads to a higher contractual service margin and a life operating result that keeps growing. It deserves emphasis just how deep the transformation of our life book has been. A decade ago, this was mainly a spread business with high guarantees, exposure to capital market fluctuations, and high capital intensity. As of today, nearly 80% of life new business stems from protection and unit-linked, activities whose profit signature is most closely aligned with property-casualty and asset management.

Philippe Donnet

executive
#7

On the traditional life side, the portfolio's running yield now sits 220 basis points above what we've guaranteed. That means profitability increasingly stems from fees and underwriting, and the business is capital-light, depends less on financial markets, and converts results into cash far more quickly. This transformation, along with the structural, sustainable gain in earnings quality, is something I'm very proud of. My fourth key message concerns asset management and wealth management. As of today, the group holds €900 billion in assets under management. Of that total, roughly €385 billion is managed for third-party clients. Ten years ago, that number was below €50 billion. In 2025, asset and wealth management accounted for 15% of our total operating result, so the contribution has more than doubled since 2016. I'm especially pleased with the strong performance we've delivered for clients and with the underlying net flow trend in asset management, which climbed to more than €16 billion last year — the highest level we have ever recorded. Asset management brought in over €1.6 billion of revenues, with more than €600 million of that from external clients. Its operating result is 7.5% higher year on year.

Philippe Donnet

executive
#8

This likewise shows robust performance fees coming from a variety of asset classes, and those in turn mirror the growing, dependable investment capabilities we have. Our outlook for 2026 and beyond is quite optimistic, helped along by a number of new initiatives — among them the MGG acquisition, which we completed last October. On top of that, we keep gaining from the synergies linking our life and asset management operations. As proof of that, internal teams run two-thirds of 2025 unit-linked inflows. Over in wealth management, Banca Generali again posted very strong flows of €6.8 billion, pushing total assets past €110 billion. Those results are excellent, and further gains in 2026 should come from integrating Intermonte and the in-house banking initiative with Alleanza Assicurazioni. My fifth and final message concerns the solid headway we are making on the plan's three strategic foundations. They are: people, artificial intelligence and data, and sustainability. Seizing what AI, digitalization, and automation make possible — including agent productivity and an improved customer experience — ranks as a key priority. We pursue this without letup, and the outcomes our AI team delivers genuinely impress me. Our research partnership with MIT, started in 2024, is moving ahead quickly, with three high-impact use cases close to delivery and fresh streams already progressing this year.

Philippe Donnet

executive
#9

Generali CoreTech serves as further evidence of how strongly we prioritize innovation and technological transformation — it's a new AI-driven software factory for our insurance operations, which we announced last month. We're also continuing to streamline our internal processes. Our AI efforts, for instance, are genuinely reshaping how claims are handled. That provides Generali with the strongest possible footing for the years to come, while already producing concrete financial gains today. In creating our Lifetime Partner 27: Driving Excellence plan, we set a target of roughly €300 million in efficiency gains from implementing AI. Execution is running ahead of what we originally assumed, which gives us the confidence to lift our 2027 ambition to more than €350 million. Our substantial investment in AI throughout the whole insurance value chain will benefit Generali beyond the horizon of our current plan. Indeed, we see clear upside potential for growing the top line — designing better products, delivering them faster, expanding our customer base, boosting agents' productivity, and capturing further efficiency. Turning to sustainability, we set highly ambitious targets within our current plan, and we're very pleased with the progress made in 2025. Our results confirm that championing societal resilience and supporting the green transition are not only the right choices — they also drive sustainable and profitable growth.

Philippe Donnet

executive
#10

We take pride in the fact that our leadership keeps getting recognized, and we stay completely dedicated to excellence driven by sustainability and to creating value over the long term. To wrap up, these results affirm the excellent beginning of our ambitious strategy. We are well on track against the plan trajectory, and we see clear growth opportunities for our businesses. We are entirely focused on creating even greater value for all our customers as their lifetime partner and for our shareholders. We also keep strengthening our balance sheet as an important area of strength for the group, with prudent reserving, conservative asset allocation, low leverage, and focus on cash generation. We close 2025 with an extremely solid Solvency II ratio, and this will go up by 15 additional percentage points with the upcoming Solvency II review. I believe this is very important, also considering the current macro environment. We are entirely focused on delivering and potentially exceeding our Lifetime Partner 27: Driving Excellence targets, and we are confident in our ability to do it once more, just as we have done for our three previous strategic cycles under the leadership of this management team, which I thank for the outstanding work. Thank you for your attention and for your interest in Generali, and we are now happy to take all your questions.

Operator

operator
#11

Thanks. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. The question and answer session starts now. If you'd like to ask a question, you can press * and 1 on your touchtone telephone. To take yourself out of the question queue, press * and 2. When asking questions, please pick up the receiver. Anyone who has a question may press * and 1 at this time. Our first question comes from David Barma of Bank of America. Please go ahead.

David Barma

analyst
#12

Hello, and thanks for taking my questions. The first two are about P&C and are somewhat connected—one concerns the top line, the other expenses. On the expense ratio, we've observed a rise in acquisition costs, which I assume stems from stronger growth in non-motor. I believe you're now nearly 100 basis points above where you planned to start. Could you explain how you see the path from that point to your 2026 to 2027 goals of a flat expense ratio? Second, on underwriting, you've essentially already hit your underlying loss ratio targets. Could you discuss how you intend to balance additional pricing against volume growth in 2026, and whether in motor especially you'd like to improve margins further? Finally, on cash, could you tell us the free cash level at year-end, and what the underlying level of remittances was in '25? Thank you.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#13

Thanks a lot, David. For the first two questions—the P&C expense ratio and where the loss ratio goes from here—those go to Giulio, and the third one, about the cash, is for Cristiano.

Giulio Terzariol

executive
#14

No, thank you, David. Regarding your first question on the expense ratio, here is what I'd say. Actually, we had no target for the expense ratio. Our targets were set for the G&A ratio, and after that for the cost-income ratio. Looking at the G&A ratio, the improvement we aimed to deliver under the plan across the three years was 150 basis points. I believe you can see in the comments that there is an improvement of, let's say, about 50 basis points in the G&A ratio. Seen from that angle, things are heading in the right direction. What we observe, though, is a rise in the other acquisition expenses. That's partly because of mix, but it's also partly because the incentives or the premiums are rising. Partly it also follows from the fact that the profitability of the business is improving, and at this stage there are incentives tied to the profitability of the business. That being said, honestly speaking, we are not 100% happy with how this is developing. As we've discussed a few times already, moving forward we're going to place more focus as well on the development of the expense ratio overall.

Giulio Terzariol

executive
#15

We feel highly confident about bringing the G&A ratio down as we discussed, and I can also tell you that we see this reflected in the plan covering the next 2 years. Now we will place greater emphasis on ensuring stability in the acquisition expense ratio as well. Once that portion of the expense ratio is stable and we have achieved improvement in operational expenses, then in the future we should see a picture in which the overall expense ratio decreases. That is an area where we will put more emphasis going forward, because until now our main point of attention was G&A, and on that front we are definitely delivering in line with what we said last year. Regarding the other point about underwriting and how we see development in 2026, I can tell you that starting with non-motor, where we have a very good combined ratio, we see a degree of stability. We will continue to have pricing that follows inflation. We know that a lot of business has indexation, so from that standpoint you can expect stability.

Giulio Terzariol

executive
#16

As usual, pruning is something we'll be doing. There are portfolios where pruning is needed, so that's a standard activity for us, and you can imagine we'll deliver high-quality results in non-motor. Turning to motor, on one hand, clearly we will see average premium go up, which is lower than what we saw in 2025, but we still expect an average premium increase that is ahead of inflation. Just to give you an idea, we expect average premium to rise by 4% to 5% in 2026. Inflation, or the risk premium, this year was an increase of 1.6%. Even if you assume lower frequency, and maybe we see frequency higher than what we saw this year, and you look at how our risk premium evolved in 2024, then you get to 3%. Even if you take a 2026 situation similar to 2024, we still have a spread of about 1 to 2 percentage points that we can realize on the motor side. From that point of view, we would expect to still see some improvement in the motor combined ratio compared to what we have right now.

Giulio Terzariol

executive
#17

Keep in mind that motor profitability has become quite robust at this point. If you adjust the motor combined ratio for NatCat as well as, shall we say, the elevated prior-period figure, what we arrive at is an undiscounted motor combined ratio already a touch under 96%. Looking at it that way, I'd call these very solid results, and there remains a bit of headroom to improve as we move into 2026.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#18

Hi, David. This is Cristiano. Regarding cash at year-end '25: the total balance across all accounts comes to €5.1 billion, but keep in mind that some treasury elements aren't reflected because they sit within the cash pooling. The genuinely available cash stands at €2.9 billion, and that figure is meant to cover our M&A capabilities on one hand, plus the debt amount that needs refinancing, which had been pre-financed. That same number also includes the customary precautionary cash buffer we choose to hold so we can handle any possible unexpected level. On the underlying remittance trend, I'd say the recurring component shows a slight increase in remittance from '25 to '24. When I say from '25 to '24, I'm always talking about the cash view — meaning you have to look 1 year back to see what the actual dividend or remittance derives from — and it's slightly above 4% on the recurring component. During 2025, we received the dividend tied to the 2024 results, which carried that kind of growth level. Looking ahead, a solid degree of growth is anticipated, in line with the business on one side and with our confidence in exceeding the minimum threshold of €11 billion in cumulative net holding cash flow that we announced last year.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#19

Regarding that point, we have complete confidence, since the beginning of the first year comes before it, and the momentum is holding up.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#20

Let's take the next question.

Operator

operator
#21

Our following question comes from Will Hardcastle at UBS. Please proceed.

Will Hardcastle

analyst
#22

Oh, hello. The first question concerns solvency and debt leverage. It's somewhat of a puzzle, really, because it's extremely strong—a nice position to be in—and yet debt leverage is low. My assumption is that this isn't at the most capital-efficient level right now. I suppose you could walk us through some of the dynamics you might be considering on that front? That would be useful. The second one is the big picture. Could you say whether you've given thought to, or looked into, how credible the large language model distribution models that were discussed recently could be, and do you see this altering distribution in European marketplaces, essentially making them somewhat more like price comparison websites? How do you think Generali would be positioned if that turned out to be a major impact? Thank you.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#23

Thanks a lot, Will. Of course, the opening question goes to Cristiano, and the second one is directed at Marco.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#24

Hi, Will. Yeah, I'd say it's not just that the solvency level is high — what really matters to me is that solvency sensitivity has come down very, very substantially. Let me just give you an example, proactively. You'll recall that back in 2018, when we laid out the 2019 to 21 plan, we showed a few stress tests we were running on group solvency. Under those very same assumptions, we've now essentially cut the group's sensitivity in half, which gets us to a really solid level of confidence in our ability to project and diversify both profit and our capacity for remittance. Why do I bring this up? Because, as Philippe said, the 15 to 16 percentage point gain in solvency coming from the Solvency II review — obviously subject to regulators' approvals — will give us additional headroom on that front. Of course, that question has been and is being addressed. Our leverage is very low, and that gives us strategic flexibility to capture every possible opportunity, on the one hand, and on the other hand it also provides plenty of headroom to bring down the cost of debt, since you don't necessarily have to issue subordinated debt going forward. That's the kind of flexibility we have.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#25

Honestly, we're quite happy with how much spread we're able to get on our issuance, and that's thanks to this really low level — we're actively managing that balance. To be sure, as you rightly noted, we sit pretty much in a very favorable sweet spot when it comes to flexibility and the cost of future debt, and likewise for funding future growth, which is available. The solvency will also be put to work through, on one hand, investments and business growth. At this level, we're also able to fund the solvency internally through solvency, our business growth, which is a good thing. You've seen that already happening in our capital generation, which faces some strain in solvency capital requirements. It's genuinely a growing recurring investment and business result going forward, combined with strategic flexibility.

Marco Sesana

executive
#26

Hello. I'll walk you through an overview, picking up from the remarks Philippe just made. Artificial intelligence use cases are a genuine focus of our work. We're working to bring in a new approach to leveraging artificial intelligence via agentic AI. We're working across every link of our value chain — yes — and notably on distribution as well. That matters a great deal, because I believe providing context for what we're doing is always very important, since the technology we're discussing is at an early stage, and we don't yet fully see all the usages that may emerge. Staying in the game matters, experimenting, and seeing where the technology could potentially develop, using several providers and, I would say, making sure we have an intelligent application when it comes to process review and efficiency gains. Now, when we speak specifically about LLM and distribution, I'd return to what we covered during our strategic plan, and a couple of points are super important. The first is that we truly do see applications in artificial intelligence and LLM capable of boosting the productivity of our distribution. We see enormous potential for our distribution to do more, to be better, to increase time spent with the client, to really cut back office activity, and to improve both the quality and the amount of time spent with the client.

Marco Sesana

executive
#27

The second thing that always deserves a mention is that we're striving to ensure the client retains every option for engaging with Generali. Customers have plenty of different channels at their disposal, and I think we're focused on our customer experience so that the customer has freedom of choice in how they interact. As we've said, we firmly believe the agent will remain part of this interaction picture — a three-way interaction, in a sense. The agents, the company, our customer center. There are lots of ways we can engage with the customer. The customer chooses how to do so. I think this has been quite evident, for those of us who took part in the deep dive in Mallorca, how we're transforming distribution, how we're using this tool so that our distribution is far more effective and far more present in face time with the client. The final thing I'd like to add is that obviously, we're carrying out a number of initiatives because we understand we need to own the digital space much better than in the past, since the LLM can clearly sway the steering of new business.

Marco Sesana

executive
#28

We're making an effort to, I'd say, take up and claim a bigger share of the digital space.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#29

Moving on to the next question, please.

Operator

operator
#30

Our next question comes from Farquhar Murray at Autonomous. Go ahead, please.

Farquhar Murray

analyst
#31

Hi there. I have just a couple of questions, if that's alright. First, this is a bit of a geeky one, but would you walk me through the yield curve sensitivities of the CSM? Specifically, I'm curious why they appear to have flipped sign and become more moderate across the year. That probably ties back to the response you gave Will on sensitivities. Second, a broader question about AI. I was quite interested in the long-run potential you laid out on claims management on slide 19 — that 40% productivity gain. My simple question is really, how far off is that sort of long-run potential? Maybe the more complicated parts are: what are the key steps to getting there? What bottlenecks might exist? In particular, how hard will it be to scale those out across the businesses? Thanks.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#32

Thanks a lot, Farquhar. Of course, the first question goes to Cristiano, and the second one is for Marco.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#33

Hi, Farquhar. On the sign inversion, it's largely a driven effect coming from two big countries — Italy and Germany. As you've seen, the steep rise in interest rates during 2025 was heavily concentrated at the long end of the curve — far more in 20-year swaps than in 10-year swaps — and that hit the portfolio, which is mostly the fixed-fee product portion. As Philippe rightly noted in the introduction, with the huge transformation of the life portfolio, it's now shifting more toward the fee-based component, and that gives such a portfolio much better and lower dependence on the market. Clearly, in that situation, when you can extract a certain fixed amount of fees, as interest rates rise you become a bit sensitive on the opposite side — which is happening for both the traditional and hybrid products in Italy, given the liability structure we're explaining, as well as for the increased weight of unit-linked in Germany. On that point, we are the largest collector of unit-linked in Germany, especially also in the mix. That's the underlying effect, and it's even more pronounced when combined with the larger weight of the protection business in the VFA part.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#34

Incidentally, this strikes me as a topic worth exploring in depth during our Exploring Generali session on finance on 19 March, though I believe you've grasped it precisely, and I hope I've given you the vision. That's

Farquhar Murray

analyst
#35

Thanks.

Marco Sesana

executive
#36

Hi there. That's a great question. In terms of where we see the biggest opportunities for benefit and productivity gains, claims management actually ranks among the top areas. And just to note, software development is the other one, where we're currently seeing enormous potential. To get to your specific question, it really hinges on what we mean by long-term versus short-term. If by long-term you mean something like 10 years, then no — it will be far shorter than that. With the technology we currently have available, we do see the potential for meaningful efficiency gains well before then. I'd say even within a 3 to 5 year window, that's something you may see coming up in our disclosure. What will take somewhat longer is probably scaling. What do I mean by that? Clearly, one of the most advanced applications we're developing — agentic AI in claims — we're starting with material damage, which means building the algorithm and the agenting, I'd say the orchestration and flow, for a specific country. Clearly, we're running more than one experiment at a time, so it will take some time to generalize and provide a common tool for all the business units to implement and transform.

Marco Sesana

executive
#37

A number of these gains will be obvious in this plan. A good deal more will likely show up in the plan after it. We feel a great deal of urgency about putting this application in place. And if I could single out one point, perhaps slightly tangential, within all the managerial transformation, technology and the technical side is just one piece of the transformation. There's change management around people, there's learning a new tool, there's adjusting to variability in outcomes that already exist right now because of the human element, but it will be different with the AI element. Finally, I'd say this is a transformation that, for the entire group, is going to take some time, though not an extremely long time. Probably the last part of your question — okay, it's the benefit, when we're going to see the benefits. I'd say probably somewhere between this plan and the next one. That's it. Early on, the overview.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#38

Let's take the next question. Oh, right — please, Farquhar, go ahead.

Farquhar Murray

analyst
#39

Sorry, just to follow up on that. Regarding the scaling discussion, what are the bottlenecks that slow that down, as well, just so I understand?

Marco Sesana

executive
#40

No, there’s no bottleneck at all. What it really comes down to is building AI algorithms that work well in one situation and can then be reused in another. It’s genuinely just the natural evolution of the technology — there really isn’t a bottleneck. Incidentally, the pilots we’re running are coming along very nicely. We have a couple going in Eastern Europe and a couple in Iberia, in Spain and Portugal; what we’re doing there is very nice, and I don’t see any bottleneck that differs from any other application we’re pursuing across the group.

Farquhar Murray

analyst
#41

Excellent. Appreciate it.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#42

Let's take the next question.

Operator

operator
#43

Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan has the next question. Go ahead.

Farooq Hanif

analyst
#44

Hello, and thank you. My first question is hopefully directed at Philippe. Regarding your remarks on partnerships in Italy, you mentioned that the UniCredit partnership is performing well, that you plan to expand it, and that you may then move into additional partnerships. Could you share some of your thinking on this, what would make it appealing, and qualitatively what upfront costs might be involved? My second question concerns the non-operating costs. You have clearly pushed a substantial amount of costs very much forward into 2025 to speed up your plans, but what does that imply for 2026 and 2027? Because obviously, we discuss operating a great deal, yet a large portion of your target is the non-operating side, and that has been very noisy over the last decade. My final question is about the investment margin outlook in both life and P&C. You make some comments in the slides and in your presentation regarding reinvestment rates and slower growth in IFRS. Should we expect a wider margin in P&C and perhaps the same in life over a longer timescale? Thank you.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#45

Thanks a lot, Farquhar. Farooq, question one goes to Philippe, question two is for Cristiano, and question three is for both Marco and Cristiano, since it covers the reinvestment yield as well as the IFRS trajectory ahead.

Philippe Donnet

executive
#46

Hi Farooq. On your first question, I won’t go into too much detail. We do already have a partnership with UniCredit — in bancassurance across Central Eastern Europe and also in asset management at this point. We would certainly be open to exploring further collaboration and industrial opportunities with them, provided those create value for every stakeholder. There could also be additional business opportunities in Italy, including bancassurance agreements and asset management agreements. We’re reviewing every attractive opportunity available to us. Our product range is broad on the insurance side, and likewise on the asset management side, where we’ve substantially expanded our set of capabilities. We are clearly a strong candidate for partnerships both within Italy and beyond it.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#47

Hello, Farooq. On the non-operating items, first off, yes, you've got it right. We're speeding things up. The room was there, the capabilities were there, and the speed — particularly of execution — is what let us get to that point. What does that mean? For '26 and '27, I think this is something we'll also address again next week, but here's a small spoiler: staying at roughly €100 million in running restructuring charges, also under the IAS 19 definition of severances, which sometimes involve individual negotiation rather than only large-scale restructuring. That's the rate. What does it mean for profit? On profit, certainly, the restructuring we booked in 2025 on the balance sheet will materialize in Italy, in Germany, and in Spain and Portugal — the latter two especially in connection with the Liberty integration. The speed differs somewhat: in Germany the conversion of the payback is much faster, somewhat longer in Liberty and for Spain because of the integration, and the longest one of all is in Italy; in any case, it's accretive to our profit. Overall, I'd say that if you add all of them together, from 2028 onwards this should deliver a pre-tax benefit of slightly more than €100 million. It's also about creating room for the future, along with future speed and efficiency.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#48

We're quite focused, and your point about the jittery non-operating items is well noted and has been caught. This year we took that opportunity, but the focus — which you've seen in the reduction — is on materially lowering the negative non-operating result, materially lowering net other non-operating expenses, bringing much greater discipline, moving €80 million starting this year out of non-operating and back into operating, affecting both the life and the P&C ratios; that's the trajectory we're on. This amounts to a far bigger commitment to cutting what we call the evaporation from operating to earnings before taxes. It's part of what we'll also discuss next week. I'll hand over to Marco for the investment margin.

Marco Sesana

executive
#49

Yes. To go back again to what Philippe mentioned, right now we’re seeing a very favorable interest rate environment. That’s interesting because the spread between our average book yield and the reinvestment yield is positive in both life and P&C. At the moment, we probably see more of that in P&C than in life. Next year in life, we expect a 30 to 30 basis point improvement—sorry, 20 to 30 basis points—and in P&C more, up to 120 basis points. For the non-VFA life non-VFA investment result, I’d expect something more in line with this year, while for 2026 I’d probably expect a higher P&C investment result. As Cristiano

Cristiano Borean

executive
#50

Yes. If I could also finish on the IFRS side and give a bit of guidance on the trajectory for P&C IFRS, we're guiding toward an effect of roughly €600 million for 2026. Overall, what I think counts most is this: when we look at the guidance for the life operating investment result in 2026, we'll maintain a guidance of €900 million, whereas for P&C, we're moving to a guidance of €1.1 billion for 2026 on the P&C investment operating result, which I believe could offer you some hints for your projections.

Farooq Hanif

analyst
#51

Thanks a lot.

Operator

operator
#52

We'll move on to the next question. It comes from James Shuck at Citi. Go ahead, please.

James Shuck

analyst
#53

Good morning, and thanks. My first question concerns the P&C general expense ratio. I appreciate the new disclosure, which shows 14.4% declining to 13.9%. What I'm wondering is whether this essentially represents a view of admin expenses — an admin expense ratio. The reason I ask is that I believe Allianz reports a figure of roughly 6%, while you have about 14% on that metric. Clearly, that suggests considerably more room to bring it down over time. I'm just curious about what goes into that number. I'd also like to ask a second question about the AI topic. I can plainly see some of the potential efficiency gains once you begin implementing agentic AI and ultimately move through to orchestration of those agentic AIs. I'd like to concentrate a bit more on the hyper-personalization journey. If you think about a typical Italian retail customer, how will that customer's service evolve? Until now, we've had fairly basic implementation of AI. Over the next couple of years, that will gather pace and orchestration will take hold, and then we'll probably reach artificial general intelligence by around 2030, which is only a few years from now.

James Shuck

analyst
#54

Could you walk me through that hyper-personalization journey a bit? That would be a big help. And then, if I may, just one last thing. I'm curious about the remittance ratio coming from the other segment. I believe it's 400 — I don't have the figure in front of me — yeah, 457 in '25. It strikes me as quite low when I consider what sits inside those other businesses: asset and wealth management, group holdings, Europ Assistance, and so on. Whatever you assume for operating profit, the remittance ratio just looks very low, which suggests the room to grow it is fairly substantial. Maybe you could shed a little more light on that for me. Thanks very much.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#55

Thanks a lot, James. We’ll begin with Marco on the hyper-personalization journey, and after that Cristiano will address the question about administrative expenses as well as the remittance from other. Yeah.

Marco Sesana

executive
#56

James, that's a really interesting question, and honestly I'm not sure I know much about what will happen in 2030 on this topic, because I see news coming up every month and it's not easy to understand how this is going to evolve. For ourselves as well, I think we need to make sure we're very pragmatic and structured in applying the technology we currently have in hand, and be ready to do more with the news that we see and that is available to us. Just a word on the hyper-personalization journey. I think it's an interesting topic, especially for retail and SME. For a group like ourselves that has most of the business in retail and SME, I do see a journey of personalization, especially in the service and in the way the customer uses and researches our services. The overall topic of the customer experience, I think it's going to evolve into a really personalized journey where every customer is different and can approach us in a very different way, and use our services in a very different way. Also, I have to say, when we talk about more technical condition, typically in our product, you can have pricing, but also technical condition — there, I think the pricing is typically already very personalized.

Marco Sesana

executive
#57

When you consider the motor pricing algorithm we currently use, it's highly personalized. That isn't to say it couldn't become more selective—and likely even more technical than what we see today. On the other side, regarding the product's conditions, we'll see. I'm not certain all the conditions are there to be sliced and taken, since some of them rest also on a principle of mutualization. It's interesting if they remain somewhat broad and not flexible, so as to ensure there is also some mutualization across the different risks. I agree with you that in terms of service—how the client will use the service, our product—we're going to see a lot more compared to what we are seeing at the moment. That's why, and I want to reconnect with one of the questions I was asked at the beginning, we are very much into implementing this technology in distribution as well, because we see great value for distribution and the client in upgrading to this tool.

James Shuck

analyst
#58

Thanks. I realize this is a difficult subject.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#59

Thank you, James. Turning to what we call G&A over gross insurance revenues, basically the expense ratio. Let's begin with the expense ratio figure itself. Within that expense ratio, our admin expense ratio stands at 7.2%, which is 0.3 percentage points lower than the prior year. When I break that number down to see how much consists of general expenses, which form part of our G&A ratio, 5.1% of the G&A ratio — 5.1% of that 7.2% — also feeds into our G&A ratio. Beyond that, there are other items outside admin, sitting in other expenses, that make up another 3%, and that explains why the level doesn't look very different when you simply compare the structure. I hope that brings some clarity. I believe you mentioned Allianz, if I'm not mistaken, and they have roughly 6% as a number. Moving to the next topic, the remittance ratio from other. It is low. During 2024, there was a one-off capital management action carried out in Malaysia stemming from the integration and the repatriation of excess capital following the acquisition, which cannot repeat and flowed through at something around €35 million. What comes on top of that? The main contributor here is clearly the asset management piece, which, if I look at it in total — taking into account not only the Generali Investment Holding part but the other part as well — is down slightly by €9 million.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#60

So then there's the consolidation effect when we present it, because as you can imagine, especially since not all of the Generali Investment Holding shares are held within Assicurazioni Generali — some sit in the perimeter of other countries — and that gets accounted as a result for the countries, but then it's netted out at the consolidation level. There's a negative number that gets netted out to give you the fully consolidated view and, to be extremely precise, to avoid any form of double counting. I hope that gave you some clarity. The consolidation went down accordingly with the lower amount of dividend paid by Generali Investment Holding, which is also reflected in the other holding result within the operating result we were mentioning.

James Shuck

analyst
#61

That makes sense. Thanks a lot.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#62

Alright.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#63

Thanks, James. Let’s take the next question.

Operator

operator
#64

Iain Pearce from BNP Paribas has the next question. Go right ahead.

Iain Pearce

analyst
#65

Hi there, and thanks for the questions. A couple on P&C. First, regarding the attritional loss ratio in Q4, the Q4 figure showed a fairly large improvement compared with the nine-month number. I'm just wondering whether we should adjust for anything specific in Q4, or whether that ought to serve as a solid starting point for the 2026 combined loss ratio. The second one concerns the capital generation figure from P&C, which again is extremely strong. I'm just trying to grasp the moving parts, especially regarding how NatCat and PYD are handled within that capital generation figure. My understanding is that PYD isn't included there, which is why you're seeing the benefit, and it isn't in the non-operating either, but some clarification on that would be very helpful. Then a quick third one, just on the remarks about motor versus non-motor and the wish to sort of prioritize growth in the non-motor segment. If I look at the combined ratios you're delivering in motor and think about normalizing for NatCat and then the pricing expectations you've given for 2026, the motor and non-motor combined ratios are going to be pretty close to one another.

Iain Pearce

analyst
#66

I guess I'm just curious — why do you keep wanting to put the non-motor segment ahead of the motor segment when both are turning in comparable levels of profitability?

Fabio Cleva

executive
#67

Thanks, Iain. Giulio will take the first and third questions, and Cristiano will handle the second one, which is about capital generation.

Giulio Terzariol

executive
#68

No, thank you, Ian. My advice would be not to read too much into any single quarter—year-to-date figures are, in my view, always the most meaningful information to look at. On your point about the combined ratio of 94.3%, I'd say that in my opinion it's a solid indicator of where things stand, given that this figure carries a lot of quality. If you're asking me what the reference point is, it's this combined ratio for the 12 months, and bear in mind, as we've mentioned several times, that it rests on prudent assumptions. That covers your first question. As for the gap between motor and non-motor, here's what I'd say. Yes, the motor combined ratio is moving nearer to the non-motor combined ratio, and from that angle you could ask why the priorities differ. The thing is, the motor market tends to be somewhat more competitive. From that perspective, ultimately, the reality is that at present we may be, let's say, pushing less than we did in prior years on raising prices, and we were also prepared to give up volume.

Giulio Terzariol

executive
#69

So the balance is shifting now, though we have to stay realistic about what's happening on the motor side. Our expectation is that risk in force won't decline, yet we also won't see a meaningful jump in it. Over on non-motor, the competitive landscape looks different, and from that angle we believe there's greater room to grow. That's partly because demand is higher for the solutions we provide in non-motor as well. What you're seeing reflects the competitive environment rather than any change in our appetite for one area over the other.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#70

All right, hello Iain. Regarding capital generation, that gives me the chance to walk through a couple of points. The first is how prior-year development gets treated. As we explained, the best estimate movement from the prior year is deducted from capital generation. This year, when we applied what we already described to you at the nine months — which is a sort of interaction between natural catastrophes and a lower prior year, lower natural catastrophes, lower prior-year development for the best estimate — we end up with an asymmetric view in capital generation. You see a benefit from lower NatCat while the reduction visible in the non-operating variances tied to the solvency component is not shown. Taken together, the two produced a net effect of roughly 0 positive €0.1 billion. On its own, it generates something on the order of €0.4 billion of higher capital generation. That is why, in this particular case, you should not — I think it is a drawback of the choice — project the cash conversion with the full benefit of this €400 million, because part of it gets erased by a lower prior-year development. This is, I think, something I wanted to flag. The net effect between the benefit of lower NatCat and the lower prior-year development is in reality a 0.1.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#71

I want to add one more point before we move to questions. On the previous call, we said we'd give you an update on the cloud migration once we had more clarity, and we now expect that work to wrap up in 12 months. The cost tied to that effort will land at roughly $34 million, and we'll book the majority of it in the low 20% range of revenue for the year. John will walk through the segment detail in a moment, and I'd also point you to the 136 million figure on the cash flow statement, which reflects the restructuring we announced in March.

Iain Pearce

analyst
#72

Got it. That's clear. Thanks.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#73

Appreciate it, Iain. Let's take the next question.

Operator

operator
#74

William Hawkins from KBW has the next question. Go right ahead.

William Hawkins

analyst
#75

Hello, everyone, and thanks for taking the questions. Over the longer term, how do you view that 8% to 10% EPS CAGR? For some people, I think there's a concern that this is the most you can achieve, and that this is a cyclical industry, so at some point you might even see earnings dip, not merely slower growth. On the other hand, despite your saying that you're managing your earnings, you've just surpassed that 8% to 10% with 16% growth. I'm wondering, is 8% to 10% still achievable off the 2025 base, and how do you think about the long-term glide path for growing your earnings over time, please? Second, how should we now think about the outlook for the new business margin? You've just posted that 5.7%, which in rounding terms is already around the 6% you're targeting for 2027. On the margin side, is the aim to improve further, or are you roughly where you are on margin and it's now all about growth? Around that, I'm still not quite sure how you think about the glide path for growth in new business volume for Generali. Is it a 5% anchor, a 10%, or what?

William Hawkins

analyst
#76

And finally, please — sorry, you touched on this a bit already, but I just wanted to return to non-operating investment income, which came in at -214 this year. My understanding is that over time that figure ought to be a larger positive number that's more sustainable, since fair value items earn through and realized gains come through. The size may be in question, but my assumption would be that this should be a net positive over time. Is that correct, or have I completely misunderstood how the accounting works below the line? Thank you.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#77

Thanks a lot, William. Cristiano will take the first and third questions, and the second one—about new business margin—goes to Giulio.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#78

Hi, William. I believe this is really a core issue, since obviously, if you’re asking whether we can keep doing this repeatedly in 2025, that isn’t achievable in a sustainable manner. Before responding to Iain, we said that ultimately we benefited by €100 million net from lower NatCat against greater prudence in the prior year, and that effect already needs to be factored in. There is also an impact from some positive tax item reflected in the fourth quarter — you have seen the fourth-quarter taxation, which is potentially positive. Certainly, that isn’t a figure that can be sustained. Regarding the 8 to 10, don’t forget that the reason we arrived at that number was because at least a 1% contribution came from integrating Liberty. Clearly, the more capital you can redeploy for M&A, and the more strategic flexibility you have from combining cash, capital, and debt to do so, the more that could potentially be managed. Let’s say we remove it: that would have been 7 to 9 without Liberty. What does that mean? It means we have the ability to generate net holding cash flow that grows with higher cash conversion recurrently, at a level where we have spare cash beyond the dividend to always have a buyback, which is a form of remuneration; in any case, you have support that could come from capital management of 1.5 point, let’s say.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#79

If you can generate operating result growth a bit above 4%, and knowing you'll be working — and let me also try to get ahead of the second question, on the non-operating component — then you can get to a 6% run rate for earnings growth as well, with EPS adding a 1.5. There is an M&A component. Without it, you should go down 1 point, but clearly this is also the objective we need to be able to sustain, so as to exploit everything Philippe, Giulio, and especially Marco were telling you about regarding the arrival of AI, and also what I was saying earlier about the profit benefit arriving from the restructuring charge we had. On non-operating investment income, you are perfectly on point regarding the discussion I'm having with the team, because of course the accounting non-operating investment income is affected by the fair value through profit and loss effect. Some of it, for instance, if you look at the difference between the reported net result and the adjusted net result, where fair value through profit and loss movements stem from FX change, for example, on our private equity and other non-euro-denominated assets that we may hold. Some of this effect is present in this year.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#80

Typically, that fair value movement should hover near zero. Generally speaking, we do record realized gains, yet we’re able to offset them against what you’d call the usual run-rate impairments—those are simply part of the ordinary mix of good and bad that occurs. Certainly, the goal there, I’d say, after accounting for some ECL benefit that might swing if, say, the subdued macroeconomic picture shifts, is to get close to zero on a run-rate basis; that’s something achievable on average across the cycle, with perhaps a slight potential negative tilt from a modest impairment clean-up, though it’s not far off from that. I hope that gives you the picture.

Giulio Terzariol

executive
#81

No, thank you, William. Your math checks out as far as I'm concerned. To me as well, 5.7% sits very near 6%, so seen from that angle, we're at a new business margin level we're happy to carry going forward. Improving the new business margin so it lands at exactly 6% isn't really our priority either, because when you think it through, the consequence of that would be that any product opportunity with a new business margin even of 5% would count as dilutive. Seen from that angle, that would plainly rule out a lot of possibilities. What we're actually focused on is holding on to this kind of marginality. Should marginality improve, it would come out of mix, not from lifting the margin of one particular segment. Then, yeah, the thinking is to grow the new business value. In fact, our emphasis is on trying to secure growth in new business value, and that's the bathtub Cristiano needs some new business value to flow into the bathtub so the profit can run. That's the focus, and bear in mind too that our marginality is pretty strong across all the different lines of business, on the saving side as well.

Giulio Terzariol

executive
#82

So now you're looking at a margin that's quite close to the one we see on hybrid. From that angle, the capital efficiency Philippe mentioned — and Cristiano as well earlier — is now there in most of the savings business we run too. The bottom line is that marginality sits right where we want it to be, and we'll keep pushing for growth that's profitable and capital-efficient.

William Hawkins

analyst
#83

Thanks.

Operator

operator
#84

Let's take one final question, and it comes from Michael Huttner at Berenberg. Go ahead, please.

Michael Huttner

analyst
#85

Phew, I just made it in time. Thank you so much. I have three questions, if I may—I'm being greedy. Philippe, sorry, not Philippe—Philippe, you mentioned a sort of payback period in life. I just wondered whether you could expand and give us—I know you're not a big fan of figures—but maybe give us a kind of timeline for when we might see it in measurable numbers. The second is for Cristiano, and it's always, money for mommy, money back for mommy, I think, from Switzerland. When will that be? Basically, I'm thinking that you've understated your €11 billion target, because this was excluding the one-off you got this year, which wasn't Switzerland, my guess—you've already understated by maybe 15%. The last one is for Philippe, and I don't know how to ask it politely, but you earn a big asset in Italy, in kind of asset management. You've been talking—your colleagues have been talking, or you're talking—about benefits of M&A. Is this something you're thinking about? Thanks a lot.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#86

Thanks a lot, Michael. Before we get to the question, could you please say the first and the third question for Philippe again and clarify them a bit, since we honestly couldn't catch them on the line. Sorry. Oh,

Michael Huttner

analyst
#87

Sure. Philippe, when you were speaking — sorry, hold on, let me check. Does this come through better?

Fabio Cleva

executive
#88

Much better, Michael. Thank you.

Michael Huttner

analyst
#89

Apologies for that. Given the advantage of a quicker payback period in life, when should we expect to see it clearly in the figures? My guess is that it would show up as a speeding up or increase in the rate of release from the CSM, but who knows? The second and third points are basically this: I wanted to ask about the asset management or wealth management business that you partly own — since you're integrating it more and more with the group, with the Alleanza cross-selling arrangement, would this be something you'd consider in more strategic terms? Thank you.

Fabio Cleva

executive
#90

Thanks a lot. That clears things up. Cristiano, perhaps you could kick things off with Switzerland, and then Philippe can address the other two.

Cristiano Borean

executive
#91

Yes, absolutely. I can confirm for you that 2026 involves a remittance from Switzerland. Funds are returning from mama, and that's also part of the component of the plan we're getting. Of course, the better things get, the more we'll be able to receive. In particular, I'm talking about the strong beginning of the restructuring we're seeing in Switzerland, with a high degree of prudence as well in how we've observed the P&C figure so far, which is enabling additional benefits. Yes, it's underway. Funds are coming. It will be gradual, beginning with a certain amount in 2026 under €100 million, but then accelerating as the company finishes the turnaround.

Philippe Donnet

executive
#92

Specifically regarding Banca Generali, we recently announced the in-house banking initiative, meaning that Banca Generali is going to work more closely with the Italian insurance companies, both Generali Italia and Alleanza. That will generate additional value for Banca Generali as well as for the Italian life insurance companies. I would say this benefits the group overall.

Michael Huttner

analyst
#93

Regarding the payback?

Philippe Donnet

executive
#94

The first one? We stated that we're further boosting the proportion of protection and health business within our new business mix, and that clearly speeds up cash conversion relative to the traditional savings business. Good.

Michael Huttner

analyst
#95

Thank you. Can you still hear me?

Fabio Cleva

executive
#96

No, thank you, Michael. Appreciate the question. I believe we're out of time now. Many thanks to all of you for joining today's call. Should anything else come up, don't hesitate to contact IR, and have a good rest of your day.

Operator

operator
#97

Thank you, everyone, for being here. That brings this conference to a close. Please go ahead and hang up your phones. Thanks very much.

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