Grupo Catalana Occidente, S.A. (GCO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Well, good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you to talk about the Grupo Catalana Occidente in the year 2021. This is Francisco Arregui, General Manager of the group. And as usual, here with me, I have Carlos Gonzalez, CFO; Nawal Rim, Director of Investor Relations. As every other time, I would like to thank you in advance for attending this event. But also, I would like to thank you for the attention you pay to the evolution and the performance of our business and the performance of our shares. And I encourage you to ask any questions you have online. We will answer as many as we can at the end of this session and rest of them will be answered by the usual [ talent ]. And before we start, to break the ice, I would like to tell you, without further ado, that in an environment of a health care crisis, [ fielding ] an economic crisis, things have been going fairly well with the traditional business where we're growing in turnover. We improved the results somewhat and especially in credit insurance, which is more close to the economic cycle, more sensitive to the crisis and is performing quite well with 8.8% increase in turnover and more than tripling its result versus the first half year of the previous year as a consequence of the very low claims ratio. The consolidated result, therefore, increased by 53%. We will follow the order that you can see on screen for the presentation. In this presentation, that continues along the same lines as those of previous occasions. And with that, I think we make it easier for you to follow and understand the presentation. We will start with the environment, not much to say. Last year, everything changed as a consequence of COVID. At the end of 2019, beginning of 2020, we continued to develop our activities in a difficult economic environment, but mainly due to the volatility, due to globalization because the common denominator up until that momentum was growth in all geographical areas in an environment of low inflation and interest rates, which were honestly quite low. And it's true that we already saw some deceleration of growth, specifically in Europe and of course, in Spain. But the truth is that COVID did away with all of those forecasts. The outbreak of COVID in China stopped supply chains in February, March last year. It reached the rest of countries with lockdowns with the stop-off trade in the industry. And as you can see on screen, the consequence was the economy clearly dropped in 2020, 3.3% or 3.2% globally; also in the U.S., 3.5%; the Eurozone 6.5%; and in Spain, well, clearly worse, 10.8%. And from there on out, the projections that have been made from that moment onwards and over the past few months have always been those of recovery in 2021. But a bit depending on the circumstances, how quick people get vaccinated, their healthcare situation, et cetera. And there, you can see the latest forecast as per data provided very recently by the IMF. You have the data on screen. I will not mention them myself. And the evolution of the financial market, well, you know it very well. And I would like to say that the insurance sector in Spain, we've said it oftentimes, it had a very good behavior in the crisis of 2008, 2009. It grew nonstop almost in volume turnover almost in 2015. And last year, in 2020, there was a clear decrease in this environment of crisis that I mentioned, 8.2%. And at this moment, at the end of the first half year and with the data given by -- there, the industry has grown by 5.5% with a growth of 9.2% in life, but also 3.4% in nonlife. Growth in almost all lines of business, except for the slight decrease, the slight drop that you can see on screen in motor. In that context, I said that things have been going well for us in the traditional business despite the very competitive character of the insurance sector in Spain, the adverse weather conditions, especially at the beginning of the year. Well, we had Gloria, Filomena and Hortensia. And in Spain, we continue within the crisis and credit insurance, as I already said, exceptionally well. We will see it in a minute. I just wanted to make that comment and the CFO will talk about it in more detail. This is the summarized P&L. We have income and results, top line and bottom line. We grow in turnover by 4.6%, traditional business, 1.8%, both in recurring premiums and total premiums, and we will see that we grow in almost all lines with a small drop in motor in a context of vehicles being less used and a very low claims ratio. And in credit insurance, in 2020, last year, the turnover dropped significantly by 5% for several reasons, but especially because of a reduction in sales of our policyholders, and now we are growing. We're growing by 8.8% in turnover, 4.6% in acquired premiums. And with growth, which are different in the different geographical areas. Specifically in Spain, we have a slight decrease of around 2%. The reason for this growth, on the one hand, we have the recovery of a certain level of new production. Secondly, contention of cancellations. The rate increased a bit, around 6%, but it is quite good in this context, and could increase at the end of the first half year of the average rate of renewals of 6.7%, if I remember correctly. Although this has continued to drop throughout the month in June, the average rate dropped around 2% and also an increase in sales of our policyholders and the estimation of sales that we made each and every month. As to the second parameter results that you can see at the bottom. I already mentioned growth, which is quite significant of the consolidated result, 47% attributed result, 53.5% consolidated result. And on this occasion, the nonrecurring results do not damage us. They're practically 0.5% positive versus a minus 9% that you can see for the same half year last year. And as I said, the operational results of both businesses improved, traditional business, 1%. And last year was very good in results. And I would stress and Carlos Gonzalez will develop a bit later, but the exceptional performance of motor still affected by mobility restrictions versus the previous year in which the first 2.5 months were still pre-COVID, and a reduction on the negative side of 22% in the multi-risk result due to an increase of claims due to a greater usage of the home. More than EUR 11 million net reinsurance due to environmental events, weather events of the first half year and some peak events. And a good behavior of the rest of areas, especially health and funeral and credit insurance, excellent result. As you can see, 108.2 million. It tripled the result of the first half year of last year with an increase of 202% as you can see on screen. With a very low amount of claims, gross claims of reinsurance is at a very low level, 25.6%. And as I said in the previous quarter, I can assure you that we continue to book provisions very cautiously in case there is a worsening of defaults when the government aids and we have a global system of provision calculation that anticipates claims ratio from the moment the sale is made based on parameters such as the evolution of the economy, the country, et cetera, and we adjust it based on the circumstances. And it is true, and you will see now in a more detailed P&L account that Carlos Gonzalez would present, that reinsurance has a very high cost EUR 278 million. of which almost 200 -- more than EUR 196 million come from government reinsurance agreements that were extended, except for the one in France that ended last year. But the others were prolonged until June this year -- end of June this year. And since the business has given us very good results, very good profit, we are providing positive results to the reinsurers and specifically the governmental agreements. At any rate, it is obvious that having those agreements has given us peace of mind, has allowed us to have -- to have 1 year to turn the whole portfolio around without needing any drastic measures or any more significant measures to manage risks, which clearly improves the relationship with our customers, which is a long-term relationship. And finally, I must speak about the large amount of actions that we have taken to support our stakeholders during 2020, 2021 during the health care crisis of COVID. All of those very significant in order to keep up the business. Some of them are listed on screen. We have talked about those in other presentations, so I will not develop them. From the point of view of the portfolio mix, there are no great changes vis-à-vis the last time we talked about them. We have a balanced portfolio, but with a clear weight of the credit business from the moment Atradius was incorporated into our group, approximately 60-40. And secondly, from the point of view of territorial distribution, of course, we are the second largest group in credit insurance in the world, the fifth largest in Spain. We are present in 50 countries with 1,600 offices. But as I always say, Spain continues to represent a bit, over 2/3 of our business, and the rest, as you can see, is basically in Europe. And finally, I would like to stress. And I also said it in the last presentation, that is obvious current economic context, we've been focusing on the ordinary business for 1.5 years and then the management of the crisis, but we are not at all losing focus and losing the intensity in the strategic projects that are key to our future. The first one is, of course, innovation in many aspects. But I would like to make a special mention of sustainability, which is no longer only a legal requirement. But as you know, a requirement of the market. DCO follows the world sustainability policies. And in this year, we approved a new policy of sustainability for the creation of sustainable value. And more recently, in February, the Board of Directors approved the first sustainability memoir of 2020, which was verified by independent experts and you have it available on the website. And we adhere to PSI, PRI, and we contribute to the [ SDG ]. We've talked about the first 2 [ methods ]. The third method message. It was mainly to say that we maintain a solid solvency position. A sound solvency position. Later we'll talk about equity in solvency. And the fourth message is that we have a dividend policy, which is, of course, cautious. We retain a significant amount of our result, but with growing dividends in absolute terms, and we maintain our strong commitment of shareholder remuneration in terms of share price performance. You know it very well. So I will leave you with this slide. Maybe just to give you some guidance, I would say it is a very good performance in the long term as we can see now on screen with an internal rate of return of 12.56% in this period, well above the indexes that are closest to us. And in the short term, not so good in 2019. We lost 4.45% in share price in a bullish market. Well below Ibex and EuroStoxx insurance. And at this moment, we are up a 11.66% at the end of the first half year, and we compare favorably with the indexes. In terms of the dividend, as I said, we have conservative dividend payout policy, but with a growing dividend in absolute terms. We were capable of maintaining the dividend in 2008, 2009 during the financial crisis years, very bad results in credit insurance. And from that moment on, in 20 -- since 2010, we've had consistent dividend increases until 2019. They were around 6% and 7.5%. However, as you know perfectly well, because you follow us, regarding the dividend charge to results of 2019, we had to follow the recommendation of the European Supervisor, EIOPA, and the DG insurance. And we had to reduce the complementary dividend by 45% in May 2020. So the total dividend charge to 2019 result dropped by 17%. Regarding results of 2020, as you know and you can see on screen, we distributed 3 interim dividends of the same amount last year, EUR 19.6 million each -- EUR 19.06 million. And in the AG and this year, governmental dividend was agreed upon, which was twice as much as in the previous year, with this meaning a total dividend of EUR 105.85 million, up almost by 30% compared to last year. And recently, as you can see on screen within the month of July, we have paid out a first dividend of EUR 20 million. Although technically it's in charge to reserves for several reasons, amongst others, tax reasons, but it's comparable with the first interim dividend of the previous year. And it means an increase of 5%, vis-à-vis that of the same date of last year. And Carlos, I'll pass it over to you now, so you can talk in more detail about the P&L.

Good afternoon, everyone. As usual, I will analyze, a bit more, the performance of a traditional business and the credit insurance separately. We'll start with the traditional business as usual. And I would like to say here that our diversification of products and the high retention of our customers, has allowed us to maintain growth with this increase of recurring premiums. As you can see the screen of 1.8%, up to EUR 1.374 billion. Regarding results, also continuing on a positive trend, an increase of the technical result of 1.1%, which translates directly into an improvement on the recurring results, also 1%, amounting to EUR 130 million. The basis of this increase is due to a positive evolution of the general insurance business, especially in motor where we are still positively affected by the reduction in mobility versus pre-COVID quarters. And remember that the first quarter of last year was also a pre-COVID quarter. The combined ratio has improved by 0.5 basis points because of this improvement of the technical costs. So we are now slightly below 88% -- 87.9%, with a positive differential versus the industry. If we now look at the different lines of business, first multi-risk growing by 4.5%, with a combined ratio of 90.7%. As you can see on screen, 3.2 points above last year. And this is due to a more intensive use of the home during this period of COVID and especially, mostly because of a larger impact of peak events. As to weather events, the weather event of this year, Filomena and Hortensia, those happened in the previous quarter and their comparable to the development claims ratio to Gloria in 2020. As Mr. Arregui reminded us, they were both around EUR 11 million. And this effect -- these weather events dilutes as the quarters go by and the combined ratio normalizes. Finally, the technical result drops to EUR 32.2 million for the reasons mentioned below. And in motor, 2.6% less in turnover. The behavior, a bit worse than the rest of the sector, but we must say that there is a net increase of the number of policyholders. The combined ratio dropped significantly in 5.5 points, up to 85.8% with a reduction of 6 points of technical cost, where we see a reduction in the number of claims as compared to pre-COVID quarters. As we mentioned in the past months, the situation has been normalizing in the number of claims that we are receiving is similar to months before the pandemic. The improvement in claims ratio has allowed us to notably increase technical result, up to EUR 45.9 million, with a 63% increase that we already announced. In miscellaneous, I would like to say that turnover increased by 5.1% with a positive impact due to the capturing certain agreements with certain collectives. At the level of results, we keep up the excellent levels of combined ratio around 85%; in this case, 86.3% and a technical result of EUR 21.3 million. Finally, life, improves in health, funeral and in credit premiums -- in earned premiums, an increase of 2.2%. Whereas single premiums continue not being too attractive in the current environment of interest rates. As to results, the technical financial results drops slightly to minus EUR 54.1 million, minus 1.5%, because this quarter, we provisioned EUR 5.5 million to adapt to the new biometrical tables in the products, in which we were still using the [ stringent ] period of 4 years was allowed by the regulation. So aside from this one-off, the business continues to perform well in terms of this, visibly in health with 90% combined ratio. As you can see on screen and funeral with a combined ratio of 81.4%. As a summary, the traditional business increased in turnover and reduction by 0.5 points of the combined ratio, basically in motor. This allows us to increase the technical result by 1.1%, showing resilience, the resilience of the traditional business vis-à-vis the crisis due to COVID. On the other hand, the financial result increases by EUR 2 million despite the extension of the low interest rate environment. And finally, the recurring result increases by 1% as we announced, up to EUR 130 million. Now on to credit insurance business. In the credit insurance business, acquired premiums reached a volume of EUR 930.2 million with a growth of 4.6%. And therefore, growing the dropping trend that we saw in the previous year. The causes, well, we already mentioned a re-tariffication of the portfolio with prices more adjusted thanks to this repricing increase of rates. And also in the past few months, these price increases have been more moderate. On the other hand, we've seen a change of risk appetite on our side, more commercial activity, both on our side and our policyholders. And therefore, this has an indirect impact on our turnover and with, also, increases in our risk exposure associated to these movements. In terms of results, the technical result, net of reinsurance of the business, has gone through the roof to EUR 22.7 million with the low claims ratio, which allows for an increase of results, which tripled that of last year going up to EUR 108 million. In geographical terms, the improvement in income is very important generally speaking, but also in Central and Northern Europe with a double-digit growth aided by the better economic perspectives in the area and the capturing of new global customers. Whereas in Southern Europe, especially in Spain, we continue to see drops of around 2%, although it is true that these drops are more moderate than we were experiencing in previous quarters. In terms of profitability, the combined -- the gross combined ratio continues to drop to 60.5%, with a decrease of 33 points at a historically low level of 25.6%, and this is mainly due to the drop of claims. We've seen that it is more intense and we actually expected, as a consequence of external factors, you know this very well, the success of the fast application of expansive tax policies and support of the economy by central banks and governments, but also internal factors as a consequence of the risk management measures that we have applied in the past -- let's say, in the past year, both in terms of pricing and risk taking. And here, I would like to say that we continue being cautious in our provisioning strategy as we did in 2020. At the bottom of the chart, you can see the performance of risk exposure. And here, we can see, clearly, a positive development of this parameter with an increase of almost 7%, 6.9% versus last year. As a consequence, both of the maintenance of support to our existing customers and the capturing of some relevant new customers. Despite this increased risk exposure stays slightly, well, approximately 2 points below the levels that we had pre-COVID. However, we must say that the mix of this exposure has seen change towards quality this year. And finally, as a summary, we'll go through the drivers of this half year. We've already talked about income with the new pricing and economic activation. We've also talked about the lower claims ratio. We maintain our provisioning policy. And as to reinsurance, given the better expectations for the business, we have seen, with the current levels of claim ratio, we are transferring part of the results -- the exceptional results we are having in direct insurance to our reinsurers. Specifically, as you can see, the transfer ratio is 58%, so the amount we're transferring is around EUR 279 million, of which EUR 196.3 million are due to government contracts. This amount, this government contract amount, we hope will not modify substantially in future periods. And seeing this evolution, the group has decided not to extend the government agreements, and therefore, maintaining for the second half year, the 37% transferred to the reinsurance panel that is as usual. And on the other hand, now the financial result. Here, we can see a reduction due to not only the low interest rate environment that we've been suffering from in the past years. But also in this case, due to a negative impact in exchange rates that has not been as positive as we saw last year in currency exchange. And to finish the recurring result, therefore, increases, as we've already mentioned, by more than 200%. So it triples vis-à-vis the previous quarter up to EUR 108.2 million. And well, that's all on my side.

Thank you very much, Carlos. So we're leaving behind the P&L, and now we'll talk about other aspects. First, on resource, this is the same slide that we have shown you on previous occasions, just to show that we have these permanent resources, market value with capital gains, real estate capital gains of EUR 526.9 million, which are not included in the balance sheet. So we see this EUR 4.908 billion, with an increase of 5.2% as compared to the end of last year. This chart on the right-hand side helps us see the evolution throughout the past years since 1999. It is, frankly, very good multiplying by 14 from EUR 332 million to EUR 4.9 billion. This is what we can also see on the left-hand side, the valuation in the current year, where the consolidated results minus dividend, in this case, aided by those EUR 89.6 million of change in valuation adjustments, the net financial capital gains, to reach those EUR 4.908 billion, 5.2% more than end of last year, as I said. On the point of view of solvency, most overseas and essential magnitude in our companies and in all insurance companies. As you can see on screen, our solvency ratio at the close of 2020 was 216%. You can also see that this is 3 points above end of 2019, improving the forecast that we have made. You have also the details in the report on the financial information insolvency, both consolidated and individual that you can find on the website of the company. And there you can see all of the factors impacting this 216%. And this 3-point improvement, I would like to say already that the main 1 is the retained profit. And in the area of credit insurance, the reduction of risk exposure last year, of 8.6% as a consequence of the measures taken in 2020 in the context of the financial crisis. And secondly, the government reinsurance agreements in the main European countries that we have referred to so many times this afternoon that were extended, except for the one upfront until June 2021. I've said it on other occasions, 216% is very good. It is above most of our competitors', as you well know. All companies are around or above 170%. And also in the different magnitudes and in the most adverse scenarios. And equity is of high quality, 95% of Tier 1. And precisely, these -- some, as in our equity, together with the trust or the perception of soundness in our business model is what makes rating agencies A.M. Best for rating entities, Moody's for credit insurance gave us A and A2, recently ratified by rating agencies. On screen, you can now see the distribution of our investments. We always tell you about them. They go up to EUR 15.198 billion, 3% more than the funds managed at the end of 2020. And I always say I don't want to bore you with details about the mix of investments. You have it in the annexes, you have it in the annual year-end report. Everything is available to you on the website of the company. But I would like to stress the message that we always give, that we have a cautious investment policy and a stable one, more than anything. We have diversified investments, as you can see on screen. And mainly and basic for the entire insurance group, we have adequate assets that feed our liabilities in all of the terms of joint management of assets and liabilities. And now if you would like to -- well, it was brief, and it was quick, but we gave you an overview of how we are doing in 2021, in the year 2021 with the structure of the information, which is quite similar to that of previous quarters. And therefore, it should be easily understandable to all. And now, Nawal, if there have been questions, and we've been able to summarize them or group them, we will be delighted to answer them.

Thank you very much, Francisco and Carlos, for your presentation.[Operator Instructions] We will start with the Q&A session. The questions we've received during the presentation. As usual, the questions received by our grouped by topic. We will start with the questions about the traditional business, specifically multi-risk. And the question says, the combined ratio of multi-risk has increased by a bit more than 3 points. Should we expect more impairment towards the end of the year?

While it is the fact we have seen that the combined ratio of multi-risk increased by 3.2 points. But the truth is that the ratio is normalizing as we anticipated already. The effect of weather events of the first half year, basically Filomena and Hortensia dilutes us. The months go by, when we made a presentation of the first quarter, we reported a combination of 4.1 points above the current one. Why? Because we think this will normalize until the end of 2021. At any rate, I said it and Carlos Gonzalez already explained it. The claims ratio probably will be a bit higher than that of last year, basically due to the increase of the claims ratio derived from greater use of the home and because we've had some peak events that we've already mentioned. As a summary, multi-risk continues to be strategic for us. It continues to provide high profitability, and we expect that the combined ratio will normalize from now till the end of the year.

Okay, the second question is about Motor. Regarding the combined ratio of Motor, we see it improved vis-à-vis the first quarter of 2021. What is the reason for this improvement if there's more traffic circulation in Spain? What should we expect for 2021?

I think the improvement of the combined ratio of the result in motor is -- well, it's clear. It is due to the restrictions. In mobility, the ratio improves by 5.5 points versus the first half year of last year, basically because the claim ratio drops by 6.1 points. On the other hand, we must think that we are comparing with 2020, which was pre-COVID during the first 2.5 months of the year. At any rate, in our P&L of last year's first half year, in the P&L, there were compensatory measures for our customers of the motor, business measures to defend the portfolio due to the low claims ratio. And for that reason, as we already explained, as compared to the industrial combined ratio last year did not improve in the same proportion. This effect on exists this year because the improvement in the industry last year, in our case, is now being distributed in the 2 years. Well, these measures to defend the portfolio have been successful because in general terms, we've been able to maintain the number of policies. And in the first few months of 2021, we saw that the claims ratio was below that of 2019. The truth is that in the last month, we've already started to see a normalization of claims ratios basically going back to figures pre-COVID. At this moment with the combined ratio of 85.8%, well, as much as it normalizes, it's difficult to get a completely normalized combined ratio at the end of 2021. Therefore, we believe we will have a very good result in motor at the end of the year.

Next question about life, which says as follows. "In life, we see a significant drop in the technical result this year and an impairment of the combined ratio of health as compared to end of 2020. Could you explain that?"

Yes. Well, I think these are 2 different questions. The first one, about the reduction of the technical result in life, this is true. And this was explained a moment ago by Carlos Gonzalez. This happens as a consequence of the fact that we have incorporated into the P&L all of the impact of the new mortality tables in the business acquired by -- from Antares, following the [ stringent ] period of 4 years that was allowed in the current regulation. But what we can say now is that there will be no further impacts due to this in the future. And secondly, in health, in line of health, it is true that in December 2020, we reported a combined ratio, which was spectacular, unusually low the 84.1%, which was based on the reduction of medical appointments. As I said, during the pandemic, the health care crisis in more normalized years as in the previous year in 2019, we obtained a ratio, which was also good. And the combined ratio of 90% is closer to that one, although impacted by a low frequency due to the health care crisis.

We now continue with questions about credit insurance business. We continue with the combined ratio, which is historically low in credit. Could you explain the reason for this reduction vis-à-vis the end of the year? Is it possible to maintain this combined ratio levels? Or should we expect an increase?

As we explained in the past year presentations, at this moment, the combined ratio in 2020, it was at 94.1%, including, we've said it again and again, a level of provisions, which was very conservative, which made us comfortable with the risks underwritten. In the first 2 quarters of 2021, there hasn't been that many claims. And this was mainly due to the impact of all of the government aids to trade, different from the austerity with which the financial crisis of 2008 was phased, so much so that this despite maintaining a cautious level of provisions, as I explained a moment ago, the freeing, the releasing of the risks and the low income of new risks has dropped our claims ratio. And at the end of the first half of the year of last year was 7.7%, and now it is at 25.6%. So these low -- in terms of risks, it's not usual even in good economic periods, and we consider it may moderately increase in the coming months. But the selective risk taking that we are conducting and the caution in our provisions allows us to think that we will finish the year with a very good combined ratio in credit insurance. We should stress, on the other hand, that more than a cycle has a lapse of portfolio renewals since the crisis started. And this renewal has been conducted with the adequate criteria and with prices that are more adjusted to the risks taken.

Also about credit insurance and, more specifically, about government agreements, they say you've talked about the negative impact of government agreements. Could you develop it? You confirm the nonrenewal of government contracts. Do you think this decision will have an impact on your results in 2021?

Well, let's see if I can answer the question, which is actually 3 questions in one. First of all, due to the low claims ratio that we've had in the direct business and that we explained before, to this, that we have a very good result in credit insurance. The direct result is positive. The consequence of this is that we transfer more profit to reinsurance in general and governance, in particular. Therefore, in the first half year of 2021, we posted a cost of a bit over EUR 196 million derived from these government agreements of reinsurance. However, we must bear in mind that in this amount, we already include the possible positive evolution towards the end of the year for the risks covered by these contracts. So we understand that it's difficult that these will significantly change. The amount will significantly change. Secondly, it is also important to stress that it is true that these government agreements have had a cost that we explained. But it is true that they have given us a peace of mind in terms of facing the year. They allowed us to work exhaustively on the management and selection of risks for an entire year without needing to conduct any drastic actions in the management of risk exposure and maintaining a strong and sound relationship with our customers, and as you know, is a long-term relationship per definition. What would happen if there was an increase of claims in the second half year? Well, bear in mind, as we already explained, that the group has had and has conducted an adequate risk exercise. We've renewed the portfolio with adequate new pricing, and we have this private reinsurance agreement in our business. And at any rate, remember that the agreements with the government apply to risks underwritten during the life of the contracts. So most of the claims that take place in the second half year will derive from sales that took place in the first half year, and they will be covered by the government agreements. For all of those reasons, it is difficult to think that a potential significant inflow of new risks will take place in the second half year. And this is the reason why we have decided not to renew the government agreement, as you know. And as a few moments ago, Carlos explained.

One final question related to the share price and capital -- and this question has come in other presentations as well. The share price shows a good performance after COVID crisis. We still the increase of the first dividend paid out with the levels of solvency that you have accumulated, do you not plan on any actions for that excess capital to be returned to shareholders in any way?

Well, there are several statements here and a question. It's true that these are questions that we receive again and again, but I am delighted to answer them again, saying what we are and what we believe in. It is true that the share price has picked up notably in this past year. We're very happy with its performance. But the truth is, and we already said it, that the market discounted at the beginning quickly. The potential impact of the crisis due to the pandemic basically in the credit insurance business. But I think that we have proven the capacity that the group has to manage risks in a quick and efficient manner. And the truth is that, finally, the market has placed its trust on us and the share price has gone up. As to the dividend policy, well, I already mentioned that the group has a conservative dividend policy, but a growing one in absolute terms. And I think that we have proven the clear commitment with shareholders through many years in exceptional circumstances, that is the financial crisis of 2008, 2009 that had a great impact on the results of credit insurance. And we were capable of maintaining and even slightly increasing results. Throughout this crisis, at the first moment, we had to drop the -- we're forced to drop the complementary dividend by 45%, and we have recovered it by doubling the interim -- the complementary dividend of last year. And as to the last question, the solvency ratio, it is true that it has increased by 3 points. It is now at 216%. But we are not at levels that such high levels of solvency ratios so as to think of a special action. As you know, at any rate, the group has had a successful history of acquisition of companies, always making use of the trust that shareholders place on our group and that allows us to apply a conservative dividend policies. So we have devoted the access to acquisitions, which have rapidly caused an increase of the value of the group. And therefore, an increase in the value of the investment of our shareholders, which we would not have been able to have without that buffer of solvency. We continue to actively seek opportunities in the Spanish insurance business, insurance market to make a good use of the capital that we have. But the truth is that you -- as you all know, we have not yet found a transaction that fits our strategy after the last acquisition that we made in 2019 of Antares.

Thank you very much, Francisco. And with those answers, we will close the presentation of results of the first half year of 2021. As usual, I remind you that the pending questions will be managed directly via the Investor Relations team in the coming days. And I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to the next presentation of results taking place on Thursday, 28th of October. We will present the results of the third quarter of 2021. And finally, I would like to remind you that you can always visit our website, our corporate website, where you have all of the financial and sustainability information available to you as always. We would like to thank you for your interest and participation, your attendance and participation, and we wish you a very happy summer and season.