Please use the raise hand function on your screen, or for those dialing in, it is star nine on your keypad. Please also remember there is a Q&A chat box, so you can also submit your questions via chat. I now have pleasure handing over to Luca Mirabelli, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Luca, the floor to you.
Thank you, Rebecca. Good afternoon to everyone connected. Thanks for joining us for this presentation of our nine-month results for 2026, which will be hosted as usual by CEO and General Manager Saverio Perissinotto. The set of results, you should already have seen the presentation. Apparently, someone in the market has not seen it or has a different interpretation than the one we are going to expose. Anyway, without further wait, I give the floor to Saverio Perissinotto. Thank you.
Good afternoon to everyone, and welcome to our results presentation of the first nine months of this 2026. You have a very clear document that have been provided to you. If we go to page 2, which is going to digest the main highlights, I will say that the third quarter of 2026 proved to be quite satisfactory for our standard. First of all, let me comment that during the third quarter, we were able to gather net inflows into assets under management of roughly EUR 1 billion, which was a quite good result since, you know, this 2026 has been mainly impacted and mainly characterized by the termination of the Etica SGR mandate, which for our stand was a significant customers and a significant part of our business because we lost a bit less than EUR 6 billion of assets.
The second thing that I would like to highlight to you is that the third quarter, we were able to deliver strong P&L result. Our net profit stood at EUR 49.4 million for the quarter, which is 8% more than the third quarter of 2025. And, of course, our EBITDA was also in line with a quite good number and impressive figure. Why this happens? Because, I mean, I think that, God thank you, the major outflows that we recorded during this year were on the weakest side of the profitability ladder. So on that point of view, we were able to, let us say, keep a good pace on profitability. And since we lower the, let us say, the AUM, which were the least attractive as far as profitability is concerned, marginally, our P&L has been improving in a quite substantial way.
The second thing that I would like to quote, which is quite satisfactory on the management's point of view, is that in this first part of the year, sorry, we were able to deliver some synergies of cost and some efficiency initiatives, mainly on the space of what we call other incomes, which has been quite good, also on the general and administrative expenses. More the time goes by, more we are able to record, let's say, positive impact on our P&L. To make a long story short, these first nine months of 2026 were able for us to give us EUR 408 million of total revenues, which is 11% more than last year, and an inch more than EUR 208 million of net profit.
This figure has to be carefully considered because if 4% more than last year could appear as a modest or a moderate number, please, I have the duty to remind you that on the last nine months of 2025, the number was spoiled with a one-off income related to a certain, let's say, specific income factor, which was giving us more or less EUR 30 million in that statement of account of 2025. So if I adjust the number and I try to take off this extraordinary one-off income contribution, our EUR 208.2 million net profit of 2026 is in fact 13% more than the figure of last year. So, as Luca Mirabelli entitled our presentation, Anima is quietly and very silently keeping on setting positive records as far as P&L is concerned.
I will take you to page number 3, if you allow me, just very shortly to tell you that the structure that you see is more or less the same. The only difference that we can quote compared to the last time we presented the numbers to you is the shareholder participation in Castello, the shareholders' capital. Sorry. Castello is now owned at 100% because we purchased the last 20% from Oaktree during the summer. It was during the months of June, beginning of July, if my memory is correct. This was the normal exercise of an agreement that we had. We had a put agreement with them, and we decided to realize this operation. So now, Anima Holding is 100% holding all the structure which are operational, which I remind you is Anima SGR, which is the bread and butter asset management operation in Italy.
Kairos, which remains our asset management and wealth management practice of excellence in our market, and in which I will quote you later on what we have been doing in the recent months, which has proven so far quite successful. We have this alternative pool of alternative assets, which is Anima Alternative, mainly specialized in private debts, and Castello SGR that you know is mainly active in the real estate business. The total AUM that we manage today is EUR 208.2 billion, in which we have in this EUR 208 billion, EUR 1 billion of the activity of the family office activity and EUR 1 billion of the advisory on the life insurance activity, which is quite important for us.
I would suggest to go to page 9, just to briefly enter the P&L structure, which is the most relevant thing so far, in which you have in the first column the detailed numbers of the first nine months compared to the same nine months of the previous year. Total revenues stood at EUR 408 million, as I was quoting you before, 11% more than that. Of course, performance fee is contributing with the biggest part of the pie, which, God thank you, we were able to capitalize on good financial market conditions, especially in the first part of this year, which was quite satisfactory so far. It is also worth mentioning that we have 5% more on the normal revenues, the management fees and other income, which is +5% compared to last year.
As I was mentioning earlier, total expenses are exactly at the same level of last year, with two major differences. The first one is the optimization of the costs, general expenses, is in the range of 10%. We were able to save more or less a bit less than EUR 4 million compared to last year. We have a little bit more of personal costs, HR costs, but it is mainly due for the accrual for the bonuses for the investment teams who were able to provide us with the high level of performance fee that we were able to record on the first part of this 2026. So EUR 408 million less EUR 116.2 million of total expenses take us to an EBITDA, which is 16% more than last year, an inch less than EUR 292 million.
You will see in the next line, not necessarily the non-recurring costs, which are, let's say, less interesting, but the EUR 34 million of other income, which was a contribution of last year that I was quoting as one-off, that of course this year we unfortunately do not have in our P&L, depreciation and amortization, and we reach a level of a bit less than EUR 255 million of EBIT, +6% than last year. Net financial income plus the dividends that we received from Monte dei Paschi, and of course, we arrive at profit before taxation, which is 6% more than last year, EUR 298.5 million. We pay our taxes, or we accrue what we are due to pay for our taxation, and we reach a net income of EUR 208.2 million, which is 4% than last year.
As I was saying to you at the beginning of this presentation, it is 13% more adjusted for the non-recurring and the items that we were able to record last year. Those are the most important things I wanted to quote for you. I will take you to slide number 5 of this short presentation, because it is important to make a comment on our weighted average performance of our AUM. This is probably the same story every time when we record good financial market condition, especially on the equity side. Because if the Italian industry is growing at 4.25%, 4.25% more or less year to date, we are a bit less than that.
We are a bit less than 4%, 3.9%, and this is basically due to our AUM structure that, as you can see on the right-hand side of page 5, we have 10% more on the bond side, and we have 9 point something less of equity exposure, pure plain vanilla equity exposure, which of course is explaining the difference in as far as our performance is concerned. I will not comment page 4. I will take eventually later on some questions should you have eventually some, but this is the usual breakdown of our total assets. I think it is more interesting for you to have a look on page 6. Page 6 is the net flows per asset class.
The third quarter, as we were mentioning, we were able to record positive inflows, and we were also able, for our standard, to record equity funds inflows, which for us is a quite substantial, let us say, happening, and this is the reason because we quote it for you. What is most important is that our Osservatorio Anima gives us the idea that investor sentiment, in spite of all what we read on the papers, is more or less stable and also giving some sign of improvement, which is something that let us think for the better for the quarter to come and the months to come till year end.
This is probably also due for the fact that we were having some target date funds which were expiring, and so our distributors were able to convince our customer to have an additional flavor of equity market in the portfolio. Page 7 is giving you the precise answer on what I was quoting at the beginning, that in spite of the fact that our net inflows remains, let us say, if we make the exception of Etica SGR, quite close to zero at the end of the fact year to date, the major part of the outflows have been recorded and registered on the lower profitability scale. This is the thing which help us to provide solid, robust P&L numbers in spite of the fact that our AUM have been suffering during 2026.
Fund user, retail customer, pension funds, and of course, also a little bit of help of the duplication, the wrapping, is also giving us a good health in order to provide the numbers that I was briefly commenting before that. Page 8 is a bit of confirmation of what we were quoting a few minutes ago. EUR 774 million is the retail net inflows, which is giving us a confirmation of what is happening on the, let us say, the sentiment and on the feeling of the retail investor, which for us still remain a good indicator of the mass market sentiment. This is something which hopefully we are able, we hope to be able to capitalize on the months to come. Page 9, we have already commented.
If you see page 10 and page 11, you have the split and the drill down of the revenues quarter by quarter, divided between recurring fees, placement fees, and other income, which of course is giving you almost EUR 160 million this quarter, which is the highest number we have been able to record so far, at least since a certain number of year. These number are not taking to account the performance fee that I was explaining you few moment ago. I think that more favorable asset mix, good quality, of course, control, trying to insource as much as we can of the revenues that we left outside our perimeter, are helping us to provide the number that I was mentioning to you.
On page 11, you have the split company by company between fixed and variable salary of Anima, Castello, Kairos, and I would say that the number is very similar to the quarter of last year. Unless you do not have particular questions to be asked or particular issues, I will not comment in further details. Of course, we were able to recruit a certain number of persons since the beginning of the year, and this, of course, has been able also to provide us a good level of backup that we are going to display in the months to come. It's probably worth commenting page 12 and page 13, which is the outlook of the net financial position. Net financial position is giving us a net cash of EUR 714.7 million.
At the moment that we are talking with you, this number is less than that, because at last week, on October 23rd, we have been repaying the bond which was maturing at the end of October in 2026, and which was accounting for EUR 284 million. So, the real number that you see today is EUR 714.7 million less EUR 284 million, because, of course, we decreased our debt and we lower our cash position because we were able to fully reimburse this obligation without recurring to any financing and so on. Accrued interest expenses, of course, is the cost of the bonds. IFRS 16 is weighing for EUR 17 and something million. The put/call options related to Vita, which is a company related to Castello activity and Kairos in 2025, account for a bit less than EUR 5 million, and other payable is not worth mentioning particularly.
We have cash and equivalent at the time that the page was prepared of EUR 675 million, and of course, the securities are mainly related to the stake that we still have in Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which, of course, is up EUR 140 million, more or less, compared to the figure of last year. At the end of last year, the position was worth EUR 465 million, is worth today EUR 181 million, and very likely is going to be replaced with a smaller stake that we're going to have in the Intesa Sanpaolo Group when the OPS is going to be completed. Page 13 is the net return on liquidity by quarter. Not too much to be said about that. We have our own portfolio of investments, the company, which is the numbers that you can see. We have a bit of interest income.
We have been of financial margin, which is the sum less the cost we pay. The red part of 2.2 million is the accrued value of our investments in our own funds, mainly the illiquid part in the private markets investment that we held for our own account. Page 14 is just, we would like to give you a flavor of what we are going to do in the quarters to come. We are going to develop further our alternative pool.
As I was mentioning to you, we have Castello, which is real estate, Anima Alternative, direct lending and private debt. It is very likely in Anima Alternative and Banco BPM Invest SGR, which is an SGR structure belonging 100% to Banco BPM, who is mainly investing in funds of funds into the private market space and is accounting for a bit more than EUR 1 billion, EUR 1.2 billion, if my memory is correct, is going to be merged with Anima Alternative. We are going to have a bit more of market capability and market placement capability. One is more on the private debt, the other is more on the private equity side, and I think that will make a lot of sense without making any overlap and any major issues related to this extraordinary operation.
Let me go to the conclusion, which are very well stated on page 15. I think that we have not been particularly advantaged in the last weeks, in the last months. Since, as you know, we are more a fixed income house, the raise of interest rates have been not helping us as far as performance are concerned. But, I mean, the more favorable asset mix give us 18 basis point of margin on our assets, which is quite good. We were able to control our costs and to increase the other income part of the P&L, and this has been, of course, helping us. As I was mentioning to you, in spite of the fact that we've been able to recruit 15 more human resources as a group, general expenses and total operating costs are lower in the last year.
This, of course, is something that has been particularly appreciated by our board of directors and by the capability to deliver a strong net profit. Of course, the appreciation of a couple of million for our investment, our investment in our alternative space is convincing us that what we have been doing has been doing in the correct way. I think that even if we are facing some headwinds, I think that our business model is proving to be quite steady and quite robust, even in a context which, of course, remains with few question marks on the horizon. But, of course, we are going to face them, and we are going to confirm that this business model is proving quite substantial, efficient, quite good in order to record good results in the quarters to come.
I will stop it here if Luca Mirabelli agrees, and I will hand it over to him.
Of course, I agree. I am paid for that. Please, before we give the room to the Q&A session, just a minor note. Last time, some of you had issues in formulating questions. Please pay close attention to the instructions on how to ask questions, and if all else fails, feel free to drop me an email or a WhatsApp. We do care about your questions. Please, Rebecca, go ahead.
Thank you, Luca. Thank you to the speakers today. We now have an opportunity for questions. As a reminder, there are different ways to ask a question. If you would like to ask a question, please use the Raise Hand function on your screen, or for those dialing in, it is star nine on your keypad. You will also see that there is a Q&A function, so please do feel free to send your questions in the chat as well, and we will read them out. The first question today comes from Alberto Beghelli. Please, Alberto, go ahead, and please remember to unmute your line. Thank you.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. I have a few. One is related to the incoming offer by Intesa that will start in a few weeks. I know it's probably early days, but can you give us an indication of your posture towards the offer? So let us know if you have already in mind what to do. You have already discussed eventually with the board what could be the stance of the company once the offer is live. If you decide to tender, there will be a cash component and a share component. Obviously, linked to that is if you have any thoughts about what to do with especially the shares you will get into Intesa in the future.
Related to this, if you want, is still some indications about what you are considering to be the future of the distribution with the party, given the change in the current situation. Any thoughts on that obviously are very important given the significance of the MPS distribution, also with the agreements in place. Even beyond that, if there's any thoughts to share with us, it would be very helpful. Another question is on the net inflows trends for October. If you can give us any color on what to expect from the last month. Finally, I understand you are not within the companies that are hit by the increase in tax rates by the government, but-
The quality of the sound is very bad, Alberto.
Okay.
We have a lot of noise on phone, though.
Okay. Sorry about that. I will have to reformulate, or you understood the previous question?
No, I understood that you were asking about the flavor of the month for October, if I understand it correctly.
Yes. The inflows, yes. Finally, if you have any thoughts about the package of measures presented by the government, if they can have an impact on your business. I am talking about the Tobin tax in particular. Thank you very much.
Okay. I try to give you the answer point by point, and my colleague, the Group CFO, and our other colleague would eventually intervene if they could add additional details. As far as the first question is concerned, the answer is we haven't taken a formal decision yet. We still have 1.6% of the capital of Monte dei Paschi, and if we have made our calculation in the correct way, we are going to have the equivalent of 0.3, if my memory is correct, probably a bit less than that, of Intesa Sanpaolo capital. This, of course, could eventually give us also a certain amount of cash, which is in the order of EUR 40 million, if my memory is correct. Probably more than that, EUR 60 million. Sorry, I have made a mistake.
But formal decision to tender or not to tender has not yet been taken by the board of Anima Holding. Second question, MPS distribution contract. Allora, I would say that we have a contract with MPS, which is going to expire in 2030, and I have been raised and educated that contracts are underwritten to be respected. So, I hope, and we are working to make the contract to be respected. This is the idea.
To be fully transparent with you, we still have to understand how it is going to be the split between the retail banking operation that apparently are going to be retained by Intesa Sanpaolo and the retail banking operation which are going to be passed to the BPER world, and this, of course, will make an additional difference for us. But, of course, we are working on this file. We are working with our legal department. We are working with operation department. We are also working with Banco BPM, which is our major shareholder, in order to establish the more success position as possible that is going to be related to the final offer and the final result of Intesa Sanpaolo taking over Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
On the October numbers, we have a flow which is not yet completely defined. We still are facing some small outflows, but we are, let's say, still waiting to understand if in the institutional space we are going to have some numbers positive. As far as the flavor of P&L is concerned, I think that we are going to have probably a normal month without major contribution, I would say, of extraordinary performance income so far. Last but not least, you asked me about the taxation issue.
My understanding is that SGR and world, after the date that we are answering and talking together, are not going to be impacted by the additional request of taxation from the government. On the Tobin tax, I am probably not in the right position to give you a sentiment. I am not convinced it is going to be a major issue, but, of course, it's something that is going to do a little bit of noise. I don't know if one of my colleagues wants to elaborate further on this Tobin tax issue. I hope I answered your question, Alberto.
Thank you, Alberto, for your question. We will now give the word to Elena Perini. Please, Elena, go ahead and remember to unmute your line. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you. Can you hear me?
Yes, Elena, we can hear you loud and clear.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. I have two questions. The first one is about your margins, which were good in this quarter, in particular. If you can elaborate on how you believe, you are convinced that they are sustainable. The second question is about the outlook on performance fees, which were quite strong in the first and the second quarter, and then lower in the third quarter. What can we expect? What can you see in this month of October, and what can we expect for this fourth quarter? Thank you very much.
Okay. I try to answer, and my colleagues will intervene and add on additional details if necessary. Are our margins sustainable? My answer is, should we imagine that we keep more or less the same asset mix and we keep on with the same innovation in terms of products, I think that 18 basis points is probably a number that sounds reasonable to me. Now, of course, these kind of numbers depends very much on financial market condition and the capability of the distributors to accept our value proposition in terms of product innovation, in terms of mix of products, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I give you an example to try to be as clear as possible.
We are going to do a product with Banco BPM in the months to come, which is going to be a build-up of multi-asset activity, which allow us to probably maintain the level of marginality that we have been quoting so far. Now, of course, if financial markets are going to record a major correction and the appetite for the risk is going to decrease, by definition, it will be very challenging to maintain 18 basis points as far as our margin is concerned. What is the outlook for performance fee? The outlook for performance fees, at least in the short term, seems to me, smell test, quite challenging. I'm going to wait my worst. You know that we go on a high-water mark basis, and since interest rates went up, our performance of the bulk of the fixed income-driven products, of course, has been recording a negative markdown.
Consequently, I think we need a certain amount of weeks or a bit of months in order to be able to be closer to the level that is going to allow us to be able to record and retain some performance fees. This is what I will tell you right now. Of course, the last days, as you can easily imagine, we look at this number very closely, let's imagine we are going to have a couple of good weeks in financial markets in which spreads are going to decrease, interest rates are going down, of course, my precedent quote has to be reconsidered. But remain prudent, we remain humble, and we consider that the biggest part of the performance fee is already in our pocket, is already in our numbers, and we do not expect major contribution for the end of this 2026.
I don't know if Marco, Gianmaria, or Enrico, you have something to add on that? Okay.
Thank you, Elena, for your questions. We now have a question in the chat from Gianluca Ferrari. He actually has three questions, so I will read them out. His first question is, "Can we have more details on the efficiency initiatives on other revenues and G&A expenses? Can we have some examples?" His second question is, "What's the mix of the EUR 660 million retail inflows in 3Q, target maturity, equity, fixed income funds?" And his last question is, "Any guidance for performance fees at year-end? Thank you.
Okay. I will answer question number 3, because I've already answered to Elena, and I will hand it over for question one on general expenses and question two, general expenses, maybe Marco, I appreciate if you could give a contribution, maybe and ask Gianmaria for question number 2.
Marco Pogliani, Group CFO. Thank you, Saverio. Regarding efficiencies on general expenses, we did some job on efficiencies on our main outsourcers. The decrease in general expenses is something we can say it's going to be recorded even in the next months and in the next year. So, these efficiencies are something that we are going to record even next year. Regarding the mix of the net flows of the quarter, I think we can have a closer look at the number and give you the answer to Luca after the call.
Okay. Thank you, Marco.
Thank you. Currently, we do not have any questions queued, so we will wait just a few moments to give everyone the opportunity to ask a question. Please remember that you can raise your hand. You can also write your question in the chat, or if you are dialing in, it is star nine on your keypad. Thank you. As there are no further questions, I will now give the word back to the speakers for any final comments before bringing this presentation to a close. Thank you.
Oh, thank you. No final comments, just a final thank you for those who chose to attend. Our next appointment will be at some point in February, probably 2027, for the full-year results, and I am looking forward to speaking to you on that occasion. Again, thank you and have a nice day.
Thank you, everyone. This presentation will now come to a close.