Good morning, everyone. On behalf of Generali's management team, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our Investor Day. Today, we have a busy agenda which starts with a strategic update from our Group CEO, Philippe Donnet. Our Chief Transformation Officer, Bruno Scaroni, will then present our plan to scale up digital and technology. After that, the Chief Marketing and Customer Officer, Isabelle Conner, will present how we will go further in our lifetime partner customer journey. After a 30-minute break, our Chief Insurance and Investment Officer, Sandro Panizza, will present our Life in Force management initiatives. Our Group CFO, Cristiano Borean, will take you through the financials underpinning the new strategy. You will then have the opportunity to ask questions, either via phone or through the webcast.
Before handing over to Philippe, I would like to show you a short video that introduce you to our new strategy. Thank you very much.
We at Generali want to enable people to shape a safer future. To do this, we will be now more than ever lifetime partner to our customers. Building on our strengths and looking to the future, we will champion sustainability to become the originator of our strategy with a greater contribution to the green and just transition. As the leading insurer and integrated asset manager in Europe with undisputed financial solidity and as a recognized data-driven innovator, our mission has already begun. For our customers, we are trusted advisors offering personalized solutions that fit what people really need. We know how to do it. Because before being a community, before being clients, and even before being a partner, before anything else, we are people. As people, as Generali, now more than ever, we want a safer world.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our 2021 Investor Day. It's great to have the opportunity to present to you all today. It's been another turbulent year, but I am pleased to say Generali has once again navigated it extremely well. I look forward to the next opportunity to meet you in person, hopefully over the coming weeks and months. As a leading global insurer and asset manager, digital communications like this have been key to how we interact with and support our customers around the world. Our investments in this area have paid dividends throughout the pandemic. I'm therefore pleased to share our vision to progress even further in the next three-year strategic cycle. In 2021, Generali celebrated its 190th anniversary. Our unique heritage has always allowed us to address today's challenges and guide the future of our communities.
We are entering an important new chapter for our group and have a clear vision of Generali as we get closer to our 200th anniversary. Today, we are proud to present our new strategic plan, which we have called Lifetime Partner 24: Driving Growth. Lifetime Partner, because of our total commitment to our customer relationships. 24 covers the plan duration, the next three years to take us through to the end of 2024. It also references our 24 hours a day, seven days a week focus on our customers. Driving Growth captures our commitment to sustainable growth. As with our Generali 2021 plan, sustainable growth is one of our key targets. Our new plan will see us strengthen our leadership in Europe and our foothold in fast-growing markets. Continuing to develop our asset management business will be central to this.
This will help us grow our third-party proposition while also benefiting our own insurance activities. We will achieve this growth while maintaining our unmatched financial strength, driven by the continued diversification of our earnings base and robust capital management. Sustainability is now fully embedded into our business, and Generali is widely recognized as a sustainability champion. Our new plan will go even further, both in terms of our targets and our contribution. The bedrock of our new plan is our Lifetime Partner commitment. We want to get closer to our customers, provide personalized solutions and advice, and deliver a best-in-class customer experience. We will build on the digital transformation we started under Generali 2021 to improve efficiency and establish Generali as a data-driven innovator. As a team, we have delivered on the strategic priorities and targets set when I became Group CEO in 2016.
We have strengthened the balance sheet, refocused the business, and improved our operating performance. From 2016- 2018, we executed a successful industrial turnaround. We reshaped our life guarantees, rationalized our geographic footprint, and developed our first asset management strategy. The launch of Generali 2021 in 2018 saw us focus on optimization. We wanted to leverage the group's emerging strength to accelerate the growth. We improved our top line, increased earnings diversification, and our market leading technical margins. We optimized our financial structure and reinforced our capital position, even with the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19. We created further value through M&A, deploying over EUR 3 billion. This includes the successful acquisition of Cattolica to consolidate our leadership in Italy. Our asset management business now makes a meaningful contribution to the group results.
As we reach the end of Generali 2021 cycle, I can confirm that we have met all our key financial targets. 6%-8% compound annual earnings per share growth, EUR 4.5 billion-EUR 5 billion in cumulative dividends, and an average return on equity above 11.5%, excluding the impact of COVID-19 in 2020. Generali today has strong foundation and a track record of delivering best-in-class shareholder returns. Our balance sheet is stronger. We have lower financial debt, much lower interest expense, and a stronger solvency ratio. Our earnings have diversified, thanks to significant growth in technical profits and asset management earnings. Our profitable growth has resulted in higher distributions with cumulative dividends of EUR 8.2 billion since 2016.
Since I first presented to you at our Investor Day in 2016, Generali has achieved a total shareholder return of one hundred and eleven percent. Today, I am pleased to also announce that thanks to the successful execution of our 2021 plan, Generali will carry out a share buyback for the first time in over 15 years, further boosting shareholder returns by EUR 500 million. We are proud of these achievements, and I want to thank all of Generali's 72,000 colleagues and 165,000 agents for their hard work over the past six years. We're excited about our next chapter and the opportunity to build on these strong foundations to achieve further growth. We believe the true value of a company is derived from its relationship with its customers.
During Generali 2021, we made great steps forward in terms of providing a best-in-class customer experience, and our efforts have paid off. As this slide shows, we have made incredible progress with our Relationship Net Promoter Scores, a widely used measure of customer sentiment. Three years ago, we set ourselves the target of being the number one for Relationship Net Promoter Score on a combined basis in the 20 countries where we have a retail presence. Our score has improved faster than any of our peers, and I'm pleased to announce today we have hit our target and just become the number one player by this metric. Our focus on combining simplicity and innovation with empathy and care along the entire customer journey has helped to differentiate Generali from its peers.
This strategy also delivers strong business results with a material increase in new customers and gross written premiums, as well as an improvement in customer retention. Our lifetime partner commitment is just as important in our new plan. We will continue to put our customers in the heart of everything we do. Isabelle Conner, our Group Chief Marketing and Customer Officer, will share more on this later today. I have talked before about the core conviction that serve as the foundation of our long-term vision. Many of these have been reinforced by the pandemic. Governments and institutions across Europe are deploying unprecedented levels of investment to drive a sustainable economic recovery. Generali has a vital role to play through our leadership position in these markets. Persistently lower investment yields require a distinctive investment approach.
This is provided by our well-established in-house asset management business. The pandemic has changed customer expectation, creating the need for advice, not just products. Our network of 165,000 agents are now digitally empowered and meet this need every day for millions of clients. Socioeconomic changes are important too. Society is waking up to the needs of an aging population. Our healthcare ecosystem covers wellness, services, and assistance, and means Generali can meet these needs. As the impact of climate change creates new risk mitigation and management challenges, our best-in-class technical skills will serve us well. In short, Generali is ideally positioned and well prepared for both the opportunities and the challenges that lie ahead. Before we go into the details of our new strategy, I also wanted to reiterate the value that underpin it.
We are driven by our strong purpose to enable people to shape a safer and more sustainable future by caring for the lives and dreams. This is the common denominator for everything we do. We will continue to evolve our customer relationships in line with their changing needs and our lifetime partner pledge. Finally, we are focused on reshaping our business for the future, both in terms of adopting new technologies and investing in digital skills for our people. Lifetime Partner 24 is a growth plan with fully embedded financial targets. We will deliver robust earnings growth, targeting compound annual earnings per share growth of 6%-8%. We will increase cash generation, delivering more than EUR 8.5 billion in cumulative net Holding cash flow.
We will distribute between EUR 5.2 billion and EUR 5.6 billion of cumulative dividends over the 3-year period. This gives further visibility to our commitment to deliver attractive, predictable, and steadily growing dividends. Later today, our CFO, Cristiano Borean, will go into the details of the financials underlying these targets. Our Lifetime Partner 24 plan will also further improve our earnings profile. As you can see on the chart, we have made significant progress since 2016 in increasing the ratio of technical results in asset and wealth management performance. The benefits are very clear. Lower exposure to interest rate dynamics, particularly in this lower for longer environment, increased earnings diversification, and a greater weight of high-quality technical profits and fee income.
By 2024, we will go even further with a target of between 60% and 65% of operating result coming from technical and fee-related profits. Lifetime Partner 24 is built on three strategic pillars. First, we will deliver sustainable growth across core and emerging business lines while continuing to successfully manage costs. Second, we will enhance our earnings profile by improving the profitability of our life business, redeploying capital to new profitable growth initiatives, and by further developing our asset management business. Third, we will lead innovation, both in insurance and asset management. We will focus on data, operating efficiency, and the customer experience, scaling up our use of automation and technology, particularly in claims management. It is a plan that will deliver strong financial performance, best-in-class customer experience, and an even greater social and environmental impact. Let me take you through each of these pillars.
Increasing profitability and growing revenues from our existing activities remain the backbone of our strategic vision. We will deliver a growth trajectory that is both sustainable and profitable. There are three key levers to drive this. First, we will boost our property casualty revenue and maintain our best-in-class technical margins. This will deliver a compound annual increase of more than 4% in property casualty non-motor gross written premiums. We will do this by improving our market share in segments with significant growth potential, such as SMEs, senior care in Europe, and travel insurance in the U.S. We will also leverage our leadership in the health market to take advantage of growth opportunities. Our Group Chief Transformation Officer, Bruno Scaroni, will provide more detail on this shortly. The second lever is to grow our life capital light business, technical profits, and ESG product range.
This will deliver between EUR 2.3 billion and EUR 2.5 billion of new business value by year-end 2024. This will be achieved by continuing to invest in our unit-linked business while further internalizing margins. Growth will continue to be supported by effective cost management in our established insurance markets. We will focus additional investments on Asian growth markets and on fee-based businesses like Europ Assistance. We will also continue to develop our distribution capabilities in the asset management space. In our core European insurance market, our expense reduction targets will fully offset expected inflation, leading to flat expenses overall. The second pillar is about enhancing our earnings profile. Later this morning, our Group Chief Insurance and Investment Officer, Sandro Panizza, will take you through our comprehensive insurance optimization efforts. This will further reduce the capital intensity of our life business and improve our operating result.
We will also enhance our strategic asset allocation to improve returns, thanks to our investment capabilities in the real asset space and the further integration of ESG criteria. With enhanced management, we are aiming for a reduction of up to EUR 1.5 billion in our Solvency Capital Requirements. This will result in improved capital productivity and a further reduction in market sensitivity. Capital redeployment is another important lever. After dividends and our investment in internal growth initiatives, we will be able to deploy EUR 2.5 billion-EUR 3 billion of cumulative free cash flow. I will provide more detail on this shortly. We will further develop our third-party proposition in the asset management business, targeting incremental revenues of more than EUR 100 million from third-party clients. I will also come back to this in a few minutes.
The third strategic pillar of this plan is to lead innovation. Innovation is essential to the continued evolution of our business. First, we will increase customer value by scaling our digitally enabled advisory model. We will establish a seamless omni-channel distribution approach and grow our presence in the European direct business market. This will allow us to maintain our leadership position within our peer groups in terms of relationship Net Promoter Score. Isabelle will go into more detail on this. Building on strong foundations laid during January 2021, we will go further to improve our technical leadership, add new value-added services to our customers, and support future growth thanks to our advanced digital ecosystems. We will invest EUR 1.1 billion in digital initiatives over the course of the plan.
These investments in areas like automation and artificial intelligence will deliver additional operation efficiency to our core processes, resulting in at least a 2.5 percentage point improvement in our cost-to-income ratio. Bruno will share all of these exciting initiatives shortly. Let's take a closer look at asset management now, an important contributor to our business and a key component of our strategy. Over the next three years, we will continue to develop our franchise. We will expand our real asset capabilities, capitalizing on the strong track record of Generali Real Estate and Generali Global Infrastructure. This will allow us to optimize our general account and better attract third-party clients, expanding our recurring and high-margin fee business. I have talked before about our desire to further integrate our life and asset management businesses, and this is still a priority today.
By broadening our investment capabilities, we will also expand our product offering. This will support our unit-linked strategy and further develop our third-party client base. Another important element is the expansion of our distribution network to drive additional third-party growth. We will maximize the reach of our multi-boutique platform well beyond our core European markets, diversifying profit sources with new markets and new channels. We will continue to integrate ESG criteria into our investments in line with our commitment to sustainability and our customers' expectations. Under Lifetime Partner 24, we expect to generate at least EUR 8.5 billion of available free cash flow.
After allowing for cumulative dividends of between EUR 5.2 billion and EUR 5.6 billion and EUR 500 million to EUR 700 million for internal growth initiatives, Generali will have EUR 2.5 billion to EUR 3 billion of free cash flow available to be redeployed. We are confident that this strikes the right balance between investing in our growth and distributing an attractive, sustainable, and steadily growing dividend to our shareholders. From a strategic perspective, we will target activities that drive earnings diversification and increase our market leadership while minimizing execution risk. From a financial perspective, we will maintain our highly disciplined approach. We will seek out opportunities that generate value and have an optimized risk return profile. In insurance, our focus is on the consolidation of our leadership in Europe, as well as on achieving leadership in selected growth markets, especially in Asia.
We will also look to further improve earnings diversification by investing in underwriting risk and fee businesses. As for asset management, we have two main priorities. First, we want to expand our product and distribution capabilities. Second, we will build on our scale to accelerate non-captive growth. As you have seen, we are very disciplined in how we assess M&A in terms of strategic, financial, and cultural fit. Our objective is to maximize long-term value creation for the shareholders and pursue the best possible mix between capital redeployment and capital return based on the opportunities available. Buybacks are therefore part of the capital deployment framework. The successful completion of our tender offer for Cattolica last month is another example of the group's disciplined approach to M&A. This transaction strengthened Generali's leadership in the Italian insurance market and our position among the largest European insurance groups.
In particular, this transaction makes us the leader in the very profitable Italian property casualty segment. Looking ahead, our focus will be, first, to improve and expand the Cattolica product range, and increase productivity. Second, we will optimize combined operations with a strong digital component in terms of process automation and IT integration. We estimate run rate pre-tax synergies of more than EUR 80 million per year to create further value. Our Lifetime Partner 24 plan fully integrates ambitious sustainability commitments. We will continue to play our part in building a more resilient and fair society. We remain as committed as ever to support the just transition for a future with net zero greenhouse gas emissions, building on our achievements over the past six years.
Generali is one of the eight founding members of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance and a member of the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance. We are fully committed to making our investment and insurance portfolios carbon neutral by 2050. From an investment standpoint, we will complete the integration of ESG criteria into the direct investment of our Generali portfolio by 2024 and reduce its carbon footprint by 25%. While on the insurance side, we will grow sustainable products gross written premiums by 5%-7% a year by the end of 2024. We will go further in helping small and medium-sized enterprises adopt sustainable business practices through our SME EnterPRIZE project. I also want to mention the important work of the Human Safety Net, Generali's flagship social initiative focused on unlocking the potential of people living in vulnerable conditions.
Generali's ongoing sustainable transformation is based on our people making the right decision, and we, as a responsible employer, want to promote and encourage this behavior. We will continue to invest in skills development and engagement to successfully deliver the new plan and foster a sustainable workplace. We are building an environment in which people from all backgrounds and cultures feel included and valued, an environment where they can thrive and be supported by fair processes and equal opportunities. We aim to improve our gender ratio at the top of the pyramid, having women in 40% of leadership positions by 2024 and committing to a zero equal pay gap.
Our employees are a key element of Generali's digital transformation, and we will continue our ongoing commitment to building digital and strategic skills, leveraging on the results already achieved, aimed at upskilling at least 70% of our colleagues by 2024. Lastly, having worked primarily remotely during the pandemic, we are committed to embracing a new hybrid work model. This sustainable and balanced model will be implemented at all group entities because we believe that it can deliver important benefits for all. In conclusion, our Lifetime Partner 24 plan will drive sustainable growth, enhance our earnings profile, confirm our place as an innovative leader, and deliver ambitious financial targets. These targets include earnings per share growth, increased cash generation, and higher dividends. We have laid out a clear path to 2024 that builds on our strong track record of execution.
The path of operational and financial improvement enabled by our Lifetime Partner commitment as well as our digital and sustainability leadership. As with our previous plan, we will achieve this thanks to the efforts of our experienced and focused management team. Thank you very much for your attention. I now pass the floor to Bruno and look forward to speaking to you again later in the day, and then answering any question you may have. Thank you again.
Thank you, Philippe, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'm going to take you through Generali's technology and digital scale-up, which builds on the foundations already established in Generali 2021. I will outline what has been achieved during the last strategic cycle, our key priorities for the 2024 plan, and the expected business impact of these initiatives. Since we launched Generali 2021 in 2018, we have invested EUR 1 billion in strategic initiatives. Around 70% of this was focused on technology. Our investments had a big impact on our business and were vital to the execution of our lifetime partner strategy. We equipped our agents with the right digital tools to contribute to strong top-line annual growth, even in a lockdown environment, 4% in Life and 3% in P&C.
Our investments also contributed to the Group's EUR 300 million reduction in costs for Insurance Europe, overachieving the target set in 2018. Our digital transformation is improving our customer relationships, as demonstrated by our number one position in terms of relationship NPS, as Philippe already shared. In essence, we have managed through the pandemic to grow our top line, reduce our costs while increasing our customer satisfaction in a time where technology was stress-tested by our colleagues and our customers. To continue on this path, we have identified the Generali way, a pragmatic and coordinated approach based on five principles. Principles which will guide us also in the years ahead. One, we'll capitalize on our group scale and expertise, leveling up all business units, thanks to our group solutions, shared platforms, and our hub and spoke approach to innovation.
Two, we will focus on cost efficiency and improved services, prioritizing technologies that reduce bureaucracy and enhance interactions with customers and distributors. Three, we will unleash the power of data. Insurance is the original data-driven industry, and we are a front runner in both Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. Fourth, security. Capitalizing on the IT landscape evolution like cloud technology is only feasible if we maintain the highest levels of security and protect our customers' data. Five, we must release Generali's innovation potential in order to build future-ready business models with new features delivered by new distribution channels. This pragmatic approach is guided by both our lifetime partner customer model and our commitment to create shareholder value. We'll deliver further transformation, building on the strong foundations laid during Generali 2021.
This slide shows the three core elements of our value chain: back-end, operations, and customer and distribution, with innovation and security as vertical stacks that are embedded at every level. For the back-end, we have streamlined IT infrastructure, reduced complexity, and improved our data management capabilities. Our focus is now on scaling shared platforms and generating even more efficiencies. For our operations, automation and adoption of new technologies will bring huge benefits. This means lowest costs and improved productivity and profitability. On the customer and distribution front end, we have empowered our agents with digital tools. In our new plan, we will continue to work to grow customer value while building platforms that enhance our offer through access to new channels. Let me take you through some of these initiatives in more detail. Let's start with the back end.
During the last plan, we streamlined our group IT infrastructure, which has been a major undertaking. In terms of results, we kept upgrading our estate to a new hyperconverged infrastructure and moving forward our target data centers landscape from 6- 2. Furthermore, we have consolidated 70 different IT vendors into just one. Most importantly, we created a dedicated business unit that incorporates our entire group IT infrastructure with Accenture as our technology partner. This unit now delivers infrastructure solutions and applications to our local entities, and the benefits are significant. We can pool skills such as cybersecurity expertise to secure our IT landscape and enhance service levels. Central governance is also allowing us to accelerate our technology transition, guiding the shift to cloud.
We'll complete the group consolidation of data centers from 6- 2 locations, serving all European entities with further scale benefits. By 2024, through these levers, we will achieve EUR 100 million of cumulative growth savings. As then we've done with Generali 2021, our ambition will be to go well beyond this target. Another objective of this new entity is the upgrade of our IT platforms across all business units. Our Insurance in a Box model allows our business units to move from a scattered landscape with many legacy local systems to a state-of-the-art, multifunctional, and scalable platform. Delivered across businesses and markets, this initiative represents an ambitious endeavor in our industry. We have selected Sapiens, a specialist insurance provider, to achieve this ambitious plan through their software. Insurance in a Box gives us a complete suite of backend systems to manage both P&C and life portfolios.
This covers everything from policy administration to claims, reducing business and IT complexity. Argentina and Brazil have already started the transition process. Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland are in the pipeline to deploy our Insurance in a Box solution in 2022. We expect this first wave of the program to be completed by the end of 2024. By switching off legacy local insurance systems, we expect to deliver 30% run rate savings for each business unit. Let's move to operations now. Generali transformation has already reduced costs, increased accuracy in our processes, and enabled our people to prioritize higher value-added activities. This journey began in 2019 with the creation of a group center of excellence for automation that leverages Generali Italia's experience. So far, we have implemented more than 300 applications and automated over 1,000 processes.
Our partnership with UiPath, a leading robotic process automation company, in which we are an early investor, has been a key driver of this. On a run rate basis, this has already delivered EUR 80 million of gross savings. Over the next three years, we will deliver the widespread adoption of these technologies, which are already active in almost 20 markets. By maximizing automation on a group scale, we can deliver further run rate savings of at least EUR 125 million by the end of the new plan. This includes technologies such as optical character recognition and natural language processing tools. A good example is Smart Gallery, a group asset we've been testing in 14 markets. It uses image analytics to speed up claims assessment, as well as improved productivity, customer service, and fraud detection.
Finally, digital assistants, such as chatbots or voice bots deployed by platforms like WhatsApp, are also increasing customer access to support while reducing costs. Under Generali 2021, we initiated a long-term data strategy. Our data transformation has already delivered tangible benefits, a run rate improvement in our operating result of EUR 40 million. This is thanks to the implementation of 180 data initiatives across all businesses, and these initiatives are orchestrated by a central platform for data science powered by the exceptional effort of our 250 analytics professionals. In parallel, we have cemented our leadership position in IoT, thanks to the creation of jeniot, our universal platform for connected insurance.
The combination of IoT, 5G, and artificial intelligence will radically change the way insurance is provided to customers, as the continuous exchange of data flows feeds into algorithms to detect, assess, and manage risk on a real-time basis. In the next strategic cycle, we will unleash the power of data to deliver further improvement in our operational results. At EUR 110 million, this is roughly three times the improvement under Generali 2021. Critically, we will manage data in a consistent and conscious way according to our new data manifesto principles, which ensure our efforts generate value for us and for the customer. The benefits are significant, from improved pricing sophistication based on credit and behavioral data to enhanced underwriting skills, thanks to satellite imagery and AI-based risk reports, not to mention data-driven value-added services for customers.
Our lifetime partner advisory model is a key driver of improved customer experience and greater agent productivity. Isabelle will say much more on this, but let me highlight a few key points from a technology point of view. This model now incorporates an effective web and social strategy to increase the digital visibility of over 165,000 agents, a lead management program to nurture current and future relationships, a customer mobile and web hub providing self-service tools to our customers, an advisory tool to support sales processes, and a digital desk tool to support remote customer engagement. CRM tools also play a key role in how we manage customer relationships in an omni-channel environment to drive profitable growth. We now have 36 businesses with CRM capabilities in place, and our Salesforce-based CRM solution is already delivering tangible benefits also to distributors.
With more than 7,000 agents live across various markets in Europe and poised to triple in 2022 with the addition of Germany and other markets. Furthermore, the same solution is shared in direct operations like Genertel and in B2B2C specialty business, enabling greater convergence in our customer data management capabilities. Accelerating group-wide adoption of these digital tools and capabilities will be key to deliver our lifetime partner promise, and will contribute to EUR 165 million run rate increase in our group operating result by 2024. Our mobility platform has an important role to play in our future growth. The rapid development of digital tools and telematics gives us an opportunity to create service-driven ecosystems. This we will build under three key assets. The first is jeniot, our pan-European IoT platform.
Jeniot currently provides telematic solutions to 1.2 million connected customers in six countries. This includes pay how you drive tariffs, driving styles analysis, and distraction detection. We also provide parametric insurance that offer pre-specified payouts based on trigger events. One example is an automatic refund services for Telepass customers in Italy that reimburses toll charges in case of serious delays due to accident. The second is our Vitality partnership. This allows us to encourage preventive behaviors and reward safe driving styles. The third asset is Europ Assistance, already present across the globe. It provides our customers with comprehensive roadside assistance, all accessible through digital channels. Our goal is to attract more customers through retail channels and through our partnerships with mobility operators.
These include leading global mobility players like Stellantis and Avis, one of the largest car hire companies in the world, for a total premiums generation of EUR half a billion. Philippe said earlier, we also have an opportunity to leverage on our recognized leadership in health. This means going beyond the traditional medical reimbursement plans, and during July 2021, we further developed our health assets, giving us strong foundations to capture growth as part of the new plan. Today, health-related businesses at Generali account for EUR 6 billion of premiums in both P&C and life. We think this is just a starting point. Everything begins with wellness and prevention. Rewarding healthy behavior is vital to combating the key drivers of major diseases. Thanks to Generali Vitality, we now offer this to a potential customer base of 300 million people.
As a matter of fact, Generali holds the right for Vitality in Europe, and Generali Vitality has been successfully deployed in our Generali countries like Germany, France, Austria, Spain, and Italy. Czech Republic and Poland will follow in the coming month. The next priority is making healthcare more accessible when customers need it most. We have a comprehensive range of services, including telemedicine, home care, and digital symptoms checkers. These are being offered by MyClinic, the digital platform of Europ Assistance, which is now available in nine markets. We're also facilitating access to care, reducing time and costs, thanks to the integrated service platforms like Welion in Italy and the new early detection tools, such as Generali VitalSigns&Care in Germany. We're also investing in senior care to offer value-added services.
This includes PROSeniors in France, a home caregiving specialist that will be enhanced by Europ Assistance capabilities in telemedicine and medical services. Convivit in Italy, a new venture to develop an inclusive and connected housing model for self-sufficient over 65s. These investments also demonstrate how vertical integrations within the value chain can improve our offer in a cost-efficient way to the benefit of Generali and our customers. Digital insurance distribution is another key growth area. We know customers now have greater confidence in remote and digital interactions. It is also an area of disruption where new players are entering the marketplace. Generali already has 13 digital operations in different markets. We're now ready to grasp new opportunities by tapping into nontraditional distribution networks, such as direct business, bancassurance, B2B2C, and embedded insurance marketplaces.
As part of the new plan, we will launch a digital attacker that capitalizes on our best-in-class group capabilities from our existing direct channel leaders. This will incorporate our after-sales lifetime partner model to improve efficiency and will drive a seamless customer interaction geared towards the next generation of customers. As a first step, we will expand our direct business by scaling up the new platform in France and Poland. We'll then progressively integrate our existing direct operations in Italy and Germany, as well as our other key direct markets. At the same time, we'll tap into the fast-growing embedded insurance market by converging B2B2C and bancassurance business models towards the new digital platform. Now, innovation is another important engine for growth. As I said at the start, this is about being both smart and pragmatic, and about capitalizing new opportunities in a rapidly changing insurance landscape.
In 2020, we launched the Generali Innovation Fund, which invest in both internal ideas as well as in partnerships with startups. So far, we have backed more than 100 ideas generated by our employees and have 15 live projects in scale-up mode. We also use corporate start-up collaboration studios where innovation professionals can prototype new products and business models with start-ups which can then feed into our business units. This pragmatic approach has allowed us to scout more than 200 start-ups, leading to new partnerships and equity investments. One example is YOLO, an Italian InsurTech where we recently acquired a stake. This is an opportunity for us to expand our Italian B2B2C business with telcos and utilities. Another example is Descartes Underwriting, a weather risk modeling and data-driven risk transfer specialist supporting our parametric offering across business lines.
We have also recently launched a partnership with Accenture and Vodafone to offer cyber risk solutions aimed at SME customers. All these initiatives are creating value for Generali and also generating industry recognition, such as the prestigious Efma Global Innovator Award in 2021. In the next cycle, we will push our internal innovation even further, dedicating EUR 30 million to fund new projects and scale up partnerships internally. We're also creating a new EUR 250 million venture fund for InsurTech investments to scout the best opportunities in the market, as we've done in the past with seed investments in promising companies like UiPath, Robinhood, and N26.
Generali 2021 laid the foundations for Generali's transformation, and we're now ready to take this to the next level by scaling up digital and technology with a clear vision on where Generali will be in 2024. We will raise the bar on service levels and expand our interactions with customers. This will enable an even stronger lifetime partner commitment measured by a best-in-class RNPS. We'll invest EUR 1.1 billion in digital transformation initiatives, 60% more than the previous plan, and front load it in the strategic cycle to drive maximum impact. This will allow us to further improve our business model across the board and create data-driven opportunities to deliver profitable growth. We'll increase both efficiency and productivity, and we will do this by reducing complexity and leveraging on our group scale as well as on all available technologies and digital capabilities.
I will now hand the word over to Isabelle, and I thank you very much.
Thank you, Bruno, and good morning, everyone. It's an absolute privilege to be with you. Three years ago, we set out to become Lifetime Partner to our customers. Our ambition was to deepen relationships with existing clients, attract new customers, and become the first-choice brand. As Philippe said, our Lifetime Partner strategy delivered strong results. Let me share some key numbers starting with RNPS. In 2018, we ranked number four among our peers. We set ourselves the goal to become number one, and we achieved it. We had the fastest growth among our peers and increased our score by 14 points. We now have 6 million more promoters and 1 million fewer detractors compared to three years ago.
We did this by offering digital tools to customers, enriching products with services, simplifying our documents, enabling our agents to sell remotely, and injecting our human touch throughout the customer experience. Our lifetime partner focus has also delivered increased customer retention, policy density, brand preference, and 6 million more clients. While we are very pleased with these results, we will go further to strengthen our customer relationships and grow their value to Generali. Our goal for the new plan is to become our customers' primary insurer. This means that Generali covers at least two insurance needs and becomes the preferred partner for future purchases. Currently, 35% of our clients have at least two Generali products. Our research across 10 markets tells us that 61% of single-product customers are willing to consolidate their insurance with one provider.
There is a massive opportunity to grow by focusing on our existing customers. Let's look at what needs to happen to become a trusted lifetime partner to many more Generali clients. The first step is to establish a seamless omni-channel relationship between our customers, Generali, and our advisors. Shared customer and data ownership with our advisors means we can better support our customers with services, solutions, and advice. This will create greater customer value and maximize productivity. Bruno mentioned the group-wide improvements to our digital platforms and the use of data. By automating and digitizing administrative tasks, our advisors can focus on what they do best, deepening relationships with customers. It all starts with understanding clearly what customers expect. We've all experienced incredible changes in recent years, not just due to Covid, but everything from technology to climate change. It's no wonder that customer needs and expectations are also changing.
In this context, it's not enough to just be better than our peers. Customer expectations are being shaped by their interactions with brands across all sectors and services. Over the past three years, we asked 300,000 consumers what they expect from their insurance company. Three priorities emerged. 73% of consumers want effortless and caring interactions. Effortless in terms of speed, accessibility and clarity. Caring in terms of the human support, especially for more complex or sensitive issues. Two-thirds of consumers want greater personalization, while 81% expect relationship-based advice, not just a transaction. These expectations form the basis of our three customer promises for Lifetime Partner 24. Let's start with effortless and caring experiences. Using the feedback received from 5.5 million customers, we have created a genuine customer-centric culture and implemented thousands of actions to improve customer experience.
Lifetime Partner 24 will take us to the next level. This means driving operational efficiency and minimizing customer effort across all processes. We will increase speed and efficiency by using smart automation to offer instant claims settlement. Conversational channels like WhatsApp will boost real-time engagement, while new 24/7 self-service solutions will drive accessibility and first-time right performance. Of course, we'll continue to offer human support for clients with complex matters. By the end of the plan, over 50% of our customers will use our digital tools, and first contact resolution will increase to almost 80%. These efforts also have a meaningful, direct impact on costs. When the Czech Republic focused on first contact resolution, incoming calls fell by 20%, and in Italy, the average handling time for a health claim decreased by 80%. Our digital assets also play an important role in reducing customer effort.
Our mobile and web hub, which offers customers 30 self-service features, is a key enabler of our new relationship model. We have made great progress in rolling it out at scale across our markets. Thanks to our centralized development efforts, we have achieved big savings. The last four markets we launched were able to take 90% of the digital assets they needed from our global library. Customer adoption is increasing across all markets, and countries like France are leading the way with around half of all customers using the service. Again, this is not just about customer experience. Increased digital interactions result in cost efficiencies for Generali. In France and Austria, 55% of active customers self-serve, and a quarter use the hub to open claims online. Over the next three years, we will offer even more self-service solutions to reduce customer effort and costs for Generali.
Let's now move to our second promise, personalized value propositions. We have already strengthened our offer, moving from just selling products to providing solutions. With these solid foundations, we will go further in our next cycle by offering more personalized value propositions. This begins with a deep understanding of our customers' needs, incorporating insights into our products and services. The result is personalized pricing, coverage, and communications. We will also offer a tailored ecosystem of services where our customers will be able to choose the services most relevant to them. Today, we have 450 services covering information, prevention, protection, and assistance. We will offer dedicated propositions to our highest value customers. This is not about discounts, but it's about ensuring we reward and retain our most profitable customers. Our research confirms that over half of our clients are willing to pay for additional services.
By 2024, 85% of our products will be enriched with value-added services, and we will monitor service usage closely. Let's see how personalization works in practice. Generali Italia's Immagina Adesso is an innovative proposition covering multiple needs in a single policy. The platform allows our advisors to personalize coverage and services via an interactive and collaborative tool. Let's take a look at Immagina in action. It starts with understanding the customer's profile based on their age, family status, profession, et cetera. The agent and the customer jointly evaluate needs and areas of interest, for example, home, family, pets. Based on that, the tool recommends a series of tailored propositions which can be further personalized. The solution is real time, and the policy is issued immediately with one click. Early results are very positive. On average, customers with this solution hold two products with us.
Four out of 10 are new Generali customers. Thanks to the inclusion of a wide range of extra services, Immagina is delivering a 10% increase in average home insurance premiums and a 42% increase for health. 100% of home modules now include repair and assistance services. In the next three years, our goal is to leverage Generali Italia's great work across the group. Let's look at our third promise, what we call phygital advice, a combination of digital and in-person interactions with the advisor. We use this term because we know that customers wanna liaise with us online as easily as they do in person. Our distribution partners delivered a solid top-line performance of EUR 70 billion in GWP, even through the pandemic.
This is a strong foundation to turn our 165,000 agents into advisors to help them deepen their relationships with existing clients. We are giving them new digital advisory tools to better understand customers' needs and provide more personalized solutions. Advisory training will help agents to proactively reach out to customers and provide advice beyond the sale. This is key to increase the number of multiproduct customers. By using digital tools and data to connect with all customers across all channels, we can reach more than 70% of our customers each year. Ongoing contact and advice deliver meaningful business impact. Italy and Austria pioneered digital advice and registered a 40% increase in relationship NPS with the customers they contacted. This resulted in a 20% increase in premiums. Let's see how phygital advice adds value to customers and Generali.
The agent journey traditionally ends after the sale. Today, our goal is to add customer value at every step, and to generate new business throughout the entire life cycle. It starts with being where the customer often is when considering making a purchase: online. In recent years, we helped our agents to extend their reach online and to build their brand on web and social channels. This has generated 38% more leads. Thanks to digital tools, these leads are quickly followed up, maximizing conversion to new clients. As Bruno said, an effective CRM is essential. This allows our agents to select and segment customers, collect and store quality data. Perform needs and risk analysis and drive personalized sales conversations. These new capabilities are delivering real business results. Austria is a terrific example. Thanks to their needs and risk assessment tool, they increased multi-product customers by 16%.
Alleanza in Italy has driven a 63% increase in the customer information available to our agents to drive the sales process. This advisory journey also creates new post-sales relationship opportunities. Annual financial checkups are delivering a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction. They give us access to up-to-date customer knowledge and generate new business opportunities. In summary, the combination of our new relationship model with our Lifetime Partner 24 promises and the continued leveraging of technology, data, and cultural transformation will drive business growth and reduce operational costs. The key measure will be the percentage of customers with two or more products. Our goal is to increase multi-product customers from 35%- 45% by year-end 2024. Additionally, our Lifetime Partner strategy will help us continue to champion our leadership role in RNPS. Thank you for your attention. Giulia, back to you.
Thank you. I hope you enjoyed the first session. We are now gonna take a break. We will be back at quarter to two for the second part and the Q&A session. Thank you very much. See you later.
Welcome back, and good morning, everybody. Generali has been a first mover in optimizing and improving the long-term sustainability of its life business. In fact, we initiated this journey a few years ago, even before the external conditions made it unavoidable. Since then, we have consistently delivered on our promises, but also learned and adjusted our program where necessary. We are happy with the result achieved so far. Nevertheless, we are aware that the life business model is changing, and market conditions are more challenging than ever. For this reason, we are fully committed to broadening our approach in order to identify new ways to generate value. We are confident that this new phase will be successful, as it is rooted in the experience and competence we have built over many years. I would like to start with an overview of our journey so far.
From 2016, Generali's priority has been to turn around and optimize the profile of its life business with a 360-degree approach. This has been achieved through, firstly, a restructuring of existing business by disposing of non-profitable risky portfolios. Secondly, a rebalancing of new business mix with a reduction and restructuring of traditional products in favor of linked and protection. All this initiative have allowed the group to reduce its exposure to interest rate risk, even before the low-for-long scenario made it necessary. Now is a good time to review where we are and the result we have achieved. The disposal of non-profitable portfolios amounting to EUR 52 billion of reserves has reduced the group exposure to traditional business with high guarantees. In particular, Generali has closed the landmark transaction of Generali Leben and other important deals in Netherlands, Belgium, and U.K.
As the German transaction shows, we know how to transform our model in a country while retaining a strong value generation with our distribution and asset management. This move has produced a strengthening of our capital position with a reduction of SCR of EUR 1.2 billion. Even more importantly, we have avoided the cost of additional capital that would have otherwise been required in the current interest rate scenario. At the same time, this transaction increased significantly our cash and capital fungibility. Looking at the new business, we have further shifted production towards protection and unit-linked. We expect to reach a share of around 60% at the end of 2021 in terms of present value of new business premiums, with an increase of around eight percentage points compared to 2018.
This result has been achieved by reducing the sales of pure traditional savings products while increasing hybrid products that combine traditional solutions with the potential upside of unit-linked. At the same time, we have boosted the protection business through the use of modular products and the use of riders that complement our offering. Moreover, today, the majority of our savings new business can be considered capital light. This has been achieved through the combination of two actions. First, we started selling savings without guarantees. This type of new business that didn't really exist before represents more than 35% of our savings new production today. We were among the first in Italy to sell life products with guarantee only in case of death. Second, we have reduced guarantees where they weren't close to or below 0%, as for instance in Germany.
At group level, the average guarantee on guaranteed-linked savings new business premium is already low and below 5 bps. When we consider the entire portfolio, not just the new business, there are three factors that have been fundamental to protect profitability. First, we have substantially rebalanced the portfolio, increasing the share of capital-light reserves. We expect this to reach at least 65% in 2021. Second, we have reduced the average portfolio guarantees on guaranteed-linked. [Non-English content]
[Non-English content] Life in Force business [Non-English content] September 2021. Moreover, despite adverse market conditions, thanks to management actions, change of mix and new business, the capital intensity index as a percentage of IFRS reserves has remained constant.
As a result of these two effects, higher value in force and stable capital intensity, the ratio between Life SCR and Value in Force has reduced significantly during the last three years and will improve in the future. The positive result obtained so far are proof of the effectiveness of Generali's Life strategy. As we move towards the new strategic cycle, we acknowledge the need to adopt an even more granular approach in order to further enhance our life business. It is imperative to reduce the capital intensity of life business to increase the return on capital invested. We will achieve this through a comprehensive set of actions. Number one. After optimizing the geographical footprint, we will accelerate the in-force management program using all the available levers.
Number two, the liability portfolio restructuring and the change in our liability profile will enable us to optimize the strategic asset allocation, generating higher risk-adjusted returns. Number three, in line with the previous plan, we will continue to improve the new business mix, shifting towards preferred business line, protection and unit-linked. In-force management is key to increasing future capital productivity and profitability. To achieve these results, we have set up a program at group level with a dedicated deployment of resources. Let me just name a few features of this program. Firstly, a deep dive analysis of traditional saving has allowed us to identify what needs to be done to optimize portfolios. Secondly, we will continue to perform this exercise on a regular basis to secure long-term return and improve business KPIs. Thirdly, we have established a dedicated team at group level to steer this project.
These actions will allow us to manage our in-force business more efficiently in the future. To achieve this objective, a fundamental activity will be to restructure our liabilities. This represents a starting point in unlocking the value of our portfolios. I will talk more about this shortly. On top of this, we will also carry out more traditional improvements. For instance, we have been reworking our portfolios, and we offer alternative products to our customers in the light of changing needs. A good example is the setup in Italy of a new pension plan that will incorporate existing pension products. This will reduce the level of guarantee from above 2%- 0% on existing books that amount to EUR 3.6 billion of reserves.
This action and similar ones totaling more than EUR 5.5 billion of reserves will generate an SCR capital release of more than EUR 200 million between 2021 and 2022. In France, we are offering clients the option to transform products with mandatory annuity into a lump sum while leveraging on the local regulatory framework. In this context, we will continue to optimize our administrative and operational activities. Now we come to a strategic topic, the interaction between existing and new business. For countries such as France and Italy, which have businesses structured as general account fund, we have two traditional solutions that are quite different. The first option is to have in-force a new business coexisting in the same fund. New policyholders benefit from higher portfolio yields thanks to the mutualization effect. However, the financial return of the fund is affected by the dilution caused by new inflows.
This combination is simply not efficient from a capital and profitability perspective. The other option is to isolate in-force business and create a new dedicated fund for new business, preserving return on existing portfolios. However, it could slow down the generation of new business which would not benefit from the higher yields on existing business. We believe this binary approach should be replaced by a broader, more sophisticated one. By splitting existing in-force in two components, one to be put in run-off and another one open to new business, we can generate a range of solutions that span the two opposing options. We have a sizable amount of capital light in force that could generate more value for shareholders and policyholders if managed together with the new business after the carve-out.
On the other end, the profitability of the part put in run-off is protected from the dilution effect and enables better ALM. It is among all these solutions that we look for the optimal one. The proportion of existing business to be put in run-off depends on portfolio characteristics. Each portfolio is different. This approach is something we have already been implementing in the last few months. An example is Rialto, an Italian segregated fund where EUR 16.4 billion of reserves have been split using seniority criteria. EUR 8.6 billion of reserve containing the older policies with higher guarantee has been put in run-off. The remaining EUR 7.8 billion of reserves are kept open to new business. Such a move will generate higher margin growth compared to what have happened if we had left the original portfolio totally open to new business.
Strategic asset allocation works together with portfolio restructuring. In fact, the split of the portfolio creates two liability pools, which permits a more tailor-made investment strategy. For the component in run-off, we can perform better ALM matching to reduce the volatility of financial margins, especially for the longest tail part of the reserves. Additionally, we can reduce capital requirements, optimizing the profit sharing on investment results over the life of the portfolio. For the one open to new business, we can have a more flexible asset allocation that produce higher return expectation without higher capital requirement. This is due to the low level of guarantee, new profit sharing rules, and a high loss absorption capacity by liabilities. This generates value for customers and can reduce the downside risk for the company, especially if the low rates scenario persist for some time.
Our asset allocation is well diversified and of high quality, supporting the transformation of our life business. Duration mismatch has been strongly reduced in recent years. Our credit portfolio has been highly resilient during the pandemic, with low downgrades compared to the index. A strong internal credit research and prudent credit loss limits provide us with some comfort should the credit cycle turns. Last but not least, we are progressively embedding ESG metrics in our investment policies. Private asset are becoming a core part of our asset allocation. In fact, thanks to our capital strength, we can afford a 15% allocation to private and real asset by 2024. They can provide superior risk-adjusted returns thanks to multiple features. Firstly, they generate an illiquidity premium which fits our liability profile. Secondly, they protect against inflation and ensure lower exposure to rising rates.
Lastly, for asset-based and direct corporate lending, they provide better resiliency if the credit cycle turns. This, thanks to the presence of higher collateral and tight covenants. Clearly, private asset are complex. Here, we intend to leverage synergies with our asset wealth management business unit, which has a dedicated real asset center of competence managing almost EUR 50 billion of assets. The strategy we want to follow is to match long-dated liabilities using high quality assets and, in parallel, pivot from public into private market. This increase return on capital and improves our ALM position. With new business, we will operate in full consistency with our current strategy. We will continue to manage the transition of traditional business towards capital light. A concrete example of this trend is the closure to new sales from 2022 of German pension product Riester, which presented high guarantees resulting in heavy capital requirements.
In parallel, we are accelerating the shift toward protection and unit-linked products. We expect this to reach two-thirds of the present value of new business premium in 2024. This effort will be sustained, among the rest, by a growing share of both unit-linked and protection in hybrid solution, for instance, in Italian market. Underpinning this mix transformation, there is our continuing aspiration to be the lifetime partner for our clients. Products will continue to be designed around the customer needs, which will be driven by sustainability and demographic trends. We continue to think about products dedicated to an aging population, clients with an increasing need for protection and health covers, and a growing interest in ESG investments. We have set for ourselves ambitious targets for the next three years.
First of all, we will continue to improve the quality and reduce the capital intensity of our Life portfolio, as we have done in the last few years. In addition, EUR 30 billion of reserves are already in run-off and ready to be potentially considered for disposal or reinsurance where appropriate. The next stage of our strategic plan will improve capital productivity and reduce market sensitivity with a potential release of solvency capital up to EUR 1.5 billion on top of the capital plan that will be illustrated by Cristiano. To wrap up and summarize key messages from today's presentation, through the constant and daily effort we initiated a few years ago, we have delivered tangible result to secure our leadership position. We are now ready to go to the next stage to fully leverage the competence and experience gained so far to face market challenges.
This is why we commit today to a very ambitious plan that will ensure our Life business will be profitable and sustainable for the years to come. Thank you very much for your attention. I will now hand over to Cristiano.
Thank you, Sandro, and good morning to all of you. I'm really pleased to be here with my colleagues to present to you Generali's new strategic plan. Philippe has already provided an overview of the strategic directions we are taking. Bruno has explained how we are scaling up digital, resulting in a more efficient distribution and operating machine. Our journey to an improved lifetime partner relationship with customers as a key driver for growth has already been addressed by Isabelle. Sandro showed how the Life in force optimization will act as an acceleration driver of our strategy. I will now guide you through how this will translate into the financial results and long-term sustainability of Generali. Let me start with a brief recap of our 2019-2021 results. Philippe has already commented on the achievement of the key financial targets.
I'd like to focus on the sub targets related to cash and capital, debt and expenses that were part of Generali 2021 strategy. On debt management, as already reported in November 2020, we overachieved the target on the interest expense reduction and are at the top end of the debt reduction target. On cash and capital, our remittance cycle was completed a few weeks ago. As you can see, we overachieved this target, landing at approximately EUR 10 billion of cumulative remittances for 2019- 2021. On a net holding cash flow, the expected cumulative result overachieves the target, landing at approximately EUR 8.3 billion.
This is driven by overperformance on remittances and interest expenses and by a series of tax positive effects that occurred in 2020, amounting to EUR 300 million above average in that year. Regarding the expected normalized capital generation, the approximately EUR 11 billion cumulative result is driven both by the life and non-life business, as well as by increased contribution of the financial segment and the lower holding expenses. As I will detail later, we confirm this target achievement, also excluding the positive impact on the P&C business from reduced claim frequency due to the pandemic experienced throughout 2020 and 2021. Finally, on expense reduction, last year we already overachieved the original EUR 200 million target, which was then increased to EUR 300 million. We confirm that we will achieve the new target. Let's now move to the key financial targets of the new plan, already outlined by Philippe.
I will start by commenting briefly on each target and the logic we followed in choosing them. In light of the upcoming change of IFRS accounting standards, we decided to increase the emphasis on cash-based KPIs that, in our view, will provide a simple and clear picture of the improvement of our business. We have maintained the EPS target, given the relevance that the net result has in our internal processes, and also as a bridge with the current 2019-2021 plan. The 2022-2024 plan was developed under IFRS 4 standards. However, I would like to point out that since 2019, we rely extensively on purely economic KPIs in our internal target setting, such as combined ratio best estimate and new business value, which we considered thoroughly in setting the plan.
Given the fact that IFRS 17 and nine are an economic-driven representation of the balance sheet, we therefore expect the assumptions underlying the plan to basically stand under the future principles. In the forthcoming plan, we aim not only for strong growth in earnings at 6%-8%, but also for a greater diversification and better underlying quality of earnings, thanks to lower dependency on financial markets. As per our current plan, we will normalize earnings per share for gains or losses related to disposals as well as acquisitions. For example, Cattolica is expected to post a not immaterial goodwill, but it is the positive income deriving from the consolidation of Cattolica's stake. This will be deducted together with the related restructuring charges identified so far from the 2021 starting point of the 2021-2024 EPS CAGR.
In this planning cycle, we choose a cash measure such as net holding cash flow, which should provide you with continuity in understanding the cash generation potential, independently of any change in accounting standards. Our net holding cash flow target is not only higher than the 2019-2021 plan, but as I will elaborate later, it relies much less on capital management actions, with underlying recurring remittances growing at a rate broadly in line with earnings. I remind you that since 2020, we are relying on the net holding cash flow as an element of our management's long-term incentive plan. Finally, we define the dividend target, which, as I will elaborate later, remains the priority under our capital management framework. Considering the strength of our net holding cash flow, we are able to increase the cumulated 2022-2024 target in cash view to EUR 5.2 billion-EUR 5.6 billion.
We can also reinforce our commitment toward dividends with a ratchet policy, subject of course to regulatory recommendations. Thanks to the full implementation of our capital management framework, including the completion of our internal risk model approval, and EUR 2.5 billion-EUR 3 billion discretionary available free cash flow. Let us now move to the strategic pillars underlying our plan already illustrated by my colleagues. In the following slides, I will elaborate on how they translate in our financials. First of all, I will address EPS growth. Our earnings will further improve in quality and with a greater diversification, both in terms of line of business and geography. We will rely more on technical components and the fee business and grow our business with a better operating leverage. This will translate in very strong recurring remittances, benefiting not only from higher earnings, but also from a faster cash conversion cycle.
Finally, regarding capital and cash, I will expand on our capital management framework, complementing what has already been said by Philippe. Let's start from EPS growth and the drivers of our 2021-2024 6%-8% EPS CAGR target. The growth of our insurance business remains the major contributor. This relies on multiple factors. One, a life business able to maintain its volumes growth while improving profitability, thanks to the growing contribution of the radical transformation of new business since 2016, as well as the increased weight of high margin geographies. Two, a P&C business where growth will maintain its positive momentum, especially on the more profitable non-motor segment. Three, a continuous focus on efficiency to achieve a better operating leverage while fostering growth reflected in an improvement of 2.5-3 percentage points of cost-to-income ratio.
On top of our insurance business, our asset and wealth management unit will continue to be a key driver of our growth and diversification. Philippe has already outlined the key themes of the underlying strategy. As you know, Banca Generali will have a dedicated investor day in February 2022, so I would like to focus on asset management. As I will explain later, we plan an overall revenues CAGR in excess of 7%, with contribution from both captive and third party. Finally, the last pillar includes the run rate effect of our recently completed or announced M&As, the reduction of interest expenses on our financial debt, the effect of EUR 0.5 billion buyback from the 2019, 2021 capital redeployment residual budget, and the potential further benefit from 2022, 2024 discretionary available free cash flow redeployment according to our capital management framework.
Regarding the recently completed or announced M&As, I refer to the transaction not fully consolidated at 9 months 2021, namely Cattolica, the recent deals in Malaysia, and La Médicale in France. Let me specify that for Cattolica, we have stripped out from the insurance bucket its expected standalone net result at year-end 2021, and we have included it in the capital redeployment bucket, where we are projecting the additional result compared to the 2021 baseline. On that, we expect a contribution of up to 0.5 percentage points in EPS CAGR by 2024. As I will explain later, the CAGR contribution using the 2024 prospective run rate interest expenses, that is excluding the current cost of debt maturing in 2024 and living inside the cost of the refinancing, would be 0.5 percentage points higher.
Finally, capital redeployment includes M&A, acceleration of internal growth opportunities, and capital returns to shareholders. I will elaborate on the framework later on. Two last remarks to provide you with some guidance in the modeling exercise. The tax rate is assumed in the corridor between 30 and 33 percentage points throughout the whole plan period. The 2021 normalized net result will be obtained deducting the goodwill allocated to Cattolica transaction and the related restructuring cost, both expected to be booked in fourth quarter 2021. I will now move on to explain the insurance component. Starting from P&C, our plan relies on maintaining the positive top line growth trend with a focus on non-motor, and on structurally improving our combined ratio compared to pre-COVID levels. Let me briefly comment.
Starting from top line, and in particular, the growth in the non-motor segment, this is the result of our efforts in our main markets, for instance, Italy and France, where current growth rates are all around or above 3%. In ASR, our growth has always been strong and is expected to continue. Finally, in Europ Assistance, recent M&A and commercial deals will further boost growth. On the motor side, we expect the recovery observed in 2021 to continue in most geographies, but at a lower rate compared to non-motor. On top of pricing driven growth for both motor and non-motor, there is also a top line growth correlation with the expected evolution in GDP and inflation, and increased awareness of protection need from clients.
Moving to profitability, the one point of improvement in our combined ratio that we are planning to achieve compared to pre-COVID levels is attributable to two factors. First, our rebalancing between non-motor and motor. You can see the average combined ratio difference between the two in the pre-COVID period. Second, our continuous focus on expenses will translate into a lower admin expense ratio. Let me add a clarification of this. Combined ratio at best estimate has been part of our internal steering processes for a few years, and we have relied on it in preparing our plan. We expect it to be substantially valid also under IFRS 17, which, as you know, measures combined ratio at best estimate net of a risk margin. Finally, let me remind you that nine months 2021 includes within the investment result the impact of Cattolica, which amounts to approximately EUR 70 million.
Following the completion of the public offer, we will pursue a full consolidation of the Cattolica results within each specific line of business. Stripping out this contribution, we expect to maintain the current level of investment result in absolute terms, thanks to the contribution of our real asset strategy. Moving to life, Sandro has already covered our actions on the in-force and the new business. I will now focus on the outcome in terms of P&L impact. First of all, let me remind you that since 2016 we have executed a radical transformation of the new business on various aspects. In terms of mix, unit link and protection have already transformed from approximately 45% of present value of new business premiums in 2016 to close to 60% in 2021.
We will continue the trend to up to two-thirds of PVNBP over the plan horizon. In terms of guarantees, we will nearly double the percentage of new business premiums without a financial guarantee or with a guarantee only in case of death, from approximately 37% in 2016 to 70% in 2024. The average guarantee of new business has dropped to close to zero and is already below 0% in the euro area. In the plan horizon, we expect its average guarantee level to remain stable. Finally, looking at the payback period in terms of both initial cash strain and capital absorption, we have reduced it by approximately two years since 2016. It now stands at approximately 3.5 years, contributing to a faster conversion into cash.
In terms of P&L, this has already translated into a visible benefit, enabling a counterbalance to the pressure from low interest rates. Indeed, if we compare current estimate of the 2021 operating result, which embeds the continuous improvement in new business, with a pro forma operating result calculated replicating the 2016 new business in terms of mix and volumes from 2016 onwards, we observe a benefit of EUR 60 million. If we project this exercise for a longer period until 2026, using plan assumptions, the benefit would be approximately EUR 360 million. On the right side of the slide, you can find our guidance on how the total life book profitability is expected to evolve.
The ratio of operating result on reserves is expected to improve from approximately 72 basis points in 2021 to 74-75 basis points by 2024. This is the result of the improved new business, which I just described, as well as of the larger share in operating result of our higher margin geographies. As for the drivers of the life operating result, I would also like to underline the increased weight of the technical result, net of expenses on the total operating result. To summarize, we are not only improving profitability, but also increasing the diversification, both by geography and operating drivers, reducing the dependency on financial markets. On top of the increasing profitability, we also expect a growth in our technical reserves of 3-4 percentage points per year.
Moving to expenses and to the planned reduction of our cost-to-income ratio, that is key both for life and P&C results. Let me start from the scope, the framework, and the rationale of the cost-to-income KPI we are communicating. In terms of scope, we already focus on the total cost, including all the one-off expenses and the cost of the internal sales force. In Generali 2021, the target referred only to the Insurance Europe perimeter. In the new plan, we are maintaining the total cost view while enlarging the scope to the full insurance perimeter and of course, confirming also corporate centers. Only Europ Assistance and Asset and Wealth Management are excluded from the perimeter, since their cost structure is different and we prefer having specific individual targets for these units. In terms of KPI definition, it is a ratio of general expenses on income.
Income is calculated starting from earnings before taxes and removing general expenses, financial debt, interest expenses, and non-operating investment result. We already use this KPI internally, and we consider it more rigorous when dealing with entities that are planning growth, since higher costs are allowed only if underlying recurring income is generated. That's why we remove non-operating investment result from the income. Of course, any reduction of financial debt interest has nothing to do with an improvement of the operating machine efficiency. For a better understanding of the proposed improvement, let me tell you that for 2018-2021, we project a cost-to-income improvement of around 1-1.5 percentage points. Excluding some 2021 non-operating one-off effects, the underlying improvement would amount to 1.5-2 percentage points.
In the new plan, we are targeting a 2.5-3 percentage points improvement, because we will keep our strong cost containment approach, while benefiting from increased operating leverage. As Philippe has outlined, on the Insurance Europe perimeter, by 2024, this would correspond to keeping flat the cost of the operating machine, that is, all the cost excluding the distribution network. This would be the result of counterbalancing inflation on labor cost and absorbing a higher run rate IT investment level with other saving measures, such as the one related to the new way of working and procurement. Of course, being a growth plan, we need to make some investments to keep improving the efficiency of the operating machine.
First of all, as Bruno explained, we are increasing our investment by approximately EUR 400 million more over the plan horizon, mainly in technology with a higher allocation in the first part of the plan to accelerate benefits, both from operating leverage and of our lifetime partner ambition, as described by Isabelle. On top of that, we are allowing some permanent expenses increase in our fast-growing geographies like Asia and in our proprietary distribution network. In any case, we confirm the adoption of a total cost approach. Hence, all these investments are included in the cost to income target. I will now move to our asset management unit that will continue to be a driver of our earnings growth and diversification. First of all, let me recap the evolution of revenues between 2018 and 2021, starting from approximately EUR 600 million at year-end 2018.
Through M&A, we added EUR 103 million, and another EUR 44 million came from the completion of the repricing on our internal mandates started before 2018. We then achieved approximately EUR 300 million in organic revenue growth. Approximately EUR 180 million captive revenues were driven by the development of our boutiques, including EUR 70 million of external fees recapture, thanks to new internal capabilities and by net flows into group portfolio and positive market effects. Third party revenues grew by approximately EUR 120 million, around EUR 50 million in fees coming from the partnership agreements signed on the portfolio of our disposed entities. The other driver was organic growth of our asset management companies, including performance fees.
Moving to 2022-2024 plan, as you can see, we expect around EUR 150 million from captive revenues and around EUR 100 million from third party revenues, leading to an overall CAGR in excess of 7%. On the captive side, the main driver contributing with closer to EUR 100 million revenues is our private and real asset strategy. This will allow the group to allocate captive funds to higher yielding assets, which also have higher management fees. On top of that, we will benefit from unit link internalization and from the projected growth of our general account. On the third party side, the growth will come from our boutiques achieving full maturity from a broader product offering and from a further expansion of our distribution network.
Completing our private and real asset capabilities, as well as expanding our distribution network will entail some initial investments. While our cost income will be negatively impacted in the first part of the plan, we expect it to revert to current very healthy levels over the plan horizon. This slide shows how all our efforts on life, P&C, costs, and asset and wealth management will translate into a transformed P&L. Over the plan horizon, we will continue to rebalance our earnings with technical and fee-based components rising above 60% of operating result. Life investment result will account for less than 25% of our operating result. As you know, only a part of life investment result is actually spread based.
This will give us less volatile and more diversified earnings and an improved capital to cash conversion cycle that will be reflected in our cash generation, which I will shortly touch upon. Before moving to that, though, let me briefly comment also on our non-operating result. We will observe an improvement in the operating to net result conversion also because some one-off charge is expected in 2021. Moving to debt management, I have already commented on the extremely positive results achieved so far. A further optimization of our cost of debt remains, in any case, a priority, together with a well-balanced maturities profile and an optimized capital structure and debt mix composition. Please note that the improvements achieved so far in the reduction of our total outstanding debt bring us to a sustainable level. I also want to reinforce our commitment to sustainability.
We already have a strong track record here. In 2019, we were the first European insurer to issue a subordinated green bond. We issued a second one in 2020, and in 2021 we were the first European insurer to issue a sustainability bond. Focusing on the gross interest expense reduction, you should consider that in order to quantify the impact on our EPS, we have always included in our calculation the cost of the double interest paid when a maturity was refinanced in advance. P&L interest expenses at year-end 2021 forecast, including the current cost of refinanced debt, are EUR 476 million. If we consider the prospective run rate basis 2021, excluding the cost of already refinanced debt and the redeemed debt, we are at EUR 437 million.
This corresponds to a gross interest expense reduction of around EUR 40 million, which is implicitly already achieved. Considering 2024 on a prospective run rate basis, excluding the current cost of debt maturing in 2024 and leaving inside the cost of its refinancing, the reduction versus P&L interest expense at year-end 2021 forecast would be in the mid upper part of a EUR 50 million-EUR 100 million range, supporting both our earnings and cash generation. This range correspond to the 0.5 to 1 percentage point EPS CAGR 2021, 2024 mentioned before. I have already anticipated our expected landing points for the current plan in terms of cumulative remittances and normalized capital generation. Let me give some guidance on remittances for the new plan.
When we look at remittances as reported in our year-end results presentation, it is important to remember that the current plan benefited from a EUR 1.8 billion contribution from capital management actions. For the upcoming plan, the contribution from capital management will naturally decrease, but we will benefit from a strong increase in the recurring part of the remittances, growing between 18% and 20% over the three years. This will be the result of the growth of our earnings, but also of their improved composition with lower volatility and faster capital to cash conversion. In our EUR 10.5 billion cumulative 2022-2024 projection, we have not included any potential upside from the in-force management actions that Sandro described to you earlier.
Moving to capital generation, we achieved our cumulative 2019-2021 target of EUR 10.5 billion despite the change in the interest rate environment. As a reference, when we launched the plan, rates were approximately 1 percentage point higher than today. This achievement was once again the result of the positive business mix evolution, which is also a key driver of our plan projection of more than EUR 12 billion capital generation. If we normalize for the COVID impact in 2021, this corresponds to an increase of 16%-20% versus the previous plan, guaranteeing the sustainability of future earnings being based on economic terms. Just a brief clarification on the COVID impact. Please note that the life business change in mortality is considered as operating variances and is not part of normalized capital generation.
Therefore, the COVID impact refers only to the positive upside experienced in P&C. Let us now move to what it means in terms of available cash and how we plan to redeploy it. After the last announced deal for La Médicale in France, we are left with approximately EUR 0.6 billion from our 2019-2021 M&A budget. As Philippe has announced, we are planning to return it to our shareholders in the form of a EUR 0.5 billion share buyback to be executed over the next 12 months. We consider this option as part of our capital management framework. Our strong remittances imply accumulated net holding cash flow projection above EUR 8.5 billion over the new plan.
As you know, net Holding cash flow is defined as the sum of remittance from BUs and holding and reinsurance result, net of interest and holding expenses. We are prudently projecting a lower insurance result also due to potential higher expenses for non-cat reinsurance coverages and various related impacts. Considering that we are not projecting any favorable tax one-off effects in the plan cycle, like the ones we experienced in 2020, the growth in net Holding cash flows versus previous plan is extremely healthy. Basically reflecting only growth of recurring cash flows. In terms of our capital framework, let me remind you about the key principles which we are applying with discipline. First of all, let me briefly address our risk appetite framework and solvency corridor.
The recent crisis has once again proven the resilience of our solvency position, and at the same time, it has shown the rationale for maintaining a wide range complemented by a solid capital management framework. We therefore confirm our 140%-180% Solvency II ratio operating target range. Our priorities are an attractive dividend policy in supporting internal growth opportunities, such as in growing markets. These internal growth opportunities are embedded in the insurance EPS CAGR bucket. After that, our preference goes to M&A as a lever of earnings growth and diversification. Both, as you have seen in the past, we maintain strict disciplined criteria to assess the strategic, financial and cultural fit. Our objective is to maximize long-term value creation for shareholders and hence to pursue the best possible mix between capital redeployment and capital return based on the opportunities available.
Therefore, buybacks are part of the capital framework and will be assessed toward the end of the plan period in order to provide us with the right balance and flexibility. Let me now briefly recap the key messages I would like to convey today. First of all, when we think about the earnings, we aim at earnings growth coupled with diversification, both at line of business and geographical levels. We will continue focusing on fee business and technical profits to improve the quality of our earnings and reduce their volatility. Cost discipline is a priority to capture the benefits of operating leverage. With regards to cash and capital, we will benefit from a growing recurring remittances reflecting earnings profile and faster capital to cash conversion cycle. We will execute with discipline our capital management framework to maximize the return for our shareholders. Thank you.
Now I hand over to Giulia for the Q&A session.
Thank you. We can now start with the Q&A session. As you know, you can ask question either on the phone or via the webcast. We will now start by taking question on the phone. After 30 minutes, we will move to the webcast, and then at the end, if there are any more question, we will go back to the phone. Operator, we can kindly open the phone for questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone. To withdraw your question, press the pound/ hash key. Your first question from the phone lines today comes from Andrew Sinclair from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thanks. Morning, still morning, everyone. Thanks for the time today and really helpful presentations. Three from me as usual. Firstly, I was just looking at within the 6%-8% EPS growth target within the capital deployment section, the over 1% there. That seems a little bit overcautious to me. It looks to me like the buyback 1.7% of market cap, that gives you about 0.6% CAGR. Then you're talking about potentially 0.5% from debt management. It looks like there's virtually nothing needed at all from M&A, either recently completed, or recently announced or future M&A to hit that target.
Really just wondering if you can give us a little bit more color on what M&A can actually contribute to that number and further scope for it to be higher. That's the first question. Second question was on the life back book management. You talked about potentially EUR 1.5 billion SCR reduction. Just really wondered how we should think about that in terms of cash. I know it's not part of your cumulative remittance targets or upstreaming targets, but what should we think about for potential for that to add to excess available cash and dividend targets?
Thirdly, just on the EUR 30 billion of reserves you mentioned already in run-off, opportunistically available for disposal and reinsurance, just can you give us an idea of how that splits, geographically and in terms of portfolio sizes? Is that a few big blocks or is it a lot of small pockets? Thanks.
Andrew, thanks a lot. I will now move to Cristiano for the first question, and then I believe the other two are for Sandro. Thank you very much.
Good morning, Andrew. Regarding the bucket of the capital redeployment, you have to take into account that the contribution from M&A so far included embeds also the initial restructuring activities you have to put, which takes usually a little bit of time in 3-4 years' time to achieve the full potential as a first element. Second, the buyback is embedded, but as well, don't forget that to complete the Cattolica deal, we announced that we will merge it. This has a dilutive effect and has to be considered in counterbalance. On the other part, you need to think that on the interest expenses reduction, we brought you towards what is the...
One thing is the accounting, the effect on EPS, and the other thing is the prospective one, which is, yes, for sure, higher. On top of that, we did not allocate any potential related to the redeployment of EUR 2.5 billion-EUR 3 billion, which for sure in case executed, but this timeframe is uncertain within the plan could further bring you in excess of that.
Sandro, over to you.
First I think I have to say that any life book exercise is per se a boring exercise because it's driven by data. It's a very time-consuming exercise, and we have to deep dive bucket by bucket and focusing on different KPIs, that is SCR, value, cash and profitability. Of course, I think the potential levers available to manage back book are different, and they impact in a different way on different KPIs. For this reason, it is not easy to disclose the impact on cash, and we will do as we have fixed the action, and we will update you as the exercise goes on. Anyway, I think we will apply in the future the same financial discipline that we applied in the past.
I think a very effective example was the deal in Germany, in which we were able to dispose a real bad book at a very good price, and we were able to keep the German business running in a very effective way in term of distribution and management and asset management. Referring to your third questions, I think that the EUR 30 billion are not concentrated in one country, but they are split amongst the main European countries.
Thank you. Operator, we can now take the next question, please.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Michael Huttner from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Fantastic. Thank you so much, and thanks for lots of lovely clear KPIs. On the cash conversion, you say it's accelerating, but if I compare the growth cash conversion, the I think EUR 10 billion figure, EUR 10.5 billion, so excluding capital management, EUR 10 billion, and I compare that with the EUR 8.2 billion, which you had in the previous period, that's about 7%. Your EPS growth is also 7%. I'm just asking, where is the acceleration of cash or where's the hope for acceleration of cash? I'm hoping you'll give me even more. The second question is, I tried to look for ROE. It was a target before, and it's not a target now. I'm sure there's a really good reason.
I asked my colleague and he says, "Well, really, we value companies on earnings, so it doesn't actually matter. There's no ROE." But just out of interest, it would be nice. Then, my last question is, I think in one of the presentations, Switzerland was mentioned with a kind of we exclude Switzerland, or we don't like Switzerland or something. I can't remember the precise comment. I just wondered if you could say something about the Swiss life back book or anything relating to that. In particular, I think you mentioned EUR 200 million of cash release from life back book deals. I think that's the figure, and I'm not sure, and I just wonder if that is Switzerland. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Cristiano, if you can start with the first-
Yes.
Second question. Then, you know, Michael, we might ask you to clarify a little bit the third one, if you don't mind.
Yes, of course.
Yes, Michael, good morning. Cash acceleration, where is it? Hunting for cash. The acceleration part is coming from the fact that our mix of results is shifting towards the technical component and towards the P&C part, which is bringing immediate result versus the value we are creating. Capital to cash, as you know, we have three elements which are driving it. Lower financial cost, which is the debt, which is immediate cash, and this is accelerating. Better contribution from P&C, and this is accelerating. Third, there is also the new business value contribution.
In new business value, you have to keep in mind that there are also non-cash elements which increase capital, but it is not immediate earnings, which is, for example, the lower cost of guarantees which do not translate immediately into a P&L, but translate in lower capital intensity of the business. To answer the first one. On the second one, why we do not choose a return on equity target? First of all, return on equity was part of the plan 2019-2021. It is still a key element of where we analyze for each business unit the capital we allocate, and against this we measure the performance as a shareholder ourselves for our business unit.
What is important for you to know is that within this plan, we prefer to have a combination of two out of three elements related to cash, while one related to earnings. We prefer the earnings per share because we are driving economically the translation, while on IFRS 17, when the return on equity enter into first application, you will have to know both the result of the numerator, but as well the earnings on equity. Equity has to pass the so-called first-time transition moment. In that moment, we will reshuffle all the indicator according to the new plan.
Just to make an example, think about the reserve adequacy, the non-representation in the P&C part of the amount of result still in the reserves and not in the shareholder equity, which if IFRS 17, having a full economic view net of risk margin should translate into a different earning. There are some technical effects for which we prefer not to have a rechange or reset, but a better smooth approach around this.
Fantastic. Thank you. That's very clear. On my last question, sorry it was a bit confusing. I think what I was trying to find out is you mentioned like back book deals in both current and future. Current I think is EUR 200 million and future EUR 1.5 billion, future potential. I just wondered where Switzerland fits, because Switzerland I think was mentioned, it's not in the slides, but I think it was mentioned in the presentation as a country where the results are not or the contribution is not brilliant. I mean, it seemed to be an outlier.
Cristiano.
Yes, Michael, I confirm we did not mention any specific country. Okay? Please keep in mind that this is an exercise that Sandro presented at a group-wide level, and we did not specify targeting specific portfolios.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question please.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Peter Eliot from Kepler. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you very much. Thank you and congratulations also from me on the 2021 achievements and new targets. I guess if I do look back over the last three years, and if I'm sort of very picky, then you know, maybe one area where I look back at you know, what your expected were versus what you've achieved hasn't quite come through, is the growth in earnings you're expecting from the Life division. I mean, I think you were sort of expecting to grow that at 1% CAGR on higher charges and lower expenses. In fact, I mean, at the nine-month stage, we're looking at sort of slightly down on a reported basis, flat on a pro forma basis.
I'm just wondering if anything's developed, you know, slightly not quite as good as you expected or whether there is, you know, some of that has been transferred to asset management or just anything you can say about that would be very helpful. Second question, I was hoping I could just clarify. I think I understand the policy on buyback, but just to clarify it, I mean, I think you're basically saying that at this time, you know, at the end of the sort of three-year cycle, you know, you'll see what hasn't been used and, you know, what is sitting idle and that potentially is available for share buyback.
I assume that the current EUR 500 million that you've announced, that will, you know, you'll look for authorization at the AGM and then look to start it after the AGM. Is that the right way of thinking about the policy? Then a final question, just on the headline EPS target going forward, I mean, 2021 earnings are looking pretty strong as a starting point. I mean, I guess we've had a, you know, a few one-offs, but private equity has been very helpful.
I'm just wondering, you know, when you set the target, did you sort of think about that starting point and think, are we setting ourselves a high sort of hurdle at the starting point, or are you quite happy, you know, with that 2021 figure as being, yeah, a sort of appropriate starting point? Thank you very much.
Thank you. I will ask Philippe to address the second question on buyback, and then, you know, Cristiano, the first and the last are for you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Peter. I think that what we are doing is fully consistent with what we have said. We always say what we're going to do, and we always do what we have said. We said constantly during the past three years that if we were not able to use 100% of the resources available for M&A, we would consider other way to redeploy the excess of capital. This is exactly what we have been doing with this EUR 500 million shares buyback. I hope it makes you happy. This is exactly what we will do again in the next strategic cycle. We have another EUR 3 billion to dedicate to M&A, to good M&A. M&A who are creating long-term value for all shareholders.
We will once again, at the end of the strategic cycle, which means at the end of 2024, we will look at where we are, and we will take the appropriate decision in the best interest of all shareholders. Definitely, as you understand, share buyback is now part of our capital stewardship. To, on a very practical basis, the EUR 500 million share buyback we are announcing today will be submitted to the approval of our shareholders during our shareholders meeting on April 29th. Right after we will pay it.
Yes. Good morning, Peter. First question related to the growth of Life. In the previous Investor Day, we presented a very important contribution to growth. I recalled in my speech before, but that was done with one percentage point basically average interest rates higher, which was not embedded in the plan. We were able to counterbalance, but we were not projecting when we did that plan, for example, what we had to strengthen as a reserve in Switzerland.
If you just normalize for that level, and you correctly take into account the transferred amount of money from operating result Life to operating result of Asset Management from the increased fees paid by our companies, then you would see anyhow a resilient operating result, which is going also to progressively grow in a very steady and stable way, thanks to the technical component. While normally there is the amortization of the investment result of the 10 to maximum 15 basis points per current income on book accounting value, amortized cost, that we already commented many times in the quarterly calls. On the EPS target going forward, is it a fair starting point?
To cut it short, would I be you, I think it would be absolutely reasonable to start from the consensus in projecting the plan. It is a reasonable point because we have plus and minuses. Yeah.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Operator, we can take the next question, please.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Ritchie from Autonomous. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi there. First question, I think it's probably a short one. You're talking about Life new business value of EUR 2.3 billion-EUR 2.5 billion in 2024. I mean, based on the nine-month 2021 run rate, I would have expected you to be near to the bottom end of that already. Is it that you're just not assuming the emphasis is on mix shift rather than overall growth of new business value? That's the first question. Second question on M&A. Can you tell us of the EUR 3 billion that you've spent, what you think the ROI on that EUR 3 billion has been for some of the transactions at the earlier part of the plan or is embedded in the plan? Also, maybe this is a question for Philippe.
Why is EUR 3 billion the right amount going forward for M&A? I guess why not more, why not less? Just remind us what your M&A objectives are vis-à-vis geography or type of business. My only other question was Bruno's presentation had a lot of numbers in it. If I add all the numbers up, I get to EUR 400 million. That alone would generate roughly 2% CAGR in earnings. I'm guessing that's part of the insurance component earnings growth, but there's a lot of numbers that are hard to reconcile. Should I add up all of Bruno's numbers, or is it the assumption that some of those will be competed away, or some of those are simply to combat inflation? Thanks.
Thank you very much. I think, Cristiano, if you can start with the new business and then, you know, Philippe can comment about the M&A.
Yes.
You know, Bruno will mention about the improvement. Thank you very much.
Good morning, Andrew. Regarding Life new business value target, let me remind you that nine months our published target was almost EUR 1.7 billion. If we look at year-end, we will be for sure above EUR 2 billion. We have both an increase in Present Value New Business premiums in the preferred lines, which is, as you can understand, the unit-linked and protection. There is a decrease in the savings component, but on a net effect of having growing Present Value New Business premium compared to today of the order in between 5%-10%. On the rest, the new business margin is kept progressively growing because of the mix.
You correctly pointed out that the driver is the mix more than the volumes as per se. Shifting in it, you can get to that level of ambition we were projecting.
Philippe?
Regarding the volume which is allocated to M&A, I think it's the right number. I think it's a good number because what we want to achieve is the right balance between the cash, which is the capital, which is returned to shareholders, and the capital which is invested in growth. As you have seen in our presentation, we are going to allocate between EUR 5.2 billion and EUR 5.6 billion for dividends. We'll invest between EUR 500 million and EUR 700 million in internal growth opportunities, and we will have EUR 3 billion available for M&A. Once again, it's a good balance between remuneration for shareholders and investing in the growth of our group. How are we going to try to use those EUR 3 billion? What will be the criteria for M&A?
I would say that the first criterion will be the long-term value creation for all shareholders. This is the first filter for M&A. We don't look at the size. What matters is the long-term value creation. If it's good for all shareholders, we look at it. If it's not good for all shareholders, we don't look at it. This is very simple. We have a very clear strategic framework. We are looking at the strategic fit, obviously, in terms of business lines, obviously in terms of geographies, and I will come back to it, but also in terms of cultural fit, in terms of financial discipline, and also in terms of execution risk.
In terms of geographies, we have basically two worlds, the world of insurance and the world of asset management. On insurance, we will continue to focus on the markets where we already are, because we want to further strengthen our positions, our leadership positions in the market where we are, which is also an opportunity to create value through the extraction of synergies. We will do that, of course, in Europe, but also out of Europe in the growing markets that we have selected, mostly obviously in Asia. In the asset management world, the geographical scope is wider because definitely, as we are becoming a very global asset management group, we obviously need to be present, to increase our presence in U.K. market and U.S. market without excluding Asia.
This is for the geography for M&A.
Sorry, can I just clarify on that comment? You talked about all shareholders. Did you mean all stakeholders rather than shareholders? You mentioned financial discipline. What do you think the ROI has been on the EUR 3 billion you invested in the last plan? Has been or is embedded in the future earnings?
No, you're absolutely right. We want to create value for all stakeholders, not only all shareholders. You are absolutely right. This is the reason why we also look at the cultural fit. I just wanted to add something about this, because on M&A, we need to be at the same time very reactive, very opportunistic, but at the same time very proactive, which mean that we just cannot sit and wait for opportunities to come to us. I want to give two examples. An example of being very opportunistic is Cattolica, which is definitely a great success, but also because with Cattolica, we have a strong cultural fit.
This merger with Cattolica will be beneficial not only to Cattolica and Generali shareholders, but also to all stakeholders, and particularly the northeast Italian territory and communities. This is really important to us. La Médicale, which we have just announced very recently, it's the opposite. We have been very proactive. I personally started talking with Crédit Agricole six years ago, and this is a great opportunity for us because when you look at the segment of market of La Médicale, we are talking about health professionals. There is a perfect fit with the core market of Generali, which is made of individuals, professionals, and SMEs.
By the way, the distribution of La Médicale is made with agents, 128 specialized agents, and this has a perfect fit with our own distribution. You're right, it's not only about shareholders, it's also about all stakeholders. Maybe Cristiano, on the return on investment for M&A?
Yes, Andrew. As you know, when we assess an M&A, we always explain that we do have a differentiated cost of equity between geographies and business lines, because this is consistent with our strategy of earnings diversification. If I look at the operating performances of the entities so far in the balance sheet, we are satisfied. Clearly, you have to take into account that many of these operations, including Cattolica, the one referred by Philippe, we cannot conclude an ROI because we needed to have the full acquisition after the merger to have the final number and then evaluate around it. The other, like Malaysia or La Médicale, are announced but not even in the book.
On the rest, we have overall on average performance which are satisfying for our target. Please keep in mind that we have diversified cost of equity, and so the IRR, the ROI is not the only indicator to look at as an overall, because it has to be looked in comparison to the cost of equity of the targeted region, geographies, and business line we acquired.
Just quickly, on the last question, Bruno?
Sure.
Yes. Thank you.
Sure. Hello, Andrew, and thanks for your questions. Now, if I can make it simple, there are two areas in which we are targeting impact. One is on the infrastructure, and on this specific piece of the stack of the value chain, we think of having EUR 100 million of cumulative savings between now and 2024. These will become recurring from 2024 onwards. When it comes to the other two stacks, operations and customer distribution, you're right. By adding these numbers up, they have a contribution to operating result, which is gross of investments, and they will also contribute to the overall target of reducing our cost-to-income ratio by 2.5-3 percentage points. The other point that you were mentioning is around whether this is a fending off inflation.
It is. In the Insurance Europe perimeter, we're trying to make it neutral, so that expectations on inflation are embedded in our plan, and we don't have a negative impact.
Thank you very much. We can now take the next question, please.
Thank you. Your next question comes from David Barma from Exane BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hello, and thank you very much for the presentation. Three questions, please. The first one on Life and on French Life, particularly. The unit seems to still be lagging the overall Life profitability of the group, and looking at the last plan, this doesn't change. This seem to have changed much. Okay, can you talk a little bit about the targeted actions you'd like to put through on that business line? Or should we just think about the different actions that you've presented today as applying to that unit as well? That's my question number one.
The second one, I'm sorry to come back on the SCR release number that you gave from in force actions. Just to understand, should we just think about that amount as adding to the financial flexibility to be assessed at the end of the plan period, or do you plan to offset some of the potential dilution from transactions? Thank you. That's question number two. My last one is on asset management. Can you give us an indication of the contribution of the boutiques in either the revenue or the operating profit line? Thank you very much.
Thank you. Cristiano, if you can start, please. The first question, sorry, David, was specific about target action on the French life book, right?
Exactly, yes.
Thank you very much. Yes, Cristiano.
I start, and then I let integrate Sandro on the. On the French portfolio, we have a very important strategy since a couple of years, where our CEO in France declared the end of the saving as an engine of premium. Clearly the shift moved towards the unit link. We have a very positive net collection of unit link, and this is allowing also for technical reasons to have a better and more stable technical result contribution. France, you will see an improving contribution thanks to the negative net collection in savings and very positive collection in unit link, which is rebalancing the portfolio, and together maybe also with the life in force, but I let Sandro to complement.
Yeah. Thanks, Cristiano. I think in France, we have been working using different levers. I think you are familiar with that each country is different because the traditional life business is a very local business. The profit-sharing rules are different country by country. In France, I think we are working in a very effective way since a few years. I think we have been putting some of the funds into runoff. We are managing in an effective way, respecting the law and the regulation, the profit-sharing rule in the right way, and we are defining the strategic asset allocation in a different way, in a more precise way, fund by fund. On top of this, I think we have to add the migration as introduced by Cristiano to unit-linked.
Last but not least, in the life business, I think we are going to improve, in a material way, the health profitability of the business that is an important part of the French value proposition for our customer. To the second question, as I think you know that, I think it's difficult to plan the timing by when we will implement all the in-force management action. What I can say is that the majority of the actions will be executed in the next three years, but some could generate the impact in the medium to long term. I am referring to this point, the benefits that are expected to come from how we are going to manage the interaction between existing business and new business.
Because at time zero, the impact is more or less equal to zero because we have to respect the local regulation and the constraint given by the regulator. We have to treat the customer in the proper way. The benefit will materialize as time goes on, in a better profitability coming from the split of the two bits. The SCR that I think we are open to potential, I think reinsurance and/or disposal of a closed book, I think will be on top of the SCR and capital plan disclosed by Cristiano. For this reason, I think, David, for sure, we are expecting the benefits in terms of additional flexibility coming from the in-force management actions that we are going to do during the next few years.
Hello David, it's Cristiano. For the first question, asset management, the contribution to boutiques on operating result and the net profit. Well, first of all, let me recall you that our structure of boutiques is not to have a full consolidation of them. There is a drop between operating to net because of the minorities, because we have an alignment of interest with the owner or the founder of the boutiques. If we look at what we achieved so far, we are in the order of the mid- to high double-digit million EUR. In the 60-70 million EUR on operating result, while we are more in the EUR 30 million-35 million EUR in the net result expected for this year.
Over the plan, the full maturity of this will more than double this contribution, helping us to further grow our net result.
Thank you. We will now move by-
Thank you.
Thank you, David. Sorry. We'll now move by taking some question from the webcast. First question come from Farooq from JP Morgan. He's asking us why the focus on a non-motor P&C GWP target. Does this imply motor GWP growth will be more contained? And then the second question, I think, is similar to the one we had previously. Farouk is asking whether the improvements from the initiatives described by our Chief Transformation Officer will all come to the bottom line, and if the benefit is gonna be seen more in P&C.
Hello Farooq. It's Cristiano. Regarding the growth of P&C, I have to clarify for sure there is an asymmetric growth between non-motor and motor. The growth in the non-motor is higher. What is important for you to know is that both also or the two, we have some pricing-driven increase in it, and motor is especially growing also thanks to this and also because of some geographical distribution of our premium, if we take not only into account the full European landscape but also broad-wide Asia and South America. In general terms, yes, you have to see a better growth of non-motor because of the explanation I gave also in the speech.
I recall you, there is a better correlation with GDP growth and much more awareness of our clients of the need for protection. There is a strong use of our existing clients with the strategy that Isabelle presented also to try to increase both upselling and cross-selling on the number of products and services we are selling to our existing clients, which is a safer and less expensive way also to increase non-motor. That's why, please take into account that, also on the acquisition cost, we are not projecting an increase thanks also to this strategy.
Thank you. We can now move to question coming from Steven Haywood from HSBC. The first set of question is in relation to our asset management development. Steven is asking whether we think our development will be achieved via M&A or organic expansion, and he's also asking whether we can give some color on the type of business and distribution channel that we are looking to acquire or partner with, and how we are planning to if we are planning to expand in the U.K. and the U.S. in asset management.
Thank you, Steven. Well, first of all, we definitely want to grow organically our asset management. This is what we are doing. This is what we will do. Cristiano give the numbers on the organic growth of the asset management. Which means that every single boutique will be growing in the next strategic cycle. Of course, thanks to their track record, they are going to build every year in terms of quality of the asset management, which will help to get in third party assets. We are currently building a distribution capability for our asset management, with the objective to further grow the third party's money.
I think it's really important in a plan to secure the organic growth, and then exactly as for the insurance business, the M&A can be an opportunity of acceleration of the growth and of the value creation. We will look at opportunities if they have a strategic fit with our asset management, which mean that if they help us accelerating the acquisition of technical skills, acquisition of capabilities, technical capabilities and also distribution capabilities. If it helps the acceleration, we will look at them, as I said, in the relevant market for all relevant markets for asset management, so not only Europe but also U.K., U.S. and Asia.
Thank you. The next question from Steven is in relation to our 2.5%-3% touchpoint reduction in our cost-to-income. Steven is wondering whether within that target, we expect nominal expenses to stay flat, fall or increase, and specifically is asking whether we think we will be able to hit our cost-to-income regardless of what the total income, you know, does. Cristiano, I think this one is for you.
Yes. Yes, Steven. First of all, I think Bruno already explained that, if we look at our European markets, we will be able to keep it flat if not in reduction the total cost, stripping out the cost of the distribution. There is an increase in total cost in the growing market like the Asian one, where there is a huge opportunity for growth and growth of earnings.
Overall, the logic is, yes, I mean, the strategy is conceived with this interrelation which cannot be disentangled between the cost and the income, exactly because, with no support of income, the cost will not be allowed, and the business plan of each single initiative is strictly monitored in order to guarantee that this is developing. Overall, think also stripping out the amount of cost that you can observe in the growing distribution. The overall machine, if you just strip out the cost of distribution, which we want to grow on that side, stays flat.
Okay.
Of the insurance one, I mean. Clearly, asset management and Europ Assistance are different entities.
The final question from Steven is with regard to the interest rate. He's asking us whether an increase in interest rate will be a positive for us, and if we can comment on specifically how will it benefit P&L and capital.
Okay, I take it. On interest rates, this plan has been built with a very prudent approach of interest rates, which is basically the one expected by the market so far in the interest rate curve. We, as an industry, benefit on two sides from growing interest rates. On one side in the investment part, and on the other side, on the capacity of reducing the capital intensity of the business. We do not want anyhow to depend on this in fulfilling this plan, and this is why I think you understand very well from Sandro and his presentation that we will be ruthlessly and relentlessly working on the portfolio exactly to reduce it independently of having big or small or no increase in the interest rate. For sure, the investment result is positively affected.
For what regards inflation on cost, of labor cost, we already commented we will keep it under control, thanks to the Bruno set of actions and our philosophy of very strict attention on cost. At the same time, the only risk, if there is a steep increase of interest rates, which is the negative convexity embedded in the life portfolio, because if there is a huge, extremely high, and by this I mean more than 200, 150 basis point increase of the interest rates, clearly you have a pressure on the potential behavior of policyholder, but you can still always have new offers and be competitive with alternative solutions.
This is why, unless there is an extreme scenario of a very high increase in interest rates above the interest rate foreseen by the market curve would be beneficial for the group.
Thank you. The next set of questions come from Elena at Banca IMI. Elena is asking whether our EPS CAGR target takes 2021 pro forma as a starting point. She's asking whether we will do Cattolica 12-month consolidation, deducting the goodwill and the restructuring charges. She's also asking if we can update her on the timing of the planned merger of Cattolica into Generali.
Yes, sorry for a little bit of nitty-gritty of accounting. In order to answer Elena, we should say hello. The starting point of 2021, as you know, is the normalized net result, and it will be obtained stripping out the goodwill allocation of the Cattolica transaction done this year, which is the public offer, and as well, the restructuring charge that our Generali Italia entity booked in the fourth quarter in order to transform and start all the projects related to the restructuring of the country. To make the calculation, by accounting rule, you need to take into account what is the moment where we will start consolidating Cattolica, which is basically the end of the public offer, beginning of November.
You need to take our first nine months result, which embeds the EUR 70 million contribution of Cattolica on the prorata equity accounting method, plus one month with the same accounting method and two months related to the fourth quarter in full consolidation. As you can see, together with my team, we are enjoying the pleasure of the accounting rules in this year-end exercise.
Elena is also asking whether we expect the current inflationary environment to contribute to a rise in motor tariff, in Italy.
Yes.
I think she was asking about the timing for the merger.
About the timing, correct.
I forgot. Thank you, Philippe. Yeah, let's say, the process entails a full completion in the last quarter of 2022 so far, which is the one we embedded in our financial projection of EPS CAGR and in general of also the net results. Sorry, Giulia, just to complete.
Yes. Elena was asking whether we expect inflation to contribute to a rise in motor tariff in Italy.
Absolutely, yes. I think inflation is always a good opportunity to increase prices, and we will increase prices in all countries and basically all property and casualty business lines.
Thank you. We will now take some question coming from William at KBW. William is stating that a competitor has guided us that IFRS 17 comes with no major changes expected. What does Generali think about this?
Thank you, William, for the very simple question. I think that we explained today in the presentation that on the earnings side, due to the fact that all the drivers which are creating the IFRS 17, IFRS 9 earnings profile are consistent with the action. We act on the best estimate combined ratio of the current year you are underwriting. We act on the new business value. We act on cost, which are fully under control. There is no specific investment strategy of realization, acceleration or other things, which allows us to be on the side of trying to have the least change in the EPS.
On that side, you have to take into account only one thing, the introduction not of IFRS 17, but of IFRS 9, naturally drives a little bit of more volatility because of some accounting of some asset classes, which today are not accounted at fair value through profit and loss, but they will move to fair value through profit and loss, especially in the so-called non-VFA, non-variable fee approach business. Having said that, what is most important for us is the major important moment is the transition, so when we change the moment at the balance sheet. Once this is done, all the plan, the earnings per share is consistent with our ambition, and all the targets are set in an economic way to stay in that level.
The only thing is to keep a little bit more attention on the P&L volatility from some investment asset classes.
Thank you very much. William's second question is very similar to what we were asked previously. He's asking us whether we are thinking about how an inflation-driven rise in yields, coupled with the potential of a change in European QE, quantitative easing, can impact us, or how are we thinking about that scenario for this plan?
Yes. Again, here, an inflation driven on one side, I just recap. Just remind what Philippe said regarding the opportunity in the pricing. On the other side, on the investment, we already commented that it could be positive. If there is a change in the quantitative easing over Europe, and if underlying, for example, a change in the effect of some sovereign movement, what we have done and we did so far, as you have seen, we were constantly managing our exposure to sovereign risk, including the BTP, which is for sure known to us, and we are managing it throughout the time, both on the asset allocation level, because of its relative weight in the years versus the total amount of assets.
As well, with the product we are selling to our clients in Italy, because you know that our BTP are always , almost only there in the life business, which has a much higher loss absorption capacity. That's why we think that this is only beneficial until it is at a level of control. As I said, extremely high levels of inflation are not positive for all the insurance life business, not only for Generali, because of the negative convexity.
Thank you. We are taking the question coming from Andrea at Equita. He's asking how are we planning to use the cash that we might have potentially from portfolio disposals. Guess for you, Philippe.
Well, basically, this cash could be redeployed also for M&A on top of the EUR 3 billion available, if once again we find the right opportunities.
We have a question for Bruno. Andrea is asking if we can give more color on our view regarding bancassurance and the strategy there.
Well, sure. Thanks, Andrea. We have a number of partnerships in the bancassurance space at group level with very different degrees in terms of how the structure of these say agreements are made. We have joint ventures say with BAWAG in Austria or with Cajamar in Spain. We have exclusive agreements in Eastern Europe with UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo. We have some Asia bancassurance business in Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Latin America for example Argentina with BBVA and Brazil. Generally speaking, I think that we are very pragmatic in the approach for bancassurance because we think that there's a lot of potential to push further our distribution. We primarily play in the life space but there's P&C potential to be grabbed.
We have some 20 million customers in the bancassurance space, and so this is something promising from our side. As a matter of fact, this is the reasons why, one of the reasons why we are implementing a group project by the name of RedClick to build a digital attacker, because more and more bancassurance and B2B2C converge as digital marketplaces. Hence having a distribution platforms that can really serve customers for a bancassurance in the digital space is something that would further push our growth in the future.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
We can now go back to the telephone line, as we have addressed all the questions coming from the webcast. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next phone question comes from the line of Alberto Villa from Intermonte. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for the presentation. I have a couple of questions left. One is on the cost inflation on claims. You're projecting in your, when you model for 2024, in the P&C, if you can give us an idea what are your expectations on that front. On the combined ratio, if you can give us some color on how you think the different geographies will perform, and where you see more opportunities for improving the acceleration in non-motor versus motor production. The rebalancing of the mix you're planning to achieve throughout the plan. The second question is back on Cattolica.
Would you consider to buy out the minorities in order to pay cash and avoid the dilution of issuing shares or you think the only way now is to a merger. The third one is on Banca Generali. There were a lot of, you know, rumors on this asset in the press. I would like to have an updated view from you on what is your expectation on the contribution of this asset, if you are willing to support eventual M&A by Banca Generali, or you think the current setup is the perfect one for you. Thank you.
Cristiano, if you can start with the first question about.
Yes.
claims inflation assumption in P&C, and a bit of color on the combined ratio dynamics by the main markets. Thank you.
Absolutely. Hello, Alberto. Our cost inflation, I think we already commented in the quarterly calls, one important phenomenon, which was the spare parts inflation already experienced so far since the start of the COVID crisis. Because if we just look on a rolling 12-month windows, the average cost of claim increase, we see that we are now going back to very normal level compared to the already experienced increase in 2020 and first part of 2021. If we just go on the 2022/2024 projections, we do not project an increase of spare parts, if I just speak about specifically on the car part, at the level experienced previously. We are more normalizing on a longer term level.
At the same time, we are looking at the fact that we are improving our claims management handling and also increasing the speed of paying the claims, thanks also to the technology improvement that both Bruno and Isabelle explained so far in the interaction with the client in the operating machine.
Having said that, if we look at what is some color about growth and combined ratio in the different geographies, I would like to say that there is an interconnection between the growth we can experience in the premium, for example, in geographies like Austria, Central Eastern Europe, in Russia, both as well in Germany, in Italy, and in the international part as well, as well as a part of France for the non-motor. We are seeing a driver of growth of this premium, but also since, for example, a big driver of growth is in Austria, Central Eastern Europe and Russia, they have the best combined ratio among all the group.
There is a natural rebalancing of weight of lower combined ratio geographies versus higher combined ratio geography, which is also helping us to drive the combined ratio to the desired level. On top of this, we are seeing improvement in the combined ratio with respect to the P&C experience so far in some geographies, especially in our P&C business. Take into account that this year we need to look at the improvement net of the excess natural catastrophes observed over the average. Some of these countries will improve like Germany, but net of the expected natural catastrophe and as well for Austria, Central and Eastern Europe and Russia.
Philippe, over to you.
Yeah. Thank you, Alberto. Thanks to the success of our tender offer on Cattolica, we currently own 84.5% of the shares of Cattolica. As we said, we are going for the merger with Cattolica. Regarding Banca Generali, we confirm that we are very satisfied controlling shareholder of Banca Generali, which is a very well-performing asset. If you want to know more about the plans of Banca Generali, I'm afraid you have to wait for the strategy day of Banca Generali in February.
Thank you very much. Next question, please.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of James Shuck from Citi. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi, good afternoon. My first question is on the M&A budget of EUR 2.5 billion-EUR 3 billion, which is linked towards the cash flows. If I just look at your solvency roll forward, though, which might be another metric for thinking about excess capital and how to deploy it, then at the end of this year, on a pro forma basis, after Cattolica, you're still gonna be at the top end of your target range, and that's probably growing by about 10 points per annum after dividends. You talked about diversification benefits to come. You talked about SCR release of the EUR 1.5 billion that's possible.
Just if you could comment on how you manage that Solvency relevant relative to that target, and indeed whether that target itself should come down if you do in-force transactions on the right side. Second question is around debt leverage. You reduced the absolute debt pile over the last plan period, and I think you're pretty clear that the level of debt leverage that you had was optimal at that stage. Over this next plan period, there's no absolute increase in the level of debt over the period. Therefore, your debt leverage continues to fall. Could you just comment about how you look at that leverage in percentage terms and whether you might actually look to keep the overall leverage constant over that plan period, please?
My final question on the digital spend. 1.1 billion in digital spend. I think that there's a comment that 0.4 of that is front-end loaded. How should we actually think about the P&L impacts of this? Is it? Does that mean in 2022 we're gonna have kind of EUR 400 million higher bottom line charge? Of the EUR 1.1 billion as we move through into 2024, I'm presuming all of it won't just drop away, as that part of that spend will need to be recurring. How much of it is kind of incremental, if you like, to keeping the lights on and staying competitive? Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yes, James.
They're all for you, Cristiano.
Yes, I take them. Okay, excess capital. How do you manage this in this environment? First of all, excess capital is not always excess cash. Capital is also composed by value in force of the portfolio, which is changing if we are improving the profitability or if we are reducing the risk and the capital intensity, as Sandro explained to you before. What we are doing is, for sure, after the integration of Cattolica, we will decrease our solvency level compared to the 233 that you were mentioning, which is bringing us still in the upper mid part of the range, but not in the top end part of it.
Having said that, we are increasing also, thanks to our real asset strategy, some part of the capital absorption, because part of this capital is not cash, but can be put immediately at work, because it translates future profits. How do we look at this? We will be able to deploy the EUR 3 billion of available free cash flow, discretionary one, without impacting our target operating range and being able as well to manage expected volatility. I think we all know what happened in the last two years. In two weeks, solvency ratio moved by 30 percentage points in many companies. We need that to prove that depending on the sources, for sure we will be reducing this thanks to the new contribution and new sources, less dependent on the market one.
Together with the stock, this will anyhow manage and need to have this target operating range to allow us to operate the plan consistently. The excess SCR free up that Sandro mentioned before is another lever to further allow us to create solutions, for example, to free up room for having profitable growth without having capital consumption. Because if in a company you are reducing portfolio and you have and you have capital to be used to fund the growth, you can do it without changing your solvency and affecting it down. At the same time, don't forget that in doing this exercise, when you try to translate into cash, you never get to a ratio between cash to capital release, never go above one-third.
When the ratio is one, it's cash, three is SCR. On debt leverage, commenting on where we are, we are satisfied with the level of leverage and absolute debt achieved so far. It is fair what you are saying going forward, the retained earnings component will naturally reduce our leverage, which for me it is a positive sign of our capacity to use in a flexible way and be extremely active in the way we want to manage our debt, keeping in mind that we want to reduce at the end the cost of it. In general, also keeping in mind that as of today, we concentrate on a leverage based on the equity of the existing IFRS.
It is interesting to know that in the discussion we are having also with rating agencies, there is an open point whether it is better to use it only at equity or including in the future metrics also what is called the contractual service margin, the CSM. This could change as well the perception, because that will bring Generali at a very best level of leverage compared to that. Anyhow, we want to be opportunistic. We wanted to absolutely manage it in the way we did it so far, which was bringing us much flexibility and much better cash generation also to capture opportunities. On the P&L impact of digital spend, yes, it is true, it is more front-loaded than back-loaded.
It is normal, because when we start a new cycle and we need to pay to take strategic direction, we need to allocate money to have the company change, to make the company change. This will happen with the investment that Bruno and as well Isabelle mentioned to you, in order to support the full power of the distribution machine and as well the operating machine. The P&L effect is, yes, a higher level of cost, which will not catch up at the same speed of the total growth of the amount of investment.
Notwithstanding this, if we look at the cost-to-income ratio, the embedded growth of our income, the one which we care about, so without the financial interest, the cost of debt, and without the non-investment operating result, is yearly improving throughout the plan. Clearly, the amount of improvement in 2022 is lower compared to the one we will observe at the end in 2024. You have to think that there are some other costs which will stay higher even at the end of this plan, and these are the IT, the infrastructure, all the costs related to the new way we need to have the company to operate, and we will make our savings.
On containing the inflation cost on labor and also improving our new way of working and procurement capabilities to get substantial savings.
Thank you. We now need to conclude our Q&A session. As always, the IR team will be at your disposal for any outstanding question that you might have. I will now hand over to our Chief Executive, Philippe Donnet, for some closing statement. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thanks to all of you for your attention and for having participated to this Q&A. Today, we have shared our Lifetime Partner 24 plan, a clear strategic roadmap for the next three years. It is an ambitious plan focused on reinforcing Generali's position as a major global player in insurance and asset management. It is a plan that drives sustainable growth to create value for all stakeholders. We are building on the strong foundation established since 2016 and the successful delivery of our Generali 2021 strategy. We did this against the backdrop of the worst crisis since the Second World War. These achievements reinforce the many positive things I have always known to be true about Generali and our people.
We are an extremely agile and adaptable organization, embracing change even in the toughest conditions, and we are totally driven by our customer relationships. Our Lifetime Partner strategy is central to our leadership in the insurance and asset management industries today. We are there for our customers 24 hours a day, and this was never more evident than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our people proved yet again to be our true competitive advantage. I would like to take this chance to thank all my management team with whom I have the pleasure to work and to work hard every day. The targets achieved and the targets ahead are the direct result of our joint effort, as well as the hard work of all our colleagues and agents across the world.
Our convictions for the upcoming strategic cycle are founded on our core strength, and we will go further in our commitment to sustainability in everything we do. Responsible strategic decisions, a focus on climate change, creating a more diverse and inclusive work environment, and assisting society's most vulnerable people are just a small part of this commitment. Thank you again for your attention and your ongoing interest in Generali. As I said at the start of today, we hope to meet you in person in the coming weeks and month. Next year it would be our honor to host you in the Procuratie Vecchie in Venice, which will open to the public for the first time in 500 years as the new home for our global sustainability project, The Human Safety Net.
After four years of meticulous renovation, this iconic building will become a place to have open dialogue about the social and environmental challenges in today's world. I extend a warm invitation to all of you to visit us in Piazza San Marco, one of the most beautiful squares in the world. On behalf of the whole Generali team, we wish you and those dear to you a happy holiday season. Thank you so much to all of you.