Hello, good morning all. I'm Cyril Meilland, the head of Investor Relations at Amundi, and it's a real pleasure to welcome you today in the not-so-sunny London for a presentation of our full year and fourth quarter results. We are here in our London office, and this is a hybrid event, so we will have people in the room and people online via Zoom. We shall have a presentation by our CEO who is here with me, Valérie Baudson, and our deputy CEO, Nicolas Calcoen. The presentation will last for about 30 minutes, and as usual it will be followed by a Q&A session for as long as it takes, so ask any questions. The questions can be asked, obviously, in the room as well as online.
To do so, just raise your hands, albeit virtually if you are online, and we shall open your mic if you are online again. Please also open your cameras so that it is a more lively dialogue. Unfortunately, before we get started, a very short disclaimer: throughout the presentation we will make some forward-looking statements and mention forecasts. We call your attention to the fact that Amundi's actual results may differ from these statements. Some of the factors that may cause the results to differ materially are listed in our universal registration documents, and Amundi assumes no duty and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements. After this task, I leave the floor to Valérie. Thank you.
Well, thank you, Cyril, and good morning everyone in the room and behind the screen. We are very pleased to present our Q4 and full year 2025 results, which reflect both our record activity and the core elements of our Invest for the Future 2028 plan. I will take you through some key highlights before Nicolas, as usual, looks at our activity and financial results in more detail. First, our assets under management have now reached almost EUR 2.4 trillion, so up 6%. This is thanks to record total 2025 net inflows of EUR 88 billion from both passive and active management activities. In terms of clients, this performance was driven by positive inflows across retail, institutional, and our JVs.
Retail inflows predominantly came from our very fast-growing third-party distribution business, and on the institutional side, medium to long-term asset collection tripled in 2025, with some major mandate wins in Europe and the Gulf in Q4. Our activity drove strong financial results, with adjusted pre-tax income up 12% for the quarter and 6% for the year, while adjusted EPS reached EUR 6.58. This performance and our strong financial position allow us to propose a 2025 dividend of EUR 4.25. This represents a payout that is EUR 100 million above our 65% target. We are also delivering on our commitment to return excess capital to shareholders from the 2025 strategic cycle. Today, we are announcing a EUR 500 million share buyback, which starts tomorrow.
Combined, the dividend and share buyback will return close to EUR 1.4 billion to investors, around 10% of our current market cap, and more than half of these figures will go to minority shareholders. All in all, we enjoyed success across all our strategic growth area in our Invest for the Future plan, making 2025 a strong start to our 2028 plan period. Let's take a closer look at some of the key activities. Clients first, starting with retirement, which is, as you remember, one of the key strategic priorities in our new plan. We have established a dedicated business line to package our offer and capture new opportunities. Following on from The People's Pension in the U.K., we secured another major mandate at the end of the year.
Amundi is one of just three asset managers selected for Ireland's new auto-enrollment pension scheme, which will serve the majority of the Irish workforce. Assets for this scheme are expected to reach EUR 20 billion in the next 10 years. Our other major strategic client priority, you remember, is digital distribution. We saw EUR 10 billion in net new assets from digital players in 2025, almost half of our full year retail flows. New mandates included a retirement offer launched with Moneybox, an award-winning digital wealth management platform in the U.K.. This partnership brings together Moneybox client-led product design with Amundi's global multi-asset and ETF expertise, creating three new Moneybox branded funds. Now, geography's next, starting with Asia. We continue to deliver strong growth forward by our direct presence and our successful JVs. Asian net inflows were EUR 33 billion for the year.
Over 40% came from our direct distribution business, with contributions well diversified by country and client type. On the JV side, India and Korea were the main contributors, and China showed a good momentum as well. Now, closer to home, Europe continues to offer significant growth potential for Amundi, and increasing our market share in Northern Europe is, as you remember, another strategic priority. Our 2025 activity reflects this with EUR 40 billion in net inflows from this region, including EUR 29 billion from the U.K.
Germany contributed EUR 8 billion in net inflows, with EUR 5 billion from digital platforms. As part of our new strategy, we will also reinforce our presence and build on strong client activity in new high-potential regions. The Middle East is one of these, and in addition to strong business momentum, we also signed a new strategic partnership with First Abu Dhabi Bank to target Gulf investors at the end of 2025. This partnership combines Amundi's wide coverage of investment solutions and asset classes, with First Abu Dhabi Bank regional insight and presence. Solutions next, where innovation is key to future growth.
Let's start with active management, where we saw good investment performance as we continued to widen and strengthen our offer. We launched three new UCITS funds in key strategies: global equity, U.S. large caps, and U.S. mid caps. These funds, fulfilled via our Victory Capital partnership, are the first from investment platforms outside of the former Amundi US brand Pioneer, demonstrating the clear potential to extend our range as promised.
We have also launched in 2025 the first tokenized share for one of our money market funds. The fund is now easily accessible via standard distribution networks and/or the tokenized share. This first class of tokenized shares is just the beginning, and we will gradually test and add new features to our offering based on specific business cases. Smart Solutions are another commercially successful innovation, well-suited to the current environment. These solutions enable institutional investors to optimize their excess cash by capturing premiums offered by top-tier issuers for their funding while maintaining low volatility and high liquidity. Assets under management for these funds reach more than EUR 41 billion in 2025, representing additional inflows of EUR 20 billion. This includes additional EUR 3 billion from a European public institution in Q4.
Now, ETFs next, where we are further strengthening our position as the second-largest provider in Europe and the number one European provider, both in terms of assets under management and inflows. ETFs assets under management reach EUR 342 billion, up 27% year-on-year. In Q4, we achieved record quarterly inflows of EUR 18 billion and EUR 46 billion for the year. We are by far the number one collector of European equity ETF inflows. This leadership is driven by our diversified offer, which includes products like Core STOXX Europe 600, the largest selling European equity ETF on the market. Innovation is also key to capturing ETF growth. New products, including macro thematics like defense and strategic autonomy, collected EUR 5 billion in 2025. Innovation is also key to adapt and grow our responsible investment offer.
In July, we launched a new global green bond fund tailored for Zurich Insurance Group life insurance clients seeking diversified access to green bonds. In December, we launched a Euro Biodiversity Credit Fund available to both institutional and retail clients in more than 10 countries. This fund allows investors to participate in the preservation of natural capital through a Euro Credit Allocation. In summary, a period of strong innovation across our investment solution that is supporting, of course, our growth trajectory. Finally, I would like to highlight Amundi Technology. We are now a recognized technology provider covering the entire savings value chain and operating at scale in 15 markets. Revenues reached EUR 116 million in 2025, up 45% year-over-year thanks to 10 new client wins, which also saw us enter two new markets, Denmark and Singapore.
We talked about some of the great 2025 client wins at the Capital Market Days, including AJ Bell in the U.K. Since then, leading Dutch assets and wealth manager, Van Lanschot Kempen, has selected our ALTO Investment platform. We also signed Bankdata, a technology services consortium made up of seven Danish banks that serve one-third of the country's population. Bankdata selected Amundi's ALTO Wealth and Distribution Solution to introduce comprehensive portfolio analytics and reporting into its ecosystem, and obviously, for the clients of these banks. We also recently launched our new data-as-a-service offer, leveraging our robust architecture, our data provider connectivity, and our market expertise. We are now onboarding our first client, a leading global insurer in Asia. Our tech business is continuing to deliver growth while also serving as a key strategic enabler for the wider Amundi Group.
It strengthens our investment solutions, creates durable long-term relationships, and is a key differentiator for Amundi among European asset managers. That's all for me for now. Let me hand over to Nicolas to take you through our Q4 and 2025 activity and financial results in more detail. I will be back, of course, for some closing remarks ahead of the Q&A.
Thank you, Valérie, and good morning, everyone. I will now comment on our activity and the financial results. Starting with our assets under management, which reached EUR 2.38 trillion at the end of December. This is, again, a new record for Amundi. Assets were up by 6% over the year. Almost two-thirds of the growth is coming from net inflows at EUR 88 billion, or 4% of AUM.
Under it comes from a positive market and forex effect of EUR 62 billion, despite the depreciation of the US dollar on the Indian rupee. On the fourth quarter, our assets rose by 2.7% with similar trends. Moving now to our net inflows. As I said, they amounted to EUR 88 billion. They are sharply up versus 2024, which already showed a strong increase compared to the previous year. In other words, we have enjoyed strong business momentum in the past three years. Furthermore, this business momentum was driven mostly by medium to long-term assets from our two client segments, retail and institutional. Long-term net inflows indeed more than doubled at EUR 81 billion for all these clients. Long-term flows were positive in both active and passive management. Passive management was very successful at EUR 76 billion, including the EUR 46 billion in ETFs, as Valérie highlighted.
Active management gathered EUR 13 billion, almost double the net flows of the previous year. Fixed income was, again, the main driver, but growth also came from the return to positive net flows of active multi-asset management. Conversely, Treasury products posted net outflows, largely related to the ECB rate cuts on a slightly more risk-on approach by our institutional clients. Turning to our joint ventures, they collected EUR 20 billion. I will come back later on with more detail. Finally, the U.S. distribution of Victory Capital for the share we own in this partner posted net outflows of EUR 1.4 billion. However, the strategies managed by Victory Capital that Amundi distributes to its clients in Europe and Asia gathered EUR 800 million, despite a lower appetite for U.S. strategies last year.
I will not comment in detail on the fourth quarter because it is, in fact, very much in line with the full-year trends, with some acceleration in areas like long-term assets in general, in particular ETFs, but also active management. Coming to performance, our investment management teams delivered sustained performance in 2025, as illustrated on the slide. Close to three quarters of our open-ended funds were in the first and second quartile over one year, three years, and five years. 230 Amundi funds are rated four or five-star by Morningstar. The investment performance is particularly good for fixed income on multi-asset flagships. For example, in multi-asset, global multi-asset on its more conservative versions, Global Multi-Asset Conservative, ranked in the top five on 10 percentiles of their category.
On the fixed income side, Global Aggregate, our main flagship, outperformed its benchmark by more than 300 basis points, and our Euro subordinated strategy by more than 600 basis points. Beyond these particular highlights, I think the main message from this slide remains sustained consistency at a high level of investment performance. Looking next at our client segments, starting with the retail, retail flow was positive at EUR 22 billion over the full year. These flows remain driven by third-party distributors, which continued to post very healthy inflows of EUR 33 billion, with EUR 27 billion in ETFs and positive flows in active management. Flows are also very diversified by region. In Europe, first with EUR 23 billion, with a high level of activity, in particular in northern Europe, in the U.K., in Germany, in Netherlands, but also in Spain and Italy.
Asia continued its healthy momentum with EUR 6 billion of net flows. In addition, we gathered material flows from high-potential regions like the Middle East, Canada, and Mexico, in line with our strategy to conquer these new markets. Beyond third-party distribution, our Chinese joint venture with Bank of China also enjoys strong momentum, with EUR 2 billion gathered year-to-date.
Turning now to our international partner networks, the net outflows totaled EUR 14 billion, as you can see. They are fully attributable to UniCredit, where outflows totaled EUR 16 billion in the full year, of which EUR 4 billion in the last quarter. Finally, the French partner networks in France are showing positive net inflows of EUR 1 billion. The fourth quarter's net inflows in this segment are entirely due to Treasury products, in particular due to corporate clients of these networks, whereas long-term assets are positive. Moving to the institutional segments now.
In 2025, net inflows were EUR 48 billion, with a strong performance in long-term assets at EUR 61 billion, triple the level of 2024. Passive management accounted for a large share, EUR 44 billion, of which almost half coming from the mandate won with The People's Pension. But we also gathered close to EUR 20 billion from active management, for the most part in Smart Solutions, the Smart Solutions Valérie highlighted.
If you look at by segments, institutional and sovereigns posted record levels thanks to a series of mandate wins in Europe and the Middle East, with in particular sovereign funds, central banks, or state-related entities. Employee and savings and retirement business that we presented more in depth last quarter posted a high level of long-term inflows once again. Finally, Crédit Agricole and subsidiary insurers, the long-term inflows of EUR 17 billion benefited from the renewed interest in euro contracts in France.
The short word may be on the outflows from Treasury products. They originated, as I indicated, from the rate cuts implemented by the central banks and the resulting shift for our clients for better yields. An illustration once again of this success is the success of the Smart Solutions we mentioned. Again, I will not comment in detail on the fourth quarter. As you can see, the trends are very similar to the one we saw for the full year, with EUR 13 billion in total. Finally, our Asian joint venture posted net inflows of EUR 20 billion over the full year, with good performance in all countries. South Korea posted EUR 6 billion, mostly in long-term assets, and we saw some outflows in the last quarter, which are purely seasonal and linked to Treasury products.
China, with ABC, continued its recovery with EUR 2 billion inflows over the year, and our Indian joint venture sported more than EUR 10 billion of inflows. The decrease compared to 2024 is partially explained by the decline in the Indian rupee versus the euro, and for the rest, it was driven by lower inflows from institutional clients in less favorable markets. However, net inflows into savings plans in retail continue to grow in a very healthy manner. Moving now to our net results. You are now very familiar with the pro forma restatement that we made to 2024 quarters to make the series comparable after the closing of our partnership with Victory. I will not detail them again, but you have, of course, all the details in the appendix of the slide deck and in the press release.
All my comments will refer to adjusted data, and your variations refer to 22 pro forma figures. 24. 2024, sorry, pro forma figures. Let's start with the review of our fourth quarter, in particular on revenues. As you can see, total revenues were just shy of EUR 900 million on this quarter. They were up by more than 8% thanks to a healthy growth in all business-related fees in asset management and technology.
First, net management revenues were up by 7% compared to the last quarter of 2024, of which 4% for management fees, strength was strong asset gathering in the past 12 months, and performance fees were very elevated thanks to the performance delivered by our teams across a large range of expertise. Technology revenues were up by 37%, at EUR 35 million. This reflects both a healthy growth in license revenues and a high level of build revenues thanks to the launch of new client projects. Finally, a short word about our financial income.
It's stable compared to the end of 2024, but this reflects contrasting elements. On one hand, the decrease in euro short-term rates resulted in a material drop of the return we get from our voluntary placement of our cash. However, on the other hand, this was offset by better mark-to-market valuation and carried interest from our private asset investments. Turning now to our costs at EUR 450 million. They were up on the quarter by 6%, more than two points below the top-line growth in the context of very healthy business development. This good cost control over our costs was achieved thanks to our continued efficiency efforts, including the first savings from the cost optimization plan we announced in the second quarter of last year. This allowed us to continue our investment in our strategic priorities to nurture our future growth.
Approximately one-third of the year-on-year cost growth originated from investment, in particular from technology. As a consequence of this large Jaws effect, the adjusted cost-income ratio was 50%, 51.5% to be precise, on this quarter. Finally, our adjusted pre-tax income topped EUR 500 million for the first time in a quarter at EUR 519 million to be precise. It was up by 12% thanks to, again, the healthy growth in operating profit, up by 11%, and the acceleration from our associates, up by 21%. Its further contribution from our Asian joint ventures, which was up by 20%, driven mainly by our Indian joint venture, despite the decline in the rupee, and the contribution from Victory Capital, which was up by 19%, reaching EUR 35 million thanks to the synergies, and again, despite the currency headwind.
The adjusted net income was EUR 376 million, almost the same level as in the fourth quarter 2024, despite the exceptional items in the tax charge. First, of course, the tax surcharge in France, which represented around EUR 11 million on this quarter. Second, the withholding tax on an exceptional dividend we received from our Indian JVs, which represented a cost of EUR 12 million. This exceptional dividend was paid out in preparation of the IPO of SBIFM, which is, as you know, scheduled for the first half of this year. We received indeed EUR 130 million as a special dividend, but as the joint venture is considered, according to the equity method, this dividend does not contribute to our result, but only to our cash position. Finally, let's take a look at our financial performance for the full year.
The trends, as you can see, are very similar to those of the first quarter. The pre-tax income rose by 6% to an all-time high of almost EUR 1.9 billion, EUR 1,858 million to be precise. This growth was driven by an equivalent growth in revenues, 6% driven by business-related fees, of which 4% for management fees, which represent two-thirds of this growth, 20% growth for performance fees to EUR 173 million, and 40% of growth for technology revenues, reaching EUR 116 million, including a full year of aixigo. But organic growth on technology, again, remained very solid, excluding aixigo, 30% of growth in revenues. Our asset management revenue margin, of course, was 15.9 basis points, pro forma again of the deconsolidation of Amundi US, like in the first half of 2025, but down by 50 basis points from full year 2024.
We already commented on this decrease in the previous quarters. It is entirely due to the strong growth we have enjoyed in the institutional client segment, in passive management, and as well as active fixed income. Both the clients and the product mix have therefore weighed on our margins, but the growth has been profitable on a bottom-line basis, of course. Finally, on the revenue side, contrary to business-related revenues, net financial income was down by 5% due to the rate cuts by the ECB and partially offset by the positive mark-to-market as for the last quarter. On the cost side, costs were controlled, again, 6% growth in line with revenues, reflecting again the investment we made in our growth drivers. Indeed, more than half of the cost growth is related to an increase in investment, in particular, again, in technology.
As a result of this good cost control, our operational efficiency remained best in class with an adjusted cost-income ratio of 52.1% for the full year. This good operating performance for fully controlled business was complemented once again by strong contributions from our associates. Our Asian joint ventures contributed EUR 135 million, or 10% of our net result, and up also by 10% despite, again, the currency headwind in India. The contribution from Victory Capital was EUR 95 million for the last nine months only, up by 12% over the profit contribution of Amundi US over the same period in 2024. As a consequence, including the tax surcharge in funds a total EUR 74 million, our adjusted net income would have been over EUR 1.4 billion. Including the tax surcharge, it was EUR 1,354 million, and the earnings per share was EUR 6.58.
This good level of profitability only strengthened, again, our financial position, as you can see on this new slide. We are probably the traditional asset manager with the largest tangible equity base globally. Indeed, it reached EUR 4.9 billion at the end of 2025, up by 10% over a year. As Valérie announced, this strong balance sheet allows us to propose to the General Assembly next June a dividend per share of EUR 4.25. This represents a payout of 74%, EUR 1 million over what it would have been if we had applied the minimum 65% target. This decision is part of our disciplined capital management. If we can move to the next slide, our final surplus capital at the end of December 2025, the end of our previous plan, and before distribution on ICG, was EUR 1.4 billion.
We will appropriate this amount for three purposes in line with our commitments. First, M&A. The acquisition of our stake in ICG is likely to use EUR 700 million-EUR 800 million for the final 9.9% share we target. Second, the ordinary dividend, the EUR 100 million above the minimum payout I just mentioned. Third, additional capital return. The board has indeed decided on a final amount for our share buyback of EUR 500 million, well above the minimum EUR 300 million we had committed at our capital market day in November. This will represent an earnings accretion of around 3% at the current share price. This share buyback will start tomorrow and is likely to span over a full year given the share liquidity and the regulatory constraints applicable to such an operation.
It's worth noting that if we combine the total ordinary dividend for 2025, around EUR 900 million, and the share buyback, we will return to our shareholders this year just shy of EUR 1.4 billion, almost 10% of our current market capitalization. One last word regarding our partnership with ICG and the equity stake we are in the process of building. As you know, we have acquired via a structured transaction 4.64% in ICG on November 19th, the day after our capital market day. We own the shares with full voting rights. However, the structured transaction is still in the process of being unwound. The next milestone is for us to get the mandatory approvals from various authorities. We should obtain them in the course of the second or third quarter.
At that time, we will be allowed to appoint a director to the board of ICG and to start equity accounting for our stake, the 4.64% I mentioned. This will also allow ICG to start issuing new non-voting shares to us for a total economic interest of 5.3%, taking our final stakes to the target 9.9%. They will do so while, at the same time, buy back an equivalent amount of ordinary shares on the market and canceling them to avoid dilution. This process is expected to last several months, depending, of course, on ICG share liquidity. It should be completed early 2027, at which point we shall acquire an equity account for the full amount. I hope this clarifies the process.
Of course, ICG will be integrated in our reporting as an associate in a similar way to Victory, and Cyril and the team are at your disposal for the details. I will now hand back to Valérie for concluding remarks before we take your questions. Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you, Nicolas. 2025 has been a solid start to our new strategic plan, Invest for the Future 2028. We saw higher activity across our strategic growth areas, which supported our strong results. In terms of strategic initiatives, as Nicolas outlined, we are now building our stake in ICG. Our wider partnership has kicked off, and we have already seen some very promising and fruitful cooperation. We are both excited by the significant long-term value it will generate, both in terms of enriching our investment solutions and delivering return on investment for Amundi.
We are already working on the funds we are planning to launch with ICG and expect to offer them to our wealth investors soon in H2. Finally, with our proposed EUR 900 million dividend and our EUR 500 million share buyback, we are delivering shareholder returns of more than EUR 1.4 billion, fully demonstrating our disciplined capital management approach. With that, Cyril, I think it's back to you for the Q&A.
Thank you, Valérie. Nicolas, many questions. We'll start from the room, and then again, if you want to ask questions online, please raise your hand virtually, and I will open your mic. Let's start with the front row, Arnaud.
Yeah, good morning, Mr. Arnaud Giblat from BNP.
Three questions, please.
I would like to make sure that we can hear you because, is it okay? Just hold it really close.
Okay. Sorry. All right, thank you. It's better. Yeah. Arnaud Giblat, BNP. Three questions. Firstly, can I ask about ALTO? A big step up in Q4. You did say that there was a lot of build for new clients going on. I'm just wondering how we should be thinking about the coming quarters. Does that build continue? Do the revenues from build continue into the future quarters, or does it step back down to recurring revenues in Q1? My second question is on SocGen. The contract you announced was renegotiated, I think, in a press release. No material impact because I think Société Générale, as a percentage of the total group, has been diluted. I'm just wondering if you could give us a bit more specifics. Have the conditions in terms of share of flows changed with that renegotiation? Has the headline rate changed as part of that negotiation?
My third question is on the Irish DC pension. I think during the presentation, you mentioned EUR 20 billion flow potential over 10 years. Just wondering how that splits across the three partners and what sort of products, the fee rates. Any more details you can disclose there could be helpful. Thank you.
I will let you answer on Soc Gen. I answer on ALTO and the Irish ALTO enrollment. On ALTO, Arnaud, as mentioned, new clients in tech, you have the build parts when you win the client and that you have to build the project, and then you have the recurring fees. Obviously, everything built means more recurring fees for the future, but of course, according to the number of clients you won in the quarter, you can have some plus or minus. This last quarter was a very good one because new clients, by definition, the sale process in the technology area is a long one. We are working today on clients that we hope will be onboarded in 2026, but I am unable to tell you today what will be the exact figures for 2026.
What I'm absolutely comfortable and happy about is the fact that we are onboarding more and more clients, which means that we are building more and more recurring revenues, which do not depend on the markets or on the geopolitics or on whatever for the future, and which are reinforcing our position. Another point, which is really important with ALTO, is that we deliver growth and new clients both on ALTO Investment platform and on ALTO Wealth. The two main lines of products and clients are really up and running. Last but not least, we managed to open new countries because when you get your first client in one country, it means that people around look at it, and it's also a source of growth for the future. Regarding the Irish auto enrollment, you know that this is a brand new scheme.
In Ireland, by definition, there is no history on which we can count. What we shared is that that might represent EUR 20 billion, of course, shared between the three players. For the time, it's really just starting. We're thrilled. We wanted to focus on that one. It will not change the P&L of Amundi in 2026. It's a very long-term mandate, but we were thrilled about it because it's recognition of the capacities and the expertise of Amundi in the retirement area. As we are absolutely certain that the move from DB to DC, both in Europe and in Asia, will go on growing, the more we are recognized as a strong player in this area, the better it will deliver growth for the future.
Regarding Société Générale deals, as you know, we don't disclose specifics on our agreement. What I can tell you is that it confirms our position as privileged providers of asset management with our funds or mandates for their clients and for their networks, and it should not have any material impact on our P&L going forward.
Next question from Nic.
Yes, thank you. Nicholas Herman from Citi. Three questions as well, please. Firstly, is there any update you can give us on the SBI JV IPO, please? Presumably, can you confirm if you're still on track for an IPO in the first half of this year? Any update on the process would be helpful. Secondly, on passive inflows, did I hear you?
What's that?
Passive. Did I hear you correctly that you brought in EUR 5 billion from new passive product launches during the year? It's about 10% of your passive inflows. Could you just talk about the competitive environment within passive? It looks like you've been taking a lot better share recently, but also as part of that, and I know you don't disclose your passive fee margins, but with such strong demand for funds like Core STOXX 600, is it fair to assume that the margins on your passive inflows have been diluted to your blended passive fee margins? Finally, just a technical one on the buyback, just curious why you decided to upsize the buyback already two and a half months after announcing the buyback of at least EUR 300 million. I guess also as part of that.
Why did we increase the?
You should have increased it before. I think when you announced it, at least EUR 300, and now 2.5 months later, you're saying EUR 500. Why today? What is it that drives the variance of the cost of the ICG stake between EUR 700 and EUR 800? I understand that you've structured the transaction to kind of limit the variability. Is that an incorrect understanding? If you could clarify that, please. Thank you.
Okay. We're going to clarify. On the SBI IPO, very simple. The process is on track, and as of today, but we're still only in January, we expect the IPO to happen by the end of the semester, by the end of June. Six months to go, an IPO is not an easy process. For the time being, everything is on track. Second topic, on the passive side, I don't know if you want to share any figures. Honestly, regarding your question around the Core STOXX Europe 600, I think what is remarkable here is that Europe attracted, by definition, a lot of flows this year for good reasons, of course, the performance of the index, but also the fact that the dollar decreased a lot, as you know.
For all these reasons, investors have diversified their position all over Europe and Asia, and especially diversified their position in investing into Europe. It's great news that our Core STOXX Europe 600 attracted so many flows. I think it's the sort of evidence and recognition that Amundi is the largest ETF provider in Europe with the largest and widest range. Honestly, on the margins, for me, I'm going to let Nicolas look at it or answer if any, but I haven't seen anything significant.
Nothing significant. What's important to see is that we have inflows on, I would say, very vanilla products, but you are also innovating, and margins on more innovative products tend to be higher.
Yeah, because at the same time, we stress the STOXX Europe 600, but we launch a lot of ETFs, typically thematic ones, defense ones, strategic autonomy, which have attracted a lot of flows as well. As you know, we launch our first active ETFs, which by definition are higher margin. We also launched, as you remember at the end of the year, our ETF as a platform service, which is another way to increase the revenues of Amundi. I remind you, we offer our ETF platform both to active asset managers who don't have one and who want to list their expertise on the market. We act as a service provider, but we also sell this platform to distributors who want to distribute ETFs, can be passive or active under their own brand name. All this is a sort of, I would say, virtuous circle on the ETF space.
On your last question, I'm going to try to do it, Nicolas, to make it very simple. On the share buyback, when we announced you this share buyback and said minimum EUR 300 million, it's because in early November, by definition, we did not have the figures at the end of the year. What we committed was to give you back the excess capital at the end of the 2025 plan. When we look at the end of 2025 and when we add the price of ICG, the dividend we are proposing to the board and the excess capital, the difference is the EUR 500 million. We are committing to our promise.
EUR 700-EUR 800 reflects the share price of ICG?
On ICG, the reason why there's no precise number is, as you have understood, there's two operations. One, which is already done, which is structured operation, but there's a second operation, which will be issuance of shares in the months or quarters to come by ICG to us, and they will buy back on the market. We don't know at which price it will be done, and there's still probably something like a year before the end of the operation.
We will know finally.
We don't know exactly the price at which we will buy the full stake.
Thank you. Next question from Tom.
Thank you. It's Tom Mills from Jefferies. I don't think you guys mentioned in your presentation about Fund Channel. I was just interested in how that business is developing. We've seen some consolidation in the B2B fund services space in the last month or so. Just curious as to how you see that development in terms of your own competitive positioning. Is that something you object to from an antitrust perspective? Just curious on your thoughts. Thank you.
First of all, we saw a very nice development on Fund Channel. I'm going to ask Nicolas or finance team to give the exact figures, but we won new clients and the company is growing at the pace we were expecting budget-wise. Second, I'm not sure we discussed about that already. There has been a very important development this year within Fund Channel. We launched a specific money market platform, which is super attractive for all our corporate clients. It will be an additional source of growth for us in the future. We're still totally committed to Fund Channel and are very happy to remain and to be a strong competitor on that market.
For us, it's both a source of growth and also a very important way to go on delivering a good service to all our clients and to help them manage their open architecture.
Can I start? Is there a combination of the funds?
Maybe we should use the mic, I think, for.
Thank you. Just the combination that we've seen elsewhere in the market, Deutsche Börse and Allfunds, is that something that you guys are fine with? Is there any sort of antitrust objection that you might have to that combination?
We never comment on the transactions of our competitors. I can only comment about the fact that we are very happy to have Fund Channel and we are totally committed to go on having it growing and confident.
Assets on our distribution are EUR 660 billion, which is above the target we had set in the previous plan at the end of December. Jacques-Henri, and then we will alternate with online questions from Pierre.
Hello, Jacques-Henri Gaulard from Kepler Cheuvreux. I did something fun this morning. I didn't restate the Q4 2025. When you don't do that, when you don't restate, you realize that imagine you don't have revenues as a reference from the U.S. You have the unit credit outflow. It's not exactly a great condition, but despite that, your earnings per share remain flat, pretty much stable, which is quite incredible. The whole point being, the resilience of the rest of the business versus that is quite big. Then you're also going to buy back x hundred million of shares, maybe more. You never know if we have an IPO that ends up being. When are you raising your EPS target for 2028?
First, we take the good part of your comment, Jacques-Henri. Thank you so much. I'm very happy that you see through your spreadsheet the reality behind Amundi, which is the incredible resilience, which is linked to something real, the huge diversification of our client base, of our expertise, of our services, et cetera, which makes us strong and growing day after day. As I told you during the medium-term plan, I'm very confident for the 2028 plan, and today, even more. We have not planned to change any targets. We were very clear by telling you that the earnings per share target was a floor on which we committed, and we stick to the strategy as of today.
Thank you. We move, as I said, to online questions. I open the mic of Pierre Chédeville. Pierre, you should be able to unmute your mic and speak, hopefully.
Yes, good morning. Jacques-Henri asked the same question as I wanted to ask, but I wanted to ask, when are you going to lower your cost-income ratio target?
Same answer.
More or less the same question. More or less the same answer. Another question regarding your digital development. I was wondering if you had any target related to Crédit Agricole ambitions in this area. You know that Crédit Agricole wants to develop strongly on the savings side with BforBank and also in Germany, particularly with Creditp lus. I wanted to know what is exactly the cooperation you are setting up with them, if you have any targets there. It could be interesting. A precision regarding the tax. Can we imagine that in 2026, now that we have the budget voted, we will see more or less the same tax impact in 2026? Roughly, I would say a tax rate around 31%, something like that. Is it reasonable to see that or not?
Maybe just to clarify regarding share buyback, as far as I understand, you said in your business plan that you were focusing on external growth. You privilege external growth. I mean that if you are about to make over a share buyback operation, you will wait for the end of the plan. I'm not clear on that. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Nicolas. I'm going to take the Crédit Agricole, and I will let you answer the two other ones. On Crédit Agricole, of course, by definition, Crédit Agricole has always been an essential client of Amundi, and we are totally committed to all their growth prospects and thrilled that they are investing outside of Europe in the savings area. We are working on that topic to answer very transparently this question. We are working on that topic with them, of course, as we would with any other clients, but of course on that topic, but also not only on this one. It would be very long to explain, but we are delivering every year new solutions. For instance, we just launched last year an incredibly successful new DPM solution within the Crédit Agricole networks, which is growing very fast.
We have plenty of new solutions that we launch on a recurring basis, both with Caisse Régionale and with LCL. We have been working a lot with Bfor Bank already. This is not new for us. It's been a long relationship, and we are in the process of helping Crédit Agricole in its development in Germany right now. No specific figures to give you and to release, but you can be assured that we are helping them, of course. On the tax, Nicolas?
On the tax indeed, as you have noticed in France, the budget bill has been adopted or in the process to be formally adopted. It does include the same tax surcharge mechanism as last year with the same rule, the same way. Basically, it will have the same impact for Amundi, meaning a tax surcharge which should be around, let's say, EUR 70 million-EUR 75 million. By the way, accounted the same way as last year. It's based both on 2025 and 2026 results, so it will be accounted for let's say, around 60% will be accounted on the first quarter, and the rest will be accounted progressively in the three following quarters. That's it.
Indeed, I would say excluding this tax surcharge, our tax average blended tax rate is, let's say, globally for Amundi, around 25%-26%, and this tax surcharge adds close to 5% to this tax rate. The last question, yes, was regarding share buyback. Let me rectify. The share buyback we're announcing, the EUR 500 million, is the implementation, in fact, of the commitment we took in the previous plan. The commitment was to use the excess capital to do M&A or to return it by the end of the plan. That we are fulfilling our commitment. Going forward, our approach has been, I think, developed during our last medium-term plan capital day. We continue to prioritize external growth for the use of excess capital, but at the same time, we don't want to accumulate capital on the balance sheet.
At the end of the day, we return the flexibility to return excess capital that wouldn't be used to the shareholders, but at the time, in a way, that will be determined during the course of the plan.
Thank you. We will take our next question from Hubert in the room.
Thanks. It's Hubert Lam from Bank of America. Just three questions. Firstly, for ICG, I think you mentioned the first product's going to be launched the second half of this year. Could you remind us again, is it a private credit product, private credit, and public credit product? Also, who are you going to distribute it to, geographies, and maybe even what your outlook is in terms of flows for that? Second question is, I saw that the French networks had good inflows into medium-long term in Q4. I was wondering if you see this as a turning point, just any dynamics around that. Lastly, just to follow up on the ALTO question earlier, Q4, we saw a step up. I think you met in the presentation, you mentioned 40% of it was due to project revenues.
I'm wondering how much of that was maybe a one-off, or is it something that can be sustained in the near term, at least?
On the cost side or on the revenue side?
The revenue. Sorry.
Can you repeat the last one, sorry?
Yeah, the question's on ALTO.
On ALTO, sorry.
I think it was the EUR 35 million in the quarter, and I think you mentioned 40% of it was due to project revenues or something like that.
40% .
40% .
40% billed revenue.
Is that one-off, or is that seasonal, one-off? I'm just wondering how would you think about this number?
It's probably higher than what would be the average if I had to give an answer, but it will depend on all the new clients we will get next year. But it's probably a let's say it's a bit higher. On ICG, yes, we will launch our first two new common solutions. We are in the process of building the SICAV and packaging the solution in the new regulated format we have in Europe, as you know. We expect all this to be ready during H2, probably after summer. We're working hard to make it very efficient and quick and in an excellent collaboration and good project mode. The two first solutions will be one on private credit and the other one on secondaries.
We're already preparing what will be the future, but at least these two are in the pipeline, and it will be under a regulated European format, so obviously distributed in Europe and in some Asian countries which allow it. The second question was on Ireland, too bad.
French networks.
[Foreign language].
French networks.
Oh, yes, French networks, sorry. French networks. Part of the flows we saw is linked to the dynamic of the life insurance in France, which is, as you know, dynamic and which also explains, by the way, the very good figures we have on the insurance side for the euro contract, on the institutional side in our figures. Part of it is a share of the new solutions I was mentioning. Typically, the very nice growth rate on our new DPM solutions is part of what you see in Q4.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Zoom. Michael, I'm opening your mic.
Thank you, Cyril. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Excellent. Thank you both for the presentation. Three questions, please. First, I think you indicated UniCredit channel, so about EUR 16 billion of outflows in 2025. Should we expect a similar number next year? Can you confirm whether any of the distribution if they are paying a penalty fee related to your distribution contract? That's number one. Number two, we saw really strong performance fees in the quarter, and yet you still showed pretty good cost discipline. I was just wondering how much of the Q4 cost base was performance fee related, i.e., incremental compensation, based on that? Then finally, in terms of the share buyback, is this a buyback that will include your parent company, or is the shares going to be bought back from minority shareholders? Thank you.
Good. I take UniCredit. I'll let you take the two other ones, Nicolas. UniCredit, nothing new since the medium-term plan you attended. You know our partnership runs until July 27, at which point it might or might not be renewed. We committed on targets to you which we will deliver whatever happens with UniCredit. We are obviously fully committed to service, as we always done, the networks and their clients. The difference is that we give you the exact flows and assets on a quarterly basis to give you full transparency of it. I remind them, minus EUR 16 billion with EUR 4 billion at the end for the last quarter. Obviously, I'm not going to speculate on what will happen in 2026. What I can tell you is that UniCredit represents today EUR 86 billion of assets under management group-wise, among which EUR 66 billion in Italy.
That means EUR 86 billion out of EUR 2,380 billion, as you know, and EUR 86 billion, it's less than what we raised this year overall. I just wanted to remind the global picture on their front. Otherwise, nothing more.
On the second questions regarding performances and potentially associated costs, there's no cost directly associated to performance fees as to any kind of revenues, by the way. Just a reminder, we have a variable remuneration policy which is to basically, I would say, allocate something between 14%-20% of the pre-variable remuneration gross operating income to variable remuneration, but it's appreciated globally. No direct costs associated to any particular kind of revenues in particular performance fees. The last question regarding the yes, it was share buyback. Crédit Agricole informed us that they will not participate in the share buyback, so it will be bought on the market.
We never comment on specifics on our partners and clients.
Thank you. Next question from Sharath.
Thank you. Good morning, Sharath Kumar, from Deutsche Bank. I have three questions, two, on India, and one on digital flows. Firstly, on the India flows, I would say still not very encouraging. Do you think yesterday's tariff deal with the U.S. and Sunday's budget announcement could be the catalyst for the flows recovery in India? What is the outlook on the near-term flows? The second one, sticking with India, from my calculations, assuming that we get a $14 billion IPO value for the SBI on the basis of what we hear from the press, I calculate capital gains of, say, $300 million-$350 million for the 3.7% stake that you would sell. What do you intend to do with the proceeds? Would it go into the M&A pool, or are you thinking about a special dividend? Finally, on digital flows, how do you characterize the nature of flows?
What does it do to your group margins? I imagine it would be accretive, but if you could clarify, that would be helpful. Thank you.
You mean the future flows?
On the digital flows from your digital channel. What sort of products are we getting at, and what sort of margins compared to the group margins? Thank you.
Okay. On the first question, I thought, let's see.
If you want, answer.
Oh, go ahead.
No, no, no, no.
Oh, yes. Sorry. SBI flows first before speaking about the IPO. Honestly, exactly as Nicolas explained it, we saw this year that the Indian rupee was down 15%, which clearly explains a material part of the decrease in flows in euros over the period, and the slowdown was driven by institutional clients which were, I would say, less enthusiastic in this environment. What is very positive and essential for us is the fact that on the retail side and on the rise of the individual savings plans, which is an incredible source of growth for the future of this company, they have remained very dynamic, so the strong fundamentals are completely here despite the fact that the rupee was really down this year.
I am fully and totally confident in the future and the growth outlook of SBI FM just because this is a market which has such a low penetration compared to the penetration of the asset management industry. We can see in the U.S., in Europe, and even in a lot of other Asian countries that the growth is going to be huge. Second, regarding the transaction, of course, it's much too early to give both evaluation and value for Amundi, and it's also too early to say whether it will depend on the decision of the board when it will be done. We will discuss back this topic later.
On the digital flows, what is obvious is that distributing savings digitally means using a lot of ETFs, and it is the reason why Amundi is so successful in it. It's one of the reasons why Amundi is so successful in this new market, which is digital distribution of savings. It is not the only reason. It's also because it's a very different way of working with digital distributors than with traditional banks, and that we really were able to adapt to everything in terms of marketing, in terms of technology, in terms of speed of answering, et cetera, et cetera, but at least it does explain.
Of course, a big bulk of this distribution is and will be done through ETFs, but as I explained to you very often, the cost of production of an ETF is much, much, much lower than the cost of production of active management, and at the end of the day, selling ETFs for Amundi is very profitable and expansionally profitable.
Can I just follow up? This from the India flows. On the AM mix, do you have what is it between retail and institutional segment?
[Foreign language]. I'm going to ask my CFO friends in the room to give you the exact figures. Can we come back to you a bit later on that one?
We will definitely get back to you, Sharath.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
I think there was a question from Michael.
Good morning. Michael Sanderson and Barclays. Just a couple, please. First of all, the ICG product launch timings, you've obviously laid out the timeline in relation to the corporate governance and the ownership piece. Are they directly linked? Does the regulatory piece have to come through before you can launch the product, or are you happy to go separately? Then secondly, you saw some strong institutional flows through Q4 that you particularly noted, and I'm just interested, first of all, the scale of them and whether there's any sort of margin dilution, particular margin dilution when you're talking sovereign wealth and central banks. Secondly, I suppose that the pipeline in those areas, how that's looking into the next year.
Thank you. On ICG, the answer is no. There is absolutely no relationship between these regulatory approvals which are really linked to the accounting topic that Nicolas was explaining and the partnerships. We already started everything, and we will be delivering it whatever the regulatory and financial process. On the second point, Nicolas, do you want to?
No particular dilution. We had indeed strong activity on the last quarter, and as for any of our business, the margins we get depend very much on the type of strategies we propose and not that much on the type of clients.
If I have to give you an idea, I think the institutional share of our business this year was particularly exceptional, but it will depend on our clients in 2026.
Once again, we're thrilled to see so many big institutional clients, especially in the retirement area, willing to work with Amundi.
We do not seem to have any questions from the Zoom video conference. Any questions left from the room? No? Okay. Thank you. I think that's done. Thank you very much. Obviously, we're at your disposal for any follow-up. Annabelle, Thomas, and myself are looking forward to our next encounters at the very last, the Q1 results which will be announced on the 29th of April, if I remember well. Thank you.
Thank you so much.