Welcome to the Catella Q2 2025 Report presentation. For the first part of the presentation, participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing the pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the CEO, Daniel Gorosch, and CFO, Michel Fischier. Please go ahead.
Good morning everybody, and welcome to this webinar where we will present Catella's interim report for the second quarter of 2025. My name is Daniel Gorosch, and today will be my last presentation as the Interim CEO of Catella Group. Together with me in the room is also Rikke Lykke, Catella's new CEO, and as always, we also have Michel Fischier, CFO and Head of Investor Relations. Before we walk you through the highlights for the second quarter of 2025, I'll leave the floor to Rikke to introduce herself.
Thank you, Daniel. I've truly been looking forward to this moment for some time now, and I'm thrilled to be back to finally be on board. I'm just a few days in, but I must say that I've already experienced the strong engagement and entrepreneurial spirit here at Catella, which Catella is built on. I am happy to have this opportunity to be part of the market presentation today, together with Daniel and Michel, which is a very helpful opportunity to understand Catella even better. I am really looking forward to the route ahead and to get to learn all our teams and get to know all our teams across Europe. The group has such a potential, and I'm eager to exchange ideas about how we can continue to strengthen Catella's position and create lasting value for our clients, partners, and shareholders.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm also really looking forward to working with you and continue to work with all our colleagues at Catella in my new role as the leader of the corporate finance operations. With that, let's move on and walk you through the highlights of the second quarter. As usual, we will open up for a Q&A session after the presentation. Also, as always, the presentation material and reports are available on our website. Let's start the presentation with a brief overview of Catella, starting on page three. Catella manages nearly SEK 160 billion in assets under management , with a revenue base of SEK 2.5 billion, and with operations in 12 countries and assets in 16. This is backed by almost 500 employees. Flipping to the next page, we operate in three property-focused business areas: investment management , principal investments, and corporate finance.
Although real estate has had a couple of challenging years recently, we are supported by a long-term growth trajectory as portfolio allocation to real assets is increasing. Nearly 60% of our income stems from fixed recurring revenue, providing stability to the business as a whole. This number is a little bit lower than what we presented last quarter, and that is due to the significant impact from the sale of Kaktus Towers, which of course is not classified as recurring revenue. We see sustainability as part of conducting our business, both through long-term relationships with clients, as well as through fund investments and investment projects. We manage our larger institutional investors' capital through funds and asset management mandates, and this is done through local teams with profound knowledge of their markets, leading to us being a true vertically integrated pan-European player.
At Catella, we have a history of over 35 years, and during that time, we have established a pan-European platform and a strong reputable brand name. With that brief introduction, I'd like to start this quarter's presentation with a short market summary on the next page. After some three years of a hesitant market with declining transaction volumes, we have seen a recovery during the last quarter and a slow uptick in transaction volumes. The development during this quarter supported that as well, with an increase in volumes of 11% compared with the same quarter last year. Fundamentals continue to support an increased market activity, and these include lowered market interest rates, availability of financing, and stabilized values at attractive yield levels. At the same time, we are cautiously aware of the potential setbacks which could emerge from, for example, tariff turmoil and overall increased uncertainties.
Nevertheless, we remain optimistic about the continued market recovery throughout the remainder of this year and beyond. Moving on to the next page for some key financial and operational highlights of the quarter. As seen, we had a very strong second quarter of this year. The majority of the improvement was driven by the successful sale of Kaktus Towers, which was announced and closed also in the second quarter. Also worth highlighting is that investment management showed an improvement year -over -year, and also corporate finance turned from negative results to slightly positive. The latter was driven by a returning transaction market, as well as efficiency initiatives that are being reflected in the P&L. The negative effects we saw from FX translation effects in the last quarter turned to positive as the SEK weakened somewhat during the quarter.
If we then take a look at our business areas, there are a couple of things I'd like to highlight. Starting with investment management, inflows continue to exceed outflows, and our assets under management do that SEK 157 billion by the end of the quarter. We see an increase in demand, and we have been successful in onboarding new asset management mandates, primarily in Denmark, the U.K., and Finland. We expect more of the growth going forward, stemming from asset management mandates. We are especially pleased of the assignment to continue the management of Kaktus for the buyer following the disposal. Also worth pointing out is that the mandate spans over a two-year period, and revenue is expected to be in the mid-single- digit range in millions SEK. On another positive note, as the market slowly recovers, it also supports transactions within our funds and thus transactional-driven revenues.
Turning to principal investments, obviously the biggest news was the sale of Kaktus, which was closed on May 19th. This divestment ticks a major box in our strategy of deconcentrating our own balance sheet. Looking at our investment portfolio today, it is of course smaller, but it's also more diversified, both over asset classes and geography compared to previously. The current portfolio of eight property investments and four fund investments are progressing according to expectations and our plans. As announced this morning, we will use parts of the liquidity that is freed up through the sale of Kaktus to repurchase up to SEK 600 million of our outstanding bonds. Following that repurchase, we will still have relevant liquidity headroom to engage in new investments, supporting long-term profitable growth with a balance in risk-reward.
As we have mentioned already last quarter, one investment was finalized during the second quarter when we entered into a JV together with Barings in the residential development project Vega. The co-investment secures a long-term mandate with recurring revenue and also at attractive returns, some 15% - 20% IRR on the invested capital. This partnership we have entered into is a blueprint of types of investments we want to increase going forward, with a strong capital partner, limiting our own capital commitment, but at the same time securing fixed revenues and relevant returns on invested capital. Lastly, corporate finance. We saw a significant increase in transactions being closed during the quarter, and in all of our five markets, we experienced either increased or unchanged transaction volumes. This resulted in a net revenue increase of nearly SEK 30 million.
As I mentioned earlier, we have put a lot of focus on and continue to put a focus on to increase the efficiency and profitability in the corporate finance business area. As seen this quarter, a large part of the revenue increase was also translated into improved EBIT this quarter. The quarter ended with SEK 6 million in EBIT, which is up SEK 25 million compared to last year. Looking ahead, we have retained our position amongst the top players in the markets in which we are present. With a relevant pipeline of transactions in a market with increased probability of closings, we have an outlook that is tilted towards the positive for the second half of 2025. Turning to the next page, I'd like to spend a brief moment just to reiterate our strategic priorities and the progress we have made during the second quarter.
As we discussed earlier, to take Catella forward, we have embarked upon a refined strategy with fewer strategic priorities to secure the capacity and focus on the how, i.e., how to implement the strategies and priorities we see as most important. The first one being to deconcentrate and to refocus principal investments. Looking ahead, we are firmly committed to decreasing the concentration, i.e., to increase the diversification of our investment portfolio. Furthermore, we have refined the criteria for new investments. We say that they need to be smaller in size. They need to be more diversified when it comes to asset class, geography, and duration. The primary focus for principal investments is to support the growth of the AUM within investment management through funds or mandates.
We also say that investments need to meet the investment hurdles of 15 %- 20% IRR, but could also be lower if it secures a long and recurring fixed fee revenue. By narrowing down and focusing on the use of our own balance sheet going forward, our investments will fuel the growth of AUM and even further increase the stability of growing cash flow. In the second quarter, the divestment of Kaktus was a major milestone for us. The new investment in Vega, as I mentioned, was also ticking the box of how new investments should be viewed and made. Secondly, even though we made significant efficiency improvements already and strengthened the corporate finance organization, we believe that we can do even better and more to improve the underlying profitability and also make sure to put the structure in place to support the growth.
Here I see a clear scope to create a better joined-up business where we take advantage of our strong local organizations, but at the same time make sure to offer a seamless offering to our pan-European clients. Now, with me taking on the role as Head of Corporate Finance Europe, this will be my top priority going forward. During the second quarter, the improved market conditions supported top-line growth, but more importantly, our efficiency measures, which we have focused on over the last years, were shown in improved margins and bottom-line profitability. Thirdly, besides refocusing principal investments to support AUM growth, we need to continue to grow our existing funds, as well as launching fewer but larger internationally scalable products.
Investment management is the main value driver of our business, and it is of course extremely important that we continuously create products that are relevant and that are in demand from our investors. As mentioned, the main driver behind AUM growth in the quarter was through the new mandates we have secured, which we of course are very pleased with. At the same time, we continue to focus our business development efforts on new products and strategies to raise capital for new scalable products meeting investor demands. With that said, we continue to make progress on our key priorities in Q2 and continue to build Catella based on our core competences, which is capital and real estate competence, and creating long-term shareholder value. Moving on to the next page, discussing investment management a little bit more in detail.
Investment management is our largest business area and has since the start shown an impressive average annual growth rate of over 15%. Despite a more cautious market and lower interest for core fund investments, inflows continue to exceed outflows during the second quarter. As previously mentioned, the main driver behind impressive inflows during the quarter and the last 12 months has been the onboarding of new asset management mandates. Here, our offering meets the market demand of refining and repositioning assets in the more cautious market, which we have seen over the last couple of years. Even if the AUM growth has been somewhat tilted towards new mandates, we have also been successful in maintaining AUM in our funds over this slower period in the industry, even though there was a slight decline quarter -over -quarter.
Last 12 months, inflows amounted to north of SEK 17 billion, split between SEK 7 billion in funds and SEK 10 billion in asset management mandates. In funds, the inflows were concentrated to residential products, and in mandates, the largest growth was seen in Denmark, followed by the U.K. and Finland. Outflows were mainly driven by expiring mandates in the U.K. and Finland, followed by outflows in both residential and commercial funds. In the quarter, we experienced similar moves with inflows of new mandates in Denmark and in the U.K., but negative flows from funds. Overall, this resulted in AUM growth driven by asset management mandates. Moving on to the next page, fixed fees have remained stable over the last four quarters, around SEK 210 million. Same quarter last year, a couple of larger U.K. mandates ended, as I mentioned, leading to a small decline in the fixed revenue base.
As we now have onboarded new mandates, this should support fixed revenue growth going forward at these levels. Variable revenues showed a substantial increase compared to the exceptionally weak first quarter this year. This was an effect of transactions being pushed forward in time from the first quarter to the second. As you also can see from the table, the efficiency improvements implemented over the year have resulted in the effect of a lower OpEx and an improved EBIT. Turning to the next page for an overview of principal investments. As already mentioned, the largest news of the quarter was the divestment of Kaktus . This divestment generates substantial profit for Catella's shareholders and frees up significant liquidity to both decrease interest-bearing debt and to secure headroom for new investments in accordance with our investment criteria, hitting return targets through a much more diversified portfolio.
One of those investments was the residential project Vega in Copenhagen, together with Barings that I mentioned earlier. This investment was made in accordance with our investment criteria and caps our total capital commitment to SEK 83 million over the development phase, at the same time as it builds AUM and secures long-term mandates. Besides the substantial EBIT contribution from the sale of Kaktus , which amounted to SEK 252 million, market values of fund investments also contributed positively, but were offset by some delays in milestone payments and developments being pushed forward in property investments, leading to a Catella shareholder EBIT contribution of SEK 247 million in the quarter. Let's continue with corporate finance on the next page. The overall increase in willingness to transact, supported by improving market fundamentals, led to an increase in transaction volume during the quarter.
The improved top line also led to a stronger bottom line, also an effect of our work to improve the profitability in corporate finance. Even though we show a substantial improvement compared to the same period last year, we still expect the business area to demonstrate further margin improvement going forward. Looking at our markets, the Nordics showed a relevant increase in transactions towards more normalized levels, whereas continental Europe still is lagging behind in market recovery. Our view remains cautiously optimistic, with more closings expected to come during the second half of this year, and especially in the fourth quarter. That was the operational overview. I'll now hand over to Michel , who will share a brief financial summary.
Thank you, Daniel, and good morning, everyone. As Daniel already alluded to, we're very pleased to deliver a strong second quarter. Obviously, the sale of Kaktus is the main driver behind the EBIT outcome, but it also is worth highlighting that all business areas show improved figures compared to last year. Also, worth mentioning in the other eliminations column is that according to the agreement, we also sold the remaining part of our shareholding in CatWave. As you remember, there was a first tranche last year, and this was the second final one, and this contributed with SEK 30 million to other eliminations in this quarter. Looking at operating expenses, we saw an increase compared to last year, but this is mainly connected to an increase in transactional-based variable revenues and thus variable compensations.
Also, the sale of Kaktus had an impact on OpEx, both in principal investments, corporate finance, as well as head office costs. If we then take a look below EBIT, as you remember, the substantial negative effects we saw in the financial net last quarter due to FX movements were in part reversed during this quarter as the SEK weakened somewhat compared to our largest currencies. It is worth highlighting and mentioning here as well that our exposure to foreign currency has decreased following the sale of Kaktus , and that also means that we should expect lower effects from currency fluctuations going forward. If we then move on to the next slide, which is a slide we've shared during a couple of quarters, and it is in the material to illustrate how we view our balance sheet, the net cash position.
End of quarter, our equity ratio stood at 47%, and our cash position was SEK 1.7 billion. The slide you see in front of you summarizes how we look at our net debt or in our case, actually, net cash position. As you all know by now, the overall majority of our liabilities are related to investments in development projects through principal investments, and these projects are in turn always valued at cost. If we start from the left and move to the right, summarizing all our investments, these amount to approximately SEK 1.4 billion. If we then add our current cash position of some SEK 1.7 billion, we reach a total of SEK 3.1 billion. If we then would deduct our market debts and other financing, this would take us to a cash position shy of SEK 1.7 billion.
If we would do the exercise of divesting all current projects, valued at cost, and other investments in funds, if that was carried out, this would then lead to a negative net debt, i.e., excess liquidity after the debt being repaid. In this hypothetical scenario, we would still then have investment management and corporate finance as revenue-generating businesses going forward. As I've mentioned on numerous occasions, to prudently maintain a strong balance sheet and cash position has been key for Catella throughout this market downturn. Following the sale of Kaktus , we're now in a position with excess liquidity. Therefore, as announced this morning, we aim to reduce our outstanding interest-bearing debt through an offer to repurchase up to SEK 600 million of the SEK 1.3 billion bond debt.
Also, worth stating is that if we would reach the targeted buyback of volumes of the bond, we will still have relevant headroom to pursue new investments in accordance with our investment criteria, meeting the long-term return requirements and fueling the growth of AUM in investment management. With that said, I'll hand back over to you, Daniel.
Okay, thank you, Michel. Before we conclude and open up for Q&A, I'd like to briefly summarize the quarter from our perspective. We remain cautiously optimistic about the continued slow market recovery, where we have had the worst behind us. Market fundamentals are supportive of this trend, with lower long-term interest rates and tightened credit margins, significantly improved financing conditions, and an active bond market. With these factors as a foundation, it should lead to continued recovery of transaction volumes. Our main message from this quarter is that we continue to do the right things and that we are making progress on the key priorities that we have outlined in the beginning of the year. We have continued to show growth in AUM in the second quarter.
In the second quarter, growth was fueled by new asset management mandates, and in some cases, this was enabled by own investments into projects, which then opened up for larger institutional capital. This is precisely our view of how Catella should put its balance sheet to work in generating growth. The sale of Kaktus was concluded, and the divestment generated substantial profits to Catella shareholders, introduces risk, and frees up significant liquidity, which will be used to decrease interest-bearing debt, as Michel mentioned, and support profitable growth. Even though the sale of Kaktus was the largest contributor to this quarter's result, I would like also to emphasize that both investment management and corporate finance showed improved results following implemented cost and efficiency measures, making us well positioned to advance as the market now slowly returns.
Finally, I'll extend a warm, warm welcome to Rikke as our new CEO, and I really look forward to working with you in my new role as Head of Corporate Finance Europe.
Thank you once again, Daniel. As stated earlier, I'm generally excited to join Catella. There's exciting times ahead, and it's evident that Catella's business model, coupled with the business area synergies, create a winning formula. With our robust capital position, the entrepreneurial spirit within the group, and the brightening market and related opportunities ahead, we are very well positioned to continue our pan-European growth.
I can only agree, and with that, I'd like to thank you all for listening. We are now opening up for questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Patrik Brattelius from ABG. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Can you hear me?
Yes, loud and clear, Patrik.
Perfect, thank you. My first question would go to Rikke since you're on the call. Welcome on board. As you have studied the company, I presume, on the sidelines before joining Catella, what have been your initial thoughts of what you can do and what you can contribute in order to improve Catella and take them to the next steps? Can you please share some thoughts there?
Yes, you are absolutely right. Of course, I've followed Catella for a while now during my garden leave. This is my official fifth day on the job, so you will have to excuse me that I'm not going to get too detailed at this point. There is no doubt with my extensive knowledge and experience within the investment management market, you will find that I will have a very large focus on our principal investments and our investment management team. Daniel has agreed to take up the corporate finance team. He has extensive knowledge there. Together, I think we cover the business areas within Catella in a very good way. There is no doubt that my primary focus will be on the principal investments, how to have principal investments support the further growth in investment management.
Thank you. If we continue with the capital allocation, how do you view that? As you mentioned on the call here, following the sale of Kaktus , the cash position is very strong. You have announced this bond buyback, but after deducting for that, you still have a very strong buffer. How do you view that the capital should be allocated the coming quarters and coming years in order to extract the most value for Catella ?
Is the question for me again? Sorry.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure Michel was looking at me saying which one of them. There's no doubt that the capital we have on our balance sheet at the moment is going to be used for further growth of Catella pan-European-wide. That will be through both investments in new future funds, in joint ventures, and in other areas where we can strengthen the investment management and the corporate finance team's further growth across Europe. As I said, this is my fifth day, so I am reviewing opportunities, but I think some opportunities will come during the next quarter and years. If you will allow me to revert back in our next call, I hope that I can revert back with even further details on how we intend to invest some of the liquidity into further growth in the company.
That sounds very intriguing and good. The next question, I'm not sure, maybe it's for Daniel to answer or for you, Rikke or Michel, but you are now below your target in the principal investment segments, and your target is almost doubling the level compared to where you're currently at. How long time can we expect before you reach that level? Is that an ambition to be reached within the coming three years, or is that even a longer timeframe? How should shareholders think about this target?
I would say, Patrik, that we are in the range of the target. As you know, what we've had historically is to have investments of SEK 1 billion - SEK 1.5 billion. As we show today, putting both our development investments and the fund investments together, we're at SEK 1.1 billion today.
Okay, that's fair. I always thought SEK 1.5 billion was perhaps the target, but yeah, that's true if it's on SEK 1 billion-SEK 1.5 billion. Okay, then my last question is regarding the AUM. We have a couple of drivers here that you have highlighted. We have the inflows and the outflows and the revaluation. If we zoom out a little bit, can you talk a little bit? How do you foresee the different drivers developing, given the current macro environment, the coming years?
What we've said over a couple of quarters is that we expect more of the growth in the near term to come from asset management mandates, as there is increased demand of repositioning assets, investing in new assets, and to increase the value in the assets held by investors. That is also what we see in this quarter and have seen over the last 12 months, whereas funds have been a bit more muted. That's an effect of the market dynamics, which we've seen over the couple of years.
If we reference the slide on slide 10, is it a fair assumption to think that given the interest rate has leveled out, maybe only maybe it can come down slightly more, but revaluation should be a thing of the past, and we should see a demand driving inflows that should outweigh outflows in a larger extent than we have seen for the last one and a half years? Is that a fair assumption?
Yeah, as I've said a couple of times, it's hard to make predictions, especially about the future. As we say in the report, or as Daniel says in the report, I mean, we are cautiously optimistic. Inflation seems to be under control. Long-term interest rates, which is a very important driver in this industry, also have leveled out, and revaluations seem to have reached a level where the bid-ask spread now has narrowed down to a point where transactions actually happen.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much. That was all for me. Thank you.
Yeah .
The next question comes from Emil Jonsson from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, I'd like to ask, are there any more sort of obvious things to do in terms of internal efficiency measures, or have you already picked all the low-hanging fruits by now?
Let me put it this way. I think there is no company that cannot find something somewhere if they look a little further. It's one of the things that Michel, Daniel, and I will be looking at, to see, is there ways of operating more efficiently? Of course, we will implement those. I don't think you can find any company who can't find anything or who can't find something. We will look for that, but we will look for it in a way that is slightly different, probably, and that is we will look for efficiencies where it commercially really makes sense for us, where we can focus on the commercial mindset and take those efficiencies based on both a commercial mindset efficiency, of course, and profitability. It's really key for us that everything we do from now on is underlining our commercial mindset.
You might also see some new investments here and there in order to ensure that our commercial mindset and our opportunities can be increased in the different areas. I've been working in a few companies by now, and I think any company can find something. I think you would agree if we start looking.
All right. In the past few quarters, we've seen, not huge, but fairly significant moves in the number of employees in the company. Do you see anything in particular that we should expect there, or do you think the trajectory has sort of leveled out by now?
I don't think we can comment more on what Rikke said, but as you know, as you followed us for quite some time, as the market plummeted, we needed to do changes from a cost and efficiency perspective, and those we have done, and you see those effects coming through in the P&L now as well. As Rikke said, every company needs to and has to review its efficiency and structure on an ongoing basis.
All right. Do you think you could talk a bit more about what you see driving net inflows in the short to medium-term future? You talked a bit about launching new products. Could you say anything about what kinds of products we could expect to see and what other levers there are for you to pull to drive inflows?
As Michel stated, inflows, I mean, products as such, when you say products, I guess you mean funds. We are working on some new products, but it's a bit too soon to go out and talk about that. We will revert to you when we have more news on that. Definitely, our inflows are going to be driven by two main sources, and that's going to be the corporate finance team picking up more mandates, both on the buy and sell side. It's going to be more asset management mandates across Europe. We are definitely going to be focusing on transactions in the corporate finance team, so advisory services, and then our asset management services across Europe.
Could you perhaps elaborate a little bit on how you see the corporate finance team driving inflows into investment management?
Driving inflows into investment management. You are very low here, we were sitting, so I just want to make sure you said corporate finance team assist in driving inflows to the asset management team, investment management team.
Yeah, I was asking on what's going to drive capital inflows into investment management, whether that's funds or asset management. You said that one of the key drivers will be the corporate finance team. I was just wondering if you could elaborate a little bit on that.
I said we have two business areas, one that is corporate finance, and another one that is investment management. Separately, they both can drive growth and inflow to Catella, the corporate finance team with increased transactional services, and the investment management team with further asset management mandates. Whether there will be a situation where our corporate finance team locally will assist an international buyer acquiring in the country, and we end up with the asset management team, asset management mandate is a possibility. It is key, I think, for our clients in the corporate finance team that they are free to choose. Our investment management team will bid on the asset management mandate on the equal terms as anybody else.
All right. I would like to just finish with a question for you, Rikke, and I look forward to hearing more from you in the future once you've had more time to look into the business more and with more details.
Appreciate that.
Having been at PATRIZIA for a long time, which is fairly similar to Catella, do you see anything obvious that they did in a good way that you could perhaps bring to Catella? Do you have any other experiences from working there that you think is going to be useful?
I've worked in a number of investment and asset management firms or in the real estate industry for more than 20 years now. Of course, you are inspired by all the firms you work in. What I would prefer and what I do intend to do is first get to know Catella and the Catella way, and then sit down and say, "Okay, so how could we maybe increase our USP?" I don't believe in copying other firms. I believe in creating our own USP based on our own culture and values. That said, I don't think there is anybody who can't say they don't get inspired. Let me first, as you graciously gave me the time to do, get to know Catella and its ways, and then we'll take it from there. I hope that's fair with you.
All right, that's fair enough. That was all the questions for me, but thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you, Emil.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Martin Wahlström from Redeye. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello. Thank you for taking my question and welcome to Rikke.
Thank you.
I only have one question that hasn't been answered already, and that is directed to you, Daniel. You're now transferring to the newly created position here as Head of Corporate Finance in Europe. I was kind of, it would be interesting to hear a little bit more, kind of the reason behind creating the position and also what initiatives you want to carry out there to drive growth going forward.
Thank you. I'm almost as new in my role as Rikke, a couple of days in. As we mentioned in the presentation, we have been working quite hard now to really focus and make corporate finance more efficient over the years. I think we are now extremely well positioned for the years coming because we see market recovery. As I also stated, I think we are very strong locally, which we should continue to be. I think there is a further potential for us to be better coordinated throughout the whole European market, especially in the clusters, the Nordic cluster, but also continental Europe. I think we will try to take the best of two worlds, being a local strong player, but also make sure that we can serve the large international clients in a more coordinated way.
We will try to use our market position and the strong reputation we have by doing that. We'll also try to put a better organizational structure in place that will make it more simple and clear exactly so that everybody is incentivized in the same way. A lot of nitty-gritty work, but also some strategic work that will need to take place to come in half a year.
If I may interact here, one of the things you all asked me what I saw, and one of the things that I saw Catella needed was a strong person leading the team forward in corporate finance. We have great, strong entrepreneurial local teams, but we also see that more and more of these transactions are cross-border. We needed somebody to head the team to focus on the cross-border relationships and collaboration for both the benefit of the employees, but definitely also for the clients that the corporate finance team serves. With Daniel's vast experience in corporate finance, I think it was a perfect fit for Daniel to basically become a CEO of the Corporate Finance team.
That sounds like a good initiative. Just to follow up on that, if I may, how has this been kind of coordinated previously? Has there been very strong local focus? Has there been some form of similar role coordinating things across countries, or has that been managed separately?
It has been more steered locally, but of course, somewhat controlled and also coordinated from the HQ and the CEO. We'll put much more push on this, as Rikke says, now with me in my new role. That is a clear step forward in really to make sure that we, yeah, really unleash the full potential of our business area.
Sounds good. Looking forward to follow that and welcome back.
Me too.
Thanks.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
All right, thank you everybody for listening. As I mentioned earlier, the report and the material are uploaded on our website, and we are looking forward to speaking with you soon again. Thank you for listening, and bye-bye.