Hej allesammans och välkommen till nästa presentation. Mitt namn är Patrik Brattelius och jag är aktieanalytiker här på ABG och följer Catella. Vi kommer köra den här presentationen på engelska i och med att vi har lite utländska investerare som ringer in och följer bolaget. Därför kommer vi köra det här vidare på engelska. So, without further ado, I'll leave the word over to CFO Michel Fischier.
Tack Patrik och välkomna allihop. Welcome everybody who's listening in from abroad. Michel Fischier is my name. I'm the CFO of Catella. I would like to spend some time describing Catella as it is today. As some of you know, Catella has had a broad history of doing many things. Today we are a property-focused company with three property-focused business areas. Those are Investment Management, Principal Investments, and Corporate Finance. Today we manage SEK 160 billion in assets under management. We have a revenue base of SEK 2.5 billion. We have operations in 12 countries, assets in 16, and all of this backed by nearly 500 employees across Europe. Although real estate has had a couple of challenging years recently, we're supported by a long-term trajectory as portfolio allocation to real estate continues to increase.
Nearly 60% of our revenues are recurring, which provides stability into the business, and this metric is also one of our key KPIs, which we follow and try to increase simply by growing assets under management. We see sustainability as part of our license to operate, and this is seen both through long-term relationships with our clients and also through investments, through funds and project developments. We manage larger institutional clients' capital through both funds and asset management mandates, and this is done by local teams on the ground in the 12 countries which we are, and they have a profound knowledge of the local environment in which we operate. Catella has had a history of over 35 years, and during that time, we've established a pan-European platform and a strong, reputable brand name, and this is a good base to further expand from.
If we then briefly just describe a year ago, we explained to the market these are our key priorities going forward when we talk about growing Catella, reducing risk, and simplify Catella. So the first one is to deconcentrate and refocus our own balance sheet investments, which have been historically done through Principal Investments. And here we will also, going forward, simplify this further by integrating this business area into our core operations. So we will be clearer of the fixed and recurring fees we own on project developments going forward, as well as the returns on our balance sheet investments going forward. So that business area will transform into both investment management and a clearer view of the returns we get on our balance sheet investments going forward. And why is this done?
The important thing is we believe that we can use our own balance sheet to co-invest, to seed invest into funds, to grow AUM, and thereby to secure more of the fixed and recurring revenues, which provide stability to the business and also generate increased shareholder value. Secondly, we've used these couple of years with a slower transaction market to revitalize and renew Corporate Finance, of course looking at costs, but also our offering and how we can expand that business area into a more efficient and scalable platform. As the market now slowly picks up, we see those effects also coming through in the P&L of Corporate Finance. Besides those two priorities, we of course continue to focus on Investment Management and the growth in that business areas, how to establish new scalable Pan-European products designed for a larger institutional base to invest in.
I have this one slide on transactional volumes. Why is that important for Catella? Well, we have the fixed fee revenue base, which is based on NAV or AUM in our funds. But then we have variable fees, which comes from transactional activities, i.e., buying an asset into a fund or selling it from a fund. So that provides additional variable income to us. And for Corporate Finance, of course, which is purely almost transaction-driven, it's very important. If transactions don't occur, the business area has very limited revenues. And as you see in the slide, it starts before the global financial crisis. We saw a sharp decline in transactional volumes and then a slow recovery. And then, as you see in this latest downturn, there was also a sharp decline, and now we see a slow market recovery.
And that is our estimates on how this will proceed going forward, unless something unforeseen happens, of course. If we look at investment management a bit in detail, as mentioned, this is the core growth engine of Catella. And we've been able to grow AUM by over 15% annually since inception in 2015. It is also the underlying earnings generator for Catella's investors, providing once again the stability and fixed income, but also the performance-related fees, which we've seen in really good markets. At the end of our third quarter, our AUM stood at SEK 160 billion, and roughly 70% of that was in funds and 30% was in asset management mandates. And worth mentioning that AUM has continued to grow during this downturn in the industry. And capital inflows into funds have been limited, but at the same time, we've been able to grow AUM through asset management mandates.
And this proves that we have a relevant business offering independent of where the market is. Since asset management mandates, this is where we really have our boots on the ground and help external investors in managing assets locally and adding value to them. If we then look at Principal Investments, we have nowadays eight active investments at quarter-end plus a number of smaller seed investments and some equity co-investments. And as mentioned at year-end, the Principal Investments business area will be integrated into our core operations. And our ambition going forward is never to own or develop real estate on our own balance sheet or independently. Instead, we will invest in real estate developments with partnership where Catella takes a minority share, 5%-10% of the investment, enters into a partnership with our larger institutional investments.
So we will still seek the returns on our balance sheet investments, but more importantly, we will get the long-term recurring revenues, which we get through during our project development phase. This, of course, reduces risk and keeps our focus on growing AUM and recurring revenues for Catella. And then finally, core Corporate Finance. As mentioned, the last couple of slower years, we've used this time to streamline the operations and continue to focus on strengthening our five existing platforms, five countries which we are in. And we are a leading high-end capital markets advisor with solid margins and an improved OpEx base now moving forward as the market slowly recovers. So I have two more slides before you can fire away the Q&A, Patrik. And this is just a brief overview of our financials over the last couple of years.
Worth having in mind when looking at this is that despite navigating through the slowest transaction market since the global financial crisis in the late 2000s, we've retained a solid cash position both at company levels and also in our funds. We did so by exiting the market a bit ahead of the curve. By doing this, we secured liquidity both for ongoing projects, which we have, as well as liquidity in our funds, which has been key during the last couple of years. Furthermore, we've adapted the organization. We've done some digitalization efforts and other measures to offset the sharp decline we saw in revenues. From this base on, as the market slowly recovers, we have a solid foundation to grow from, continue growing.
As a final slide, and this is one I show on a quarterly earnings call, is our cash position, cash and debt position. And what you see on the left side is what we currently have invested. All our project developments are valued at cost, so not mark to market. And these amount to some SEK 1.4 billion. Then we have SEK 1.6 billion in cash, which takes us to nearly SEK 3 billion in investments and cash. Our debt side is some SEK 1.3 billion. So we sit with our net cash position at Catella. And if we were to divest all the current projects, we would still have investment management and Corporate Finance as a business area going forward and a solid capitalization in this market. I think that was it. Did I forget anything?
No, great. Thank you. Very interesting. But let's continue on that slide. Very strong balance sheet.
So can you talk a little bit what you are aiming or planning to do with this capitalization, SEK 1.6 billion? What is your aim?
Very good question. I can't speak ahead of what the board has decided, so we'll get back to that. But what we've said previously is, of course, we want to continue to make investments that make sense, investments into minority investments, co-investments, which I mentioned to grow AUM, that being one part. Obviously, looking at the market, see where we have gaps to grow and evaluate potential M&A. And M&A could be by acquiring a company, or it could be by acquiring a team to fill in gaps in the offering which we want to have to our clients.
Yeah, because one of the first slides was on your geographical footprint and the map.
In your view, do you see any black spots where you think, like, this is an attractive market, this is where we see potential to have a stronger foothold? Can you elaborate a little bit on where you see pockets?
I think we're already present in the larger European markets and where we want to be. It would rather be on, is there a specific competence that we would like to acquire and to broaden our product offering to institutional investors? That would be something we would be looking at.
And currently, you're only in Europe, but do you see a potential where Catella widens their geographical presence also into perhaps Asia or America or other where your knowledge base? Or how do you think about that?
Not next year. No, no, we want to grow in Europe first. This is our home turf.
We have a lot of things more to do here before considering other continents.
Okay, and if we looked at the transaction market, we saw it gradually picking up. Historically, you had a lot of variable income that's been lower given the market development, but can you talk a little bit, how do you expect this development going forward given the market that we are seeing? What is reasonable to expect here?
Now, as mentioned, we don't expect a sharp rebound in transaction volumes coming in the short- term. We expect a gradual recovery. As you know, I mean, transactional volumes decline sharply, and that's simply because of macro uncertainties about inflation, uncertainties about where the interest rates are going, and the long-term interest rates for any real estate investors is the most important KPI.
You need to know what kind of interest rate you will be paying when acquiring real estate. And as those now have stabilized, the bid-ask gap, what the sellers were expecting to get from a sale of a property and what the buyer was willing to pay for it, that has narrowed down. And now, when it has narrowed down, now transactions actually can happen. And this is the main reason behind the slow recovery that we currently see.
Thank you. And in terms of Principal Investments, as I followed you for a while, once upon a time, it was within investment management and it was reported separately. Now it sounds like you will go back into investment management. Is it being downprioritized strategically, or how should we think about that? Because we won't see on a quarterly level the development anymore.
You will.
And then we will explain thoroughly in Q4 how this will be presented. But one would say that historically, the recurring fees and margins we have gotten on development mandates have been a bit hidden in Principal Investments since that P&L is inflated when you sell something, sell a larger asset, for example. Now it will be clearer on how this recurring business actually generates fees on a recurring basis and the margins, which are healthy in that business area as well. So if I take a couple of seconds to explain how it works, I mean, if we onboard a project development where we co-invest together with a large institutional investor, then that project is developed for three or four years. And during those three or four years, we earn fees on it, fees with a margin. So that will be now clearly reflected in investment management.
And when it comes to own balance sheet investments where we seek a return of 15%, that will also be clearly followed up on a quarterly basis. What kind of returns we have received or investing our shareholders' money into projects.
Talking about AUM, which is, as you yourself said, one of your core drivers for earnings growth, there are a couple of different underlying drivers there with inflow, outflow, valuations, perspective, effects. Given the transaction market that is gradually returning, can you talk a little bit how do you expect these different drivers to develop?
Well, I mean, as the market picks up and the bid-ask gap has narrowed and pricing on real estate has come down, I mean, this is a new and good entry point for real estate investors.
So the interest for our core residential funds, which is the majority of our AUM, that is picking up. And we expect that to, unless anything unforeseen happens, to continue.
And speaking of Corporate Finance, in that terms, it has been having a little bit of a struggle in the last few years given the market. And can you talk a little bit which changes you have done and what you hope to achieve? And you talked about broaden the product offering, which avenues do you want to enter into, etc.?
I mean, Corporate Finance is a people's business. So we're operating in five countries across Europe, and we have revitalized, changed some of the teams in the countries where we operate. We've, of course, also looked at and decreased operational expenses.
And now we have a good setup, both from an OpEx perspective as well as a business-enabling perspective to grow and capture market share as the market recovers.
Because you have exited a few countries for the last few years, are all the geographical areas where you're present now profitable, or is it opportunity to enter into new markets, or do you think divestment of geographical areas is on the table continuously?
No, for now, we're happy with the five countries that we are in, and we, of course, want to grow in them. And historically, yes, we were present in Germany for many years, but we could not reach profitability in that market, so we decided to exit it. And the same goes for the Baltics. So now we're in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France, and Spain. And that's where we want to strengthen and grow.
But your geographical presence is even broader than that. Don't you see synergies for investment management to be within further regions? For Corporate Finance, too?
Yeah. Yeah. That could be, but not the top priority right now.
Okay. Well, I think with that, I'm happy with my answers. And I want to thank Michel Fischier for the presentation. And with that, I think it's lunchtime. Thank you all for listening.