Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to warmly welcome you to this meeting. This meeting will be headed by Andrzej Klesyk, who is the member of the supervisory board of PZU and who is delegated and temporarily acting as CEO, and Mr. Tomasz Kulik, CEO of PZU and a member of the board of PZU and PZU Life. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to meet with you again.
[Foreign language]
Once again, ladies and gentlemen, welcome. I'd like to say that it's a great pleasure for me to be with you again, and I would like to give particular greetings to those with whom I had the pleasure to work ten years ago. Ladies and gentlemen, this conference, or more specifically a meeting with analysts, takes place at a very unique moment. Currently, together with Mr. Kulik, we are preparing our end-of-year reports. For this reason, today we are not going to talk about results, we're not going to talk about any forecasts or any other matters that could have any impact on our compliance with regulations. I would like to divide this meeting into five parts. In the first part, I would like to introduce myself for those who do not know me. I also would like to tell you what you can expect from me.
The third thing that I would like to mention is to give you a brief overview of what is about to happen in the short run, followed by what is about to happen in the long run. After 20 minutes, we are going to open the floor for questions.
I'm extremely sorry that we are conducting our meeting in English, but given the fact that we are a Polish company and we are in Poland, we decided to do it in Polish. However, any questions in English will be answered in English or in Polish, depending on the preference. [Foreign language]
Who am I? My name is Andrzej Klesyk. I have a degree in economics. I also have an MBA diploma from Harvard University. I worked for one third of my life in consulting. I was drafting graphs and strategies for McKinsey and BCG. For a major part of my life, I was an entrepreneur. I am behind such ventures, business ventures as Inteligo or Handlobank. Also, I had the longest tenure as the CEO of PZU. I held this office for eight years, which is longer than primary school.
[Foreign language]
Now, what can you expect from me?
[Foreign language]
First of all, you can expect a lot of openness.
[Foreign language]
In compliance with regulations as far as trade in securities go and as far as all regulations.
[Foreign language]
Introduced by the Financial Supervision Authority and not only. Because I would like to remind you that our institution is regulated by more than one regulatory entity. We will respect it. We want to have the highest compliance standards.
[Foreign language]
What else can you expect? I can assure you that we'll have very solid corporate governance. By corporate governance, I understand not only sound procedures, but also having the right people in the right place who guarantee that a given institution is run as it should be. Let me give you an example. Today, I have added a few members to the supervisory board of PZU Joint Stock Company of PZU Życie, who is our daughter company. So two amazing people joined the supervisory board, and I welcome this fact. One of them is Professor Dariusz Filar. He's a professor of economics. He's a member of the Monetary Policy Council. He also used to be an independent member of the PZU supervisory board, and he was also on the board of Pekao S.A. I'm very glad that he accepted this nomination. The second person is Waldemar Maj.
I could say that he's my friend from school. Of course, I'm saying this jokingly. Why do I mention this? Because Mr. Maj also has an MBA diploma from Harvard University, and he was the head of the supervisory board of PZU Joint Stock Company for a long time. I'm very proud that he decided to join us.
[Foreign language]
Mr. Maj headed the supervisory board of PZU Joint Stock Company when PZU had its IPO. So this was when we met with you for the first time.
So what can you expect from me? To sum up, strict compliance with all the regulations, no compromises in that regard. You can also expect me to make sure that we'll have a very sound corporate governance and the right people in the right place, and finally, openness and readiness to answer any questions, to address any doubts, openness for dialogue within the boundaries of law, obviously. Let me now move on to the third item on my internal agenda. That is, what can you expect from us in the short run? I have two main things on my plate, if I can say it so. A review of corporate governance in all the companies, starting with the way employees are appointed to given positions, and finishing on the remuneration system in the supervisory board.
I would like the members of the supervisory board to be true legends of the capital market who bring added value to individual companies.
I will also strive to make our strategy more precise.
There is no reason to change our overall strategy. Having said that, after my few days of working here, I understood that some items, some parts of that strategy must be defined more clearly. I believe that the Management Board of our company, of course, after consulting the Supervisory Board, should disclose three more additional pieces of information to you and to the market. One of them.
Is providing more clarity on what is going to happen with the banks.
I believe that it's not a good idea to wait with disclosing this piece of information until the end of the year and to leave the decision in the hands of those who are running those banks. As owners, we must have a lot to say on what is going to happen with the banks. Secondly, we must also give more precise information on how the capital, how the equity is going to be managed, and we need to confirm our dividend policy. Today, I will not say anything more about it because the dividend policy is very price-sensitive information. So we'll come back to you with more information on this matter soon. Now, the third piece of information that we should make more precise regarding our strategy is the idea on how to generate value in the long run.
I'm truly obsessed with value creation, and I do not have a good idea on how to translate it into Polish. It sounds better in English. So we will come back to you with information on our ambitions on how the company will be valued and how we want to deliver on our ambitions. And before I open the floor to questions, I would like to share with you one more thing. As promised, what you can expect from us in the long run. After a dozen of months, for instance, what you can expect is transparency, clarity on our strategy, and also on the measures that we'll take to deliver on our ambitions. In my view, PZU should be a leader, should behave like a leader, and impose standards that only a leader is capable of imposing.
[Foreign language]
Before I open the floor for questions, I would like to share yet another thing. I was introduced as a person delegated from the supervisory board to act as a CEO. Let me tell you that I'm not a sprinter. I'm more of a marathon runner. So it is my hope and ambition to stay with you not for a month or two, but for 12 months, 36 months, and even longer. I have long-term plans connected with this company, and I hope that circumstances will allow me to stay in this position. We have a number of questions in our chat window, and I have allowed myself to put them into groups. So the first set of questions is on the banks. The first question from mBank. What is your position on the sales transaction of Alior Bank? It was purchased during your term of office.
So has anything changed with regards to your strategy on that bank? Answer. Please give us a few weeks. Back in the day when we bought Alior Bank about 11 years ago, the general situation was completely different than today. Please bear in mind that when we were talking to investors back then, we said that the role of Alior Bank is to consolidate second league banks. Currently, we are in completely different circumstances, and I think it would be irresponsible on my part to comment on that when I do not have enough information. I will read the second question. What is the role of banks in the strategy of PZU? Should Alior merge with Pekao ? Is it possible to keep standards of corporate governance and to have two independent banks in the group? Actually, I can answer a part of this question only.
Regarding corporate governance, I believe that you should keep myself and the entire Management Board of the PZU accountable for corporate governance in the entire group. And this has not always been the case. During my first term of office, and I know that for some it might sound like ancient history, PZU had modeled corporate governance. And we need to get back to those standards in all of our companies, in Alior, Armatura, or any other companies within our group. Regarding the second part of the question, I cannot answer the question on a possible merger of Alior and Pekao. If I disclosed anything, it would be pure speculation that I should not engage in at this moment. I'll just say that PZU Group would be irresponsible if we were not thinking about synergies, possible synergies that can be achieved between these two institutions.
Now, questions about the strategy. And the first one is for Generale from Santander. What's your opinion about the current PZU strategy? Well, as I've said at the beginning, I can't speak about the details of the strategy in a responsible way now. I think that in general terms, the strategy is so obvious that it would be difficult to think about any pivot, as the Americans say. But once again, let me highlight that there are three elements that I think should be refined or supplemented, especially if you speak about the capital policy and value creation. There is no mention of the value creation for stakeholders in the strategy. I think that this is something you should expect the management board to do. The next question is from Autonomous. Are there any aspects of the strategy and targets communicated in December which are currently under review?
If so, which ones? I'm sorry, I'm not prepared to answer this. I've been here for four days, and I'm not able to answer this question in a responsible way. And there is another question about strategy from Santander. What is the evaluation of the portfolio of PZU, and what about LINK4 now? What's going to happen with LINK 4? Well, speaking about LINK 4, well, we will have to hold a very interesting debate in the management board about how to keep our position, especially in the motor insurance and MTPL insurance. We will have to get down to a very detailed level of how to approach pricing and the two brands. We have two entities regulated by the KNF, the financial authority with the same license. This is a legal issue, but there's also the business issue.
We'll get back to you with that, I think, when we will be presenting our results at the end of March at the earliest. Yes, that's why that's going to happen. That's right, and it's going to happen at the end of March. What's your opinion about PZU? These questions from Santander. Well, some of you might remember the old time. I know that it dates me, but PZU was created when I was CEO of this company. And my experience is as following. PZU is a leading insurance company, and we would be a total failure if we wouldn't have a very strong position in health. So we have to be on this market. But at the same time, I have to say that we are not a charity.
PZU and each company in the group is not a charity, and we will have to create a business model that actually makes money for our stakeholders and for our employees. Because if we don't make profits, we can't pay salaries. That's obvious. But I see now that we will have to improve the operational model of our healthcare services offer. But I think that once we've done that, and once we have created a stable and solid business model which gives a solid profit to stakeholders, we will invest. We'll make investments in this line of business. There are a few more questions on corporate governance in general. The first one is from Santander. What are the criteria that are going to be adopted to evaluate the members of management and supervisory boards, and what corporate governance problems have been identified?
Ladies and gentlemen, there is one thing I would like to do. The first thing I would like to do, and I have promised it to the Supervisory Board, namely, I would like to create a document which sets out the Corporate Governance rules in a very clear way, and I would like this document to become public once it's been approved by the Supervisory Board. Secondly, Supervisory Boards of our subsidiaries, well, speaking about problems, I think that at some stages in some periods of time, and I'm not speaking about the recent months, but earlier, I think that they were treated as places where politicians were delegated for political reasons, but they didn't have the capacities to serve as members of Supervisory Boards, so we will have to introduce some rules on how to evaluate such people.
I don't want this evaluation procedure to be purely bureaucratic, that if you hold an MBA, you're okay. I think it needs to be more substantive. Also, let me stress that there are companies in our group that are subject to the regulation of the KNF. Here, together with the KNF, I would like to focus on the quality of people who sit on the management boards and the supervisory boards. I think that answers the question. Could you please comment on the changes in the management board of PZU? Because according to Puls Biznesu, the CEO has been dismissed. What was the reason behind that? Ladies and gentlemen, I've always said that the boss and the coach always have to be able to choose his own team. This team has to share the same rules, the same principles, and the highest standards.
The highest standards of professional conduct. Actually, in my opinion, I have decided that Mr. Mastalerz and I do not agree on certain things. He has confirmed in a face-to-face meeting with me that he doesn't think we will be able to collaborate, and that takes two to tango. As a consequence, he has been dismissed from PZU. Also, he is not the director of the group, PZU SA, anymore. Mr. Bejda, the Chair Bejda, has also submitted his resignation from both positions. So much for questions about changes. Now, the questions about the dividend. Now, the first question is from PKO BP Securities, Mr. Szortyka. To you, is the dividend a must-have, and can you sacrifice it in exchange for mergers or takeovers? Do you see any interesting merger options in Poland or abroad?
Even if I did see it, I would never admit it here. This is the first thing. But before I answer, let me tell you one thing. I just want to make it clear. President Kulik and I, I think we will have to work very hard and scratch our heads to think capital management and balance sheet management through. We have had some initial talks, and I think that there are many different opportunities or options on how to release some capital for other investment projects. And the dividend policy only comes after that. PZU, the group, is a very respected institution. So I can't imagine that it could change drastically its dividend policy. I don't want to talk about it today because we are getting too close to things we shouldn't talk about today.
The next question, I'm going to read it, but I think that you have just answered it. This is from HSBC. Should we expect any significant material changes in the dividend policy? And Santander is asking because according to the current strategy, PZU will be paying out dividends of PLN 4.5 per share. Is it something set in stone, or maybe it's going to be debatable? As our CEO has said, let me remind you how the strategy was drafted. Probably the strategy is going to be further refined. And this group is a conglomerate of companies that provide insurance services. So it would be difficult to expect that we are going to change our approach totally, also including the allocation of values. So we announced our strategy, and we said that by 2027, the shareholders will be able to expect at least PLN 4.5 per share of dividend.
This is what we undertake. And from the point of view of the key KPIs and other factors and the consolidated result in our core business, everything was shared with you back then, and this is the value we declared. And today, as the CEO has said, we are thinking about potential areas which might bring this value up. As I have analyzed the dividend policy, I smiled to myself because actually, together with Mr. Kulik, we developed that policy ourselves 12, 13 years ago. And there haven't been any changes to that policy since then. Maybe some tweaking, but nothing material. So if we created something 13 years ago and it hasn't changed substantially over that period, then it's difficult to imagine that any pivots will take place. There is also a question about strategy.
Is there a point in time by which the strategy can be revised or updated? That's the question from Autonomous. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to present you the results for the previous year at the end of March. And I believe I'm positive that during this meeting, we'll also give you more details about our strategy. So by then, we will tell you about any revisions that we may introduce to the strategy. At the same time, I cannot guarantee that we will be able to answer all the questions at a detailed level. For instance, during this meeting, I've said that we want to introduce detailed rules on managing capital in the entire group. I don't know. Correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe I do not know something. But from my perspective, this is a highly important issue.
Because what comes into play is not only compliance with regulations, but also the structure of the balance sheet, and also some ideas for future, as well as taking decisions on how and when we need to introduce some internal models. So again, apologies. I've been here for five days only, and it's not something I can wrap my head around in such a short time. So we'll give you more information during the March conference, and we might need some time to give you detailed answers concerning some areas. Another question from Autonomous. Is there any timetable for appointing a CEO on a permanent basis? And can you tell us a bit more about how this is going to happen? Well, actually, I'm not the right person to take this question.
On the website of the Ministry of State Assets and on the website of PZU, there is an announcement about an open competition. It's a call for submitting applications. If you're interested, you can submit a candidate. As far as I know, the supervisory board is supposed to meet at the end of February, and I cannot answer this question on behalf of the supervisory board, so you can ask the head of the supervisory, the president of the supervisory board, about it. As of now, we have no further questions, but we're still open to take some. I'm monitoring the chat window, so I will let you know if new questions appear, and if you ask a question, please state your company and sign your name. Looks like there are no further questions, so I will hand over back to our CEO. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, thank you.
I'll just reiterate that what we are bringing in is openness, full compliance, solid corporate governance. PZU is a complex institution. It is supervised by various units in the Financial Supervision Authority and also by other institutions. For this reason, we must be crystal clear and transparent, and I will see to that. Once we will have refined our strategy, we'll be very happy to talk to you at length about it. Once again, I'd like to highlight that I'm obsessed with value creation for shareholder value creation. Thank you once again for your attention, and hope to see you soon.