Sistema bancario, audizione Sironi e Donnet, Assicurazioni Generali - martedì 31 maggio 2022

I recall that the presiding office of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the Banking and Financial System, which I have the honor of chairing, following the shareholders' assembly of April 29, 2022, found it appropriate to conduct an inquiry into the recent governance and shareholder dynamics involving Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. The Commission is particularly interested in an overview of the economic, financial, and patrimonial situation over the last three years, including dividends distributed to shareholders; a description of business areas and strategic positioning, also considering the new 2021–2024 strategic plan presented on December 15, 2021, highlighting interest in the Italian market within the industrial plan; and an update on corporate governance dynamics following the installation of the new board. Today present are the CEO of Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A., Dr. Philippe Donnet, and the Chairman, Dr. Andrea Sironi, whom I thank for accepting the Commission's invitation. They are accompanied by Dr. Mina Maietta, Head of Institutional Relations, and Dr. Simone Bemporad, Director of Communications. I now give the floor to Dr. Donnet, who has requested to deliver his presentation with slides.

Thank you, President. Good morning everyone, and thank you for this opportunity to present the activities of our Generali Group in this country and abroad. I will use some slides. So this slide represents the scale and importance of our activities worldwide. We are present in 50 countries, serving 67 million clients globally, thanks to the collaboration of 75,000 employees. We have a turnover of nearly 76 billion euros in insurance premiums, of which about 20 billion are premiums with social and environmental value. We manage 710 billion euros in financial assets. As you can see on the chart, one third of our insurance activity is done in Italy, 90 percent in Europe. The two markets immediately after Italy are Germany and France. We then have an important presence in Austria and Eastern Europe at 9 percent of turnover, 7 percent in the rest of Europe, and about 5 percent in some Asian countries. This makes us the leader in insurance in Europe. We are the leading insurance group in Europe and have been for a long time. We write almost 70 billion in insurance premiums in Europe, while our two main competitors, Allianz and AXA, each write about 55 billion. So there is a difference of nearly 15 billion in turnover in Europe. I insist on this point because I'm not sure everyone knows that Generali today is the leader in insurance in Europe, and we see this not as a weakness but as a strength that we have worked to reinforce in recent years, for example becoming the second insurance player in Portugal and the second in Greece. We are obviously number one in Italy.

Let me focus on Italy, which as I said is our leading market. We are number one in life insurance in Italy, number one in non-life insurance in Italy, and also number one in asset management activities in Italy. We have nearly 25 billion in insurance premiums in Italy, an operating result of almost 2 billion in Italy, nearly 14,000 employees in Italy, and 14 million clients. We have a very powerful, very widespread distribution force across Italy with 40,000 agents. One in three families is insured with us, one in four businesses is insured by us. We have an important portfolio of brands in Italy: obviously Generali, but also Banca Generali, Cattolica, Alleanza, Genertel, and Genagricola, which is a very important agricultural business with 10,000 hectares cultivated in Italy and 7,000 hectares in Romania. Outside Italy, Genagricola is actually the largest agricultural company in Europe. Next slide, please. I would like to describe what we have done in the last six years to achieve this position of success.

We have implemented, successfully, two strategic plans. The first plan from 2016 to 2018 was a turnaround plan — a restructuring of the group with an important review of our life coverage, a re-engineering of our operating model, and our geographic presence. Essentially, we exited small markets or markets where we did not see future potential. We transformed Generali Germany and Generali France, which were underperforming in their markets, and we launched a new strategy for asset management. Paradoxically, Generali, which had always been a leader in life insurance, had never before 2018 had a strategy for asset management. This is a real paradox because doing life insurance without doing asset management means giving up value and giving up significant profitability. After this successful turnaround plan, over the last three years we implemented an optimization plan. After restructuring, we optimized — meaning we improved performance across all areas of our activities. We worked on growth: growth in premiums, growth in profits. We reduced not only the debt level of our group but also the cost of this debt. We also invested 3 billion in capital in acquisitions in Europe and Asia — nearly 10 percent of our market capitalization. And we grew and developed our asset management business.

This optimization plan allowed us to reach all the plan's objectives, which were very ambitious. Despite two years of COVID crisis, we achieved a growth in earnings per share of nearly 8 percent over the 2019–2021 period. We reached the objective of distributing over 4.5 billion in dividends over the three years, and we also reached our return on capital target. All management indicators — whether financial management or qualitative management of client relationships — have been significantly improved. Looking at financial indicators: between 2013 and 2015 we distributed 1.9 billion in dividends. From 2016 to 2018 we doubled the dividend paid to shareholders to 3.7 billion, and in the last three years we further increased the dividend to 4.5 billion. This substantial distribution of dividends was not at the expense of the company's capital strength. Over the same period, the solvency ratio — a European regulatory indicator — went from 194 to 227 percent. Debt decreased from nearly 12 billion to under 10 billion, and the annual cost of debt decreased from 723 million to 470 million.

Looking at what is very important — our relationship with clients — we went from 55 million clients to 67 million clients. So this rationalization, restructuring, and optimization was done while growing, not without growth. On the qualitative side, there is a very important indicator: the Customer Relationship Net Promoter Score, which measures client satisfaction across the sector. At the beginning of the 2016 period, we were last among our peers. By the end of 2021, we were first, the best, with a score more than 14 points higher. Our clients are telling us this. At the beginning of the period, our distribution network's digitalization rate was below 10 percent. By the end, it was nearly 99 percent. The COVID crisis and lockdowns accelerated adoption of digital tools by our distributors and agents. In terms of market positions, we went from 8 market leadership positions among the top six operators in Europe to 13 positions of market leadership. Looking at our technical and operational management performance, we have achieved a level of technical and operational excellence, with a doubling of the margin on new life business and a drop of more than three percentage points in our loss ratio — the ratio between claims and premiums. We also significantly reduced costs by about 300 million in the first three-year period and another 300 million in the second. The non-financial component of our profits went from 37 percent to 55 percent. And we nearly quintupled the profit from asset management activities, from 115 million to 504 million in net profit.

These results are obviously very positive. It is not I who should say so — it should be the shareholders, it should be the market. And the market's judgment has been a recognition of this operational excellence, a recognition of the quality of our financial management, and a recognition of our new credibility. In the last six months we have earned great credibility on the market, and this is a historic change in the history of Generali. Because as you can see, between the end of 2000 and the end of 2016, Generali had consistently underperformed the market and underperformed peers. Since 2016, for the first time, Generali has consistently outperformed the market and outperformed all peers. You can see this with what we call the total return — the total return to shareholders including share price evolution and dividends. In the first period of 16 years, Generali gave minus 52 percent to shareholders, while Allianz gave minus 28 percent, AXA minus 18 percent, and Zurich minus 30 percent. But from November 2016 to December 2021, Generali offered a total return to shareholders of over 112 percent, while Allianz offered 71.8 percent, AXA 49 percent, Munich Re 37 percent, and Zurich 100 percent.

Now, we have talked about the past. Let me say a few words about the future, because perhaps the future is more interesting than the past, even though the past has value — it means credibility. We presented to the market a new strategic plan for the next three years. We presented it on December 15, 2021. This new plan, called 'Lifetime Partner 24 — Driving Growth,' is again a very ambitious plan, and this time it is neither a restructuring nor an optimization plan — it is an aggressive growth plan, a transformation plan. Let me describe it briefly. There are three convictions at the base of this plan. First, the importance of our social contribution, our contribution to sustainability. Our mission is to help our clients build a safer and more sustainable future, taking care of their lives and dreams — this is the real mission of our group. Second, and very important, is our business model: a lifetime partnership with our clients. We want to be and are becoming the lifetime partner for our clients. This means we want to offer our clients 360-degree advice on their protection needs, in a personalized way — because no two clients have the same protection needs — leveraging digital technologies and the quality of our distribution network. There is no contradiction for us between using the reach of our physical distribution and leveraging digital technologies. We also want to use these three years to project Generali into a sustainable and digital future, which also involves investing in our people, in training, because without investing in human capital, no ambition can be realized.

In the context of this plan, we have a very clear vision of what we want to become by 2024. We want to be the leading insurance company in Europe with integrated asset management. We want to maintain our financial solidity to be able to withstand any negative market scenario. We wrote this plan on December 15, 2021 — we were still in the middle of a pandemic and did not expect to face a war scenario in Europe. Maintaining the group's financial strength to overcome any scenario is very important. I say this because when comparing with peers, Generali navigated the COVID crisis much better than peers, much better than everyone — which was the opposite of 2008. In 2008, Generali was severely damaged. We needed nearly 10 years to recover from the 2008 crisis. When a company navigates a crisis poorly, it takes an enormous time to recover and loses ground to competitors. We navigated this COVID crisis better than others and improved our strong position. But we know new challenges await us, like the war and its economic consequences, and we want to be prepared to face any scenario, and we are. We want to be a champion of sustainability — we were awarded as the most sustainable company in Italy in 2021 and received many awards abroad for our sustainability commitment and capacity for innovation. Today, to have true international standing, it is not enough to have returns, dividends, or return on capital. A company must also demonstrate its social commitment, its commitment to the environment and sustainability, with sincerity and with facts and deeds. Markets are not satisfied with words — they want to see actions, and we have delivered.

As I was saying, we want to be increasingly the lifetime partners of our clients, because this personalized insurance and financial advice must follow clients throughout their entire life cycle — from young families through to managing the challenges of old age. We want to be recognized as pioneers of innovation, particularly digital transformation. Let me stop on the pillars of the strategy — these are the pillars that allow the implementation of the plan and the achievement of our objectives. We have financial objectives that are always very ambitious: earnings per share growth of 6 to 8 percent, greater cash generation of over 8.5 billion, and growing dividend distribution of 5.2 to 5.6 billion euros per year for the next three years. Beyond these 5.6 billion in dividends we hope to pay over the next three years, we have also decided to invest 1.1 billion in digital transformation, and we have again dedicated 3 billion in capital for acquisition operations over the next three years.

The description of this plan would not be complete without insisting again on the importance of social and environmental impact for all stakeholders, both as an insurer and as an investor. Being an insurer, we are also a long-term investor, so our investments must also be directed toward sustainable assets. This is very important. I also insist on the importance of our commitment to all the communities in which we operate. This was particularly evident during COVID — when COVID hit Italy, one of the first European countries to be severely affected, we immediately set up an international emergency fund of 100 million euros. More than half — 55 million out of 100 — was dedicated to Italy. You can see the geographic distribution and the types of activities supported by this fund: initiatives to support our distribution network, initiatives to help clients in difficulty, and initiatives supporting communities for the health emergency. Italy was particularly proactive in managing this emergency, both to help healthcare structures and to help clients, agents, businesses, and even our employees — it was not easy moving more than 70,000 employees from office to home work in two weeks, but we succeeded. Today we are facing another emergency — the war in Ukraine and refugees. We committed three million euros immediately through the United Nations refugee program. We also launched an employee fundraising campaign and collected another million euros for refugees, and we closed our operations in Russia.

Let me also say a few words about our social activities, which are part of our sustainability commitment. Five years ago we launched our Human Solidarity project, which is now the activity of our foundation — a global, international network open to everyone of people who want to help people in difficulty. After five years, Human Solidarity has become very operational. We have helped over 3,800 people, working in 23 countries with a network of 61 NGOs. This is very important activity — we have dedicated significant resources, both financially and in terms of time donated by our employees and agents. The foundation has two priorities: first, helping disadvantaged families with children between 0 and 6 years old, because these children have fewer chances in life compared to children of the same age in better-off families, and we help these families give more attention and love to their children. The second priority, decided five years ago, was to help refugees rebuild a professional life in their new country. We did not expect that five years later this project would become so important with this war so close to home. We also decided to give these social activities a home — a beautiful, important home: the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco in Venice, which we began restoring six years ago and which now houses these social activities. For the first time in 500 years, this building is open to the public — anyone visiting San Marco can now enter, visit, and participate in social activities. In perhaps the most iconic square in the world, this is also a way of demonstrating the reality and sincerity of our commitment to sustainability. Thank you for your attention — perhaps I spoke a bit too long.

Excellent. Now, our colleague Senator De Bertoldi has signed up to speak. Please go ahead.

First of all, thank you — I believe on behalf of all of us — for your exhaustive presentation. Let me begin by saying that Generali represents, for all of us, and certainly for me and for the political force Fratelli d'Italia which I have the pleasure and honor of representing, a pearl of the Italian economic and entrepreneurial system. You are a point of reference for every policyholder, but also for every saver, entrepreneur, and the Italian business system. It is precisely for this reason that I want to ask you for some clarifications, as is often done with those we care about most — because we care about the prospects. So, first of all, best wishes for the new mandate, because we need companies like yours, which you are currently leading. I will not hide from you that the outcome of the assembly, which compared to the past and to history came out with a narrower majority — certainly not what we were used to. The majority that ratified the last assembly is much more important than it appears. On one hand, it seems to me — and perhaps in a certain sense it is a good thing — because when you see families, and especially permit me to say, families of Italian entrepreneurs who...

Foreign investments in Italian companies are always positive news for me. However, this raises some concerns, and I'd like to request some answers on certain points that I'll quickly go through. First, recalling COPASIR's reflections—their warnings about the importance of Italian identity in managing strategic companies like yours, and their cautionary notes regarding foreign financial interference, particularly French financial interference. I want to ask you very clearly: what do you intend to do to guarantee and protect the Italian identity of Assicurazioni Generali? Another issue that prompted some reflections concerns the comparison with your main competitors—companies that fortunately still see you as leading players based on the numbers you've highlighted. But as an accountant, I've noticed a certain slowdown in capitalization growth. Comparing the main competitors—I'm thinking of Allianz, AXA, and Zurich—and looking at capitalization, I've noticed a certain weakening in the growth of capitalization compared to competitors, while there still seems to be a strong lead in shareholder remuneration. I'd like to understand the strategy of Generali's board on this matter. Another observation: from the assembly, it appears that major Italian funds have significantly reduced their presence, while international funds—those that are perhaps more unstable, potentially speculative, and oriented toward remuneration rather than stability—seemed quite decisive in the assembly result. I'd appreciate your view on this. Finally, given the assembly outcome and the significant minority presence, including Italian companies, I'd like to understand how the board intends to position itself toward this significant Italian minority that includes many of Generali's historical, stable shareholders. Quickly, in 30 seconds: the last two questions concern sustainability and ESG investments—can you tell us what percentage you plan to dedicate to this sector within your financial investments? And finally, on the issue of multi-mandate for insurance agents—do you think it should become a fundamental issue, as a competitive necessity, especially given the competition law recently approved? Thank you.

Thank you. Well then, I would say we now give the floor to Dr. Donnet, as there are no other speakers registered.

Thank you. I won't respond to all of these. Thanks, I'll try to answer all these questions. I'll certainly also need the President's help on some points. You refer to the results of the last general assembly, but you can't compare this assembly with previous ones because something very important happened—the company made a choice. Two years ago, the board of directors unanimously decided to give the company the possibility of presenting the board's slate at the next assembly. This is a governance approach used in many international companies like Generali, and it's also discussed in Italy. This possibility was voted on unanimously by the board and then approved at the last shareholder assembly with 99% support. The board decided to move forward with this board slate approach. When we talk about ESG, we're not just talking about E—we're also talking about G. We've improved many things at Generali—I founded it by the numbers, and I also want to improve Generali's governance by moving to the type of governance you see in international companies of this level. This was the first time, because for a public company, I agree with you on the importance of Generali for this country. But rightly so, if it's this important, it shouldn't be the property of certain families or certain entrepreneurs. For me, Generali is a common good, a good for everyone, and therefore it needs public company governance. Some had a different vision, which is fair—everyone can have a different vision. A choice was proposed to the shareholder assembly, and in a very clear and unambiguous way, the shareholders made their choice. They want this governance, they wanted this board, and we're moving forward on this path. It's the right path—I reiterate this, because Generali is not and will not be the property of a few—it's a common good, a good for everyone.

This is the first point. On the second point, I sincerely don't understand it. I'm French, but I'm also Italian. I arrived at this group almost ten years ago. Why did I come? Because my predecessor called me to say, 'Philippe, I need someone to manage Generali Italia because in Italy... ' Well, I understood that. But I came to manage Generali Italia, okay? And for nine years, in the Italian press, I've always read this thing about the French, but there's no reality behind this. Where's the problem? There is no real interest from any French insurance company. It's an invention. I'm sorry to say it, but it doesn't exist—it's a journalist's fantasy. It doesn't exist. It's sometimes instrumentalized for reasons I don't know, don't understand, and don't care about. But it doesn't exist. If there has been a threat—not a recent one, but over 15 years—to the independence, integrity, and Italian identity of Generali, that threat came from this country, from within Italy itself. I don't want to go into that since it's not on the agenda for this meeting. But often the dangers to Generali don't come from abroad—they come from the same country, from Italy. This is reality.

Now, on the question of capitalization—page 11 shows that we lost ground compared to competitors. This is true up to 2016. But before 2016, I don't feel responsible for what happened. Clearly, we had lost a significant part of our capital. I reiterate that the impact of the 2008 crisis was devastating for Generali, whereas the impact of COVID was positive. However, from 2016, since we took responsibility for managing this company, we've regained ground compared to competitors. You can see this in the numbers, in the facts, and facts and numbers shouldn't be instrumentalized. On the Italian funds reducing their participation and foreign funds increasing theirs—I don't know, I can't comment on this. There are shareholders—there isn't a good shareholder and a bad shareholder. There are shareholders, and they rotate at assemblies. And there's a board that represents all shareholders, because in my vision, all shareholders are equally important and equally good. My interlocutor is the board that represents all shareholders. I don't judge whether a foreign shareholder is bad and an Italian shareholder is good—that doesn't make much sense to me.

Regarding the management of minorities on the board—this is perhaps a topic for our President. Yes, quickly, first of all, thanks also from my side, President of the Commission, for this invitation. Regarding minorities, as you know, we initially presented a proposal aligned with national and international best practices, which envisaged minority representation on all committees, including the chairmanship of an important committee—related parties—assigned to minorities. This was a sensitive topic that had raised some concerns in the previous debate. This proposal was received positively, with the only exception related to this very delicate issue of strategic operations. I took responsibility for underestimating the sensitivity on this issue. The proposal provided that these operations would be analyzed and brought directly to the board's attention, as happens anyway. Thinking about it, this is similar to how major Italian banking groups operate—it's not unusual. However, the alternative of having them prepared in advance by a committee is also a viable approach. There are advantages and disadvantages. We're working on a compromise solution. Naturally, the board has sovereign authority over this path. I'm optimistic that we can reach a solution that satisfies both minorities and the majority on the board.

Thank you. Now, quickly, we still have two points. We've made important commitments on sustainable investment. We've committed to having a net-zero emissions investment portfolio by 2050, but with an intermediate target of reducing emissions by 25% by the end of the current plan. So by the end of the plan, we'll have reduced emissions from our portfolio by 25%. Additionally, we've committed to investing an additional amount in green and sustainable investments between 2021 and 2025 of between €8.5 and €9.5 billion. We've also, within the scope of the PNR at the European level, dedicated €3.5 billion for sustainable recovery plans in European countries. This is for responsible, sustainable investments. On the last question about agents—I know this topic quite well. This meeting is also an opportunity for me to greet our agents. I've always been very close to our agents. We are the company that, much more than others, has affirmed the centrality of agency distribution. All agents—thousands of agents in our group across this country—can testify to this commitment. In recent months, they've strongly supported the agency network. However, they know my position on multi-mandate very well. I'm not a defender of multi-mandate because I think there's confusion between competition and multi-mandate. I am a defender of exclusive agents because I believe the best and most economical solution for the customer—provided there are companies and authorities to ensure proper competition, which there are in Italy and at the European level—is exclusive agents. Two exclusive agents from different companies can compete to offer the best insurance solution. Multi-mandate is not a system that accelerates competition—it's expensive and generates significant costs for people that are ultimately reflected in the price paid by the insured. With great clarity, after more than 40 years working in this sector and saying the same thing for 40 years because I'm convinced of it: the best distribution system for insurance is agency distribution, but exclusive agency distribution. I believe in this—it's always worked.

I think I've tried to answer all your questions.

Half a second—just to clarify very quickly on the issue of foreign financial interference, including from France: I didn't get this from a sensationalist newspaper, but from what you surely know well—COPASIR's declarations made in recent months. On the issue of finance, your reassurances are important to me, but I want to say that they arose from actual issues. On the ratio between Italian and foreign funds in your capital, I was referring to a piece by Ferruccio de Bortoli in Corriere della Sera from recent days—who I believe is not a sensationalist source. These are genuinely objective issues on which I'm glad you've given me reassurances. Thank you again and best wishes for your work.

Does anyone else wish to speak?

Thank you, President. Thanks also to the President. Best wishes for the future. I wanted to ask a couple of very simple questions. Will it ever be possible to create a European-scale entity—a universal bank with a strong presence in all relevant sectors, from classical intermediation to insurance, from payments to wealth management, from consulting to corporate finance? Diversified dimensions and operations guarantee income stability and economies of scale. This entity could be obtained by combining the largest Italian bank with European traditions and vocations with the largest insurance group in the country, which has a rich history and international presence. The question is: how current is this idea? Is the aggregation project between UniCredit and Generali still relevant or was it ever? And what are the employment implications of the industrial plan for Italy? Employment is clearly a priority for us. And does Italy remain—or does it remain in Generali's vision—central, with the relationship with the territory always protected as today?

There is no hypothesis of aggregation with UniCredit. There is no project, no hypothesis—it doesn't enter into our strategy because it makes no sense. We're talking about completely different businesses. Insurance is one thing, banking is another. There are no synergies—it wouldn't make sense. It would be a weakening of both companies, so I see no benefit in an operation of this type. And this applies to any bank—not just UniCredit. You might say, 'But you have Banca Generali in your group.' True, but Banca Generali is a different reality. Banca Generali doesn't make loans—it's a wealth management company, which has nothing to do with a bank. As for whether Italy is core in our strategy—if Italy weren't core, as you've seen in the numbers I presented, where Italy represents a third of the group's premium income, and if Italy weren't core, we wouldn't have decided to make the Cattolica acquisition. We made this acquisition precisely because we consider Italy truly core in our strategy. Regarding the employment implications—they'll be positive for Italy, as for other countries. We want to grow in Italy organically, because there's no longer reason for further acquisitions in Italy. We want to grow organically and properly integrate Cattolica into the Generali group, respecting Cattolica's identity and further developing Cattolica's territorial presence in Verona. This is very important. I see only positive impacts from our strategy and the integration of Cattolica for Italy in the coming years. I reiterate: Italy is core for our group.

Very well, thank you for that reassurance. Mr. President, may I? Thank you, President. I promised myself I wouldn't speak, but I'm from Verona, and the reference to Cattolica and Dr. Donnet piqued my interest. First, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions, while also thanking you, Mr. President, for the detailed report—the written one, the one delivered yesterday that responds even more precisely to questions. A political force that I don't see present today had also requested this hearing, which seems like a strange attitude—requesting a hearing before a very delicate assembly, and then not showing up. But let's look to the future. On the question of the solvency ratio—very good, rising from 194% to 227%—and compared to major Italian insurance companies, your December 31, 2021 data puts you among the most solvent. Congratulations. I also read in Il Sole 24 Ore a few days ago that the turbulence might find a way out, though that's a shareholder issue, not a legislative one. On customer response times—I'm asking about the time to respond to a customer observation or complaint, as it's an important parameter. Regarding the initiative to prevent a listed company's board from presenting its slate—Dr. Donnet has already answered, and I share your vision. For a public company of this size and quality, the guarantee that the outgoing board can present itself—even with changes, term limits, gender quotas—this is a guarantee for shareholders and for public companies. Regarding Cattolica, I believe you made an excellent deal, and as a former Cattolica shareholder, I have some thoughts, but I think you did well. The data from Cattolica's CEO in Verona confirms this. I'd like to understand your attitude toward the Cattolica Foundation—whether there will be any discontinuities compared to the previous management—and regarding employment levels, because maintaining Cattolica's workforce, whose headquarters was in Verona, was a key argument. Finally, to my colleague Senator De Bertoldi, I'd say we shouldn't reason solely about defending Italian identity. We're in a European context, and we need to adopt European logic while safeguarding our specificities. But if the train is leaving, it's hard to stop it, unless we want to exercise golden power over the years.

Thank you for your questions. Regarding customer assistance requests, thanks to new digital technologies, we can respond to 70% of these requests within one hour. Then there's complaint handling, which is closely monitored by the Italian regulator. When I was country manager of Italy, I managed this—I don't have those numbers in my head anymore, but we can provide all the details on complaint management and response times. On the Net Promoter Score—that indicator that takes the clients who recommend doing business with Generali and subtracts those who recommend against it—we've completely reversed this metric, and I reiterate, we're the best in the sector. That's still not full satisfaction, because this sector, I say honestly, is a bit behind others. We still have bureaucratic burdens that need to be addressed, and we hope for greater digitalization to change processes and facilitate customer interaction. This is still necessary and part of our new plan. Regarding the draft law regulating listed companies in Italy—I won't comment, except to say that you make the laws. Obviously, there should be a consultation process, and within that process, we'll be happy to give our opinion and contribution. Regarding Cattolica, which is important for you and for us: first of all, the Cattolica Foundation must have an increasingly important role, because the foundation is deeply rooted in the territory, and its role is to bring wealth to the territory—that's the role of a foundation. For me, it's an excellent model. We should have more foundations in our shareholder base, because I'm convinced of the importance of this type of shareholder—the redistribution of dividends. For me, dividends are a source of wealth that shouldn't only go into some people's pockets. This money should also reach the territory, and that's the purpose of a foundation. So the Cattolica Foundation is an important topic for us and will be managed with this desire to expand the wealth redistribution role in the territory. Regarding employment, I'll be very clear. When I was country manager of Italy, we integrated Toro Assicurazioni into Generali Italia while maintaining the management headquarters' presence—we didn't close the Turin office, we didn't close the Rome office. On the contrary, we assigned other roles to these offices. We won't close the Verona office either. We'll do our job—my job—of managing the company in the best interest of all stakeholders. You said we made a good deal. I won't comment on this—some think so, others don't. What matters in the end is that it's a good deal for all stakeholders: good for Generali shareholders, good for Cattolica shareholders, but also good for Cattolica agents, for Cattolica employees, and for the territory—for Verona. We have an obsession with delivering benefits to everyone. This is what defines sustainability. If it's not like this, things don't work. We'll do what we said we'd do to the market. There will be synergies—we'll do what's necessary to achieve them, while respecting people, respecting employment, and respecting the territory.

Thank you. Well, I have no other speakers registered. I truly thank Dr. Donnet for the comprehensive report and for answering all the questions. I hereby declare the hearing concluded. Thank you, goodbye.