Storebrand Aktie

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Storebrand's Third Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. As usual, our CEO, Odd Arild Grefstad, will present the key highlights followed by CFO, Kjetil Krokje, who will dive deeper into the numbers. [Operator Instructions]. Details of how to join the webinar are found on the Investor Relations website. But without further ado, I give the word to our CEO, Odd Arild Grefstad.

Thank you, Johannes, and good morning, everyone. Let's start with the highlights from our strong third quarter. Healthy growth and cost discipline contributed to our record high operating results. We have seen continued growth in Kron and completed the acquisition of Knif last week. Well, our concept for [indiscernible] for Storebrand and our customers. We started early. And today, we have an industry-leading concept and a broad network of partners.

When we help people [ early, ] more people stay in the [ workforce. ] This benefits the individual, the employer and the society as a whole. As AI changes how customers search, compare and buy, we are preparing for several scenarios. As a strong challenger in key markets, our ambition is clear. We aim to come out of this shift stronger than we went in. Storebrand is a data-rich company with modern digital platforms, and our approach is pragmatic. We buy proven capabilities where scale and speed matter and build where our data expertise and customer relationships create a distinctive advantage.

At the same time, we are giving employees the tools and guardrails to create AI solutions close to the business while maintaining security, quality and control. Let me now take you through the numbers. Our operating result was the best on record. If we exclude performance-based income, the result grew 14%. This shows that we are able to turn revenue growth into increasing results. Higher interest rates pulled down profit sharing and the financial result this quarter, but it improves results going forward.

Our result year-to-date is NOK 4.7 billion, up 12% compared to last year. Return on equity is 15% for the last 12 months. And we are well on track to reach our targets for 2028, a group result of NOK 7 billion and return on equity of 17%. Our solvency remains strong at 200%. Good results, strong solvency and a solid liquid position give me confidence that we will deliver on our plans for dividends and share buybacks. Our commitment to growing dividends remains firm. We have steadily grown our dividends per share since 2016.

Based on the year-to-date performance, the Board intends to propose an ordinary dividend of around NOK 6 per share for 2026. In addition, the Board intends to propose a share buyback program of NOK 2 billion for 2027, up from the previously communicated NOK 1.5 billion. Both are subject to market conditions and necessary approvals.

Now let me turn to our strategy. We continue to execute on our ambitions to lead the way in sustainable value creation. Our strategy is designed to grow capital-light business areas by taking 3 clear commercial positions. First, to be the leading provider of occupational pension in both Norway and Sweden; second, to be a Nordic powerhouse in asset management; and third, to be a fast-growing challenger in the Norwegian retail market for financial services. We are delivering on the strategy with consistent growth year after year. We are present in attractive savings market with strong long-term growth. At the same time, we are taking market share in insurance. The stronger Norwegian kroner has created some headwinds for currency effects this year, but underlying growth is strong.

Let me now go through our 3 strategic positions one by one. First, occupational pensions, where we further strengthened our position as the leading provider in Norway and Sweden. Our Unit Linked reserves stand at NOK 563 billion. And since 2018, they have grown by 16% a year on average. We have seen good sales momentum with contracts worth NOK 4.4 billion won within Unit Linked pensions in Norway. These assets will be transferred to us in the coming quarters. In Sweden, I'm very pleased that the insurance brokers ranked SPP #1 for sustainability and for ease of collaboration in an independent survey. This shows that SPP has a strong position with the brokers who are an important sales channel for us.

Moving to Asset Management. Our work on cost continues to pay off and operating costs are down 5% from last year and the result growth proves the scalability in our asset management business. Our position in sustainable investing are also getting stronger. This quarter, Storebrand Asset Management was named Sustainable Investment Fund Management Group of the Year by Investment Week. And our infrastructure manager, AIP, was named an ESG Equity Asset Manager of the Year in Europe.

Then to our third position, the Norwegian retail market, where we keep growing as a challenger. Within retail savings, Kron now has around 150,000 customers, up 23% year-on-year. We continue to build our Kron offering step by step. P&C insurance is still one of our most important growth drivers. Portfolio premiums, retail insurance have now passed NOK 7 billion, up 18% year-on-year. Our market share in retail P&C has grown to 8.3%, up from 7.6% a year ago. With Knif, it will be around 8.6% in market share. The combined ratio improved to 82% from 85% a year ago.

Let me also give a brief update on Knif triggered [indiscernible]. We completed the acquisition on 16th of October, just last week. Knif is a P&C insurer for Christian and nonprofit organizations in Norway. The acquisition is fully in line with our strategy where P&C insurance is one of our most important growth areas. Knif complements our existing setup very well with a new customer segment. I am very happy to welcome our new colleagues from Knif. They know their market and their customers very well. This will be important as we together build a leading offering in this segment.

And with that, I give the word back to you, Johannes. Thank you, Odd Arild. Now let's take a closer look at the numbers. Kjetil, please go ahead.

Thank you. Let me start by taking you through the key figures for the quarter. The group result for the third quarter was NOK 1.517 billion, 4% lower than the same quarter last year. Earnings from operations increased 7% to NOK 1.162 billion, the highest on record. Adjusted for NOK 20 million in nonrecurring costs, operations delivered NOK 1.182 billion, up 8%. The decline at group level concerns the financial results as higher interest rates and wider credit spreads reduced profit sharing and returns on the company capital.

Net special items were NOK 34 million, a NOK 54 million gain from revaluing the earn-out liability related to AIP, less the project costs mentioned above. Earnings per share were at NOK 2.54 compared with NOK 3.08, and the annualized return on equity was 14%. Both were held back by an unusually high tax rate, which I will come back to. On a 12-month basis, return on equity was 15%.

Now to solvency. The solvency ratio was 200% at the end of the quarter, stable from the second quarter. Result generation and a stronger kroner against the Swedish kroner contributed positively. This was fully offset by the second buyback tranche of NOK 1 billion, which we initiated in July and which is now included in the ratio. As the sensitivities show, the ratio stays well above our 150% target in all stress scenarios.

Looking ahead, we expect the solvency ratio to strengthen from the first quarter of 2027 when the Solvency II amendments and the regulatory changes for guaranteed pension products take effect. The Solvency II amendments bring the standard model closer to our internal model and significantly reduce the risk margin. Together, we expect the 2 changes to lift the solvency ratio with more than 10 percentage points. Given our robust position today and this uplift, solvency is currently not a binding constraint for capital distribution.

We continue to use and develop the internal model for our internal risk view, but we have made the decision to not submit an internal model application in the short to medium term as a consequence of the aforementioned changes. Let me now explain the main drivers of the group result before turning to the segments. Fee and administration income was NOK 2.139 billion, up 1% or 6% adjusted for currency and performance fees. Growth in assets under management and Unit Linked reserves lifted income, but this was largely offset by a stronger kroner, lower performance fees in Asset Management and a lower net interest rate margin in bank.

As flagged last quarters, the transfer of a large hybrid and guaranteed pension customer now reduces income, mainly in guaranteed. The insurance result increased by 28% to NOK 895 million, driven by retail. Operational costs were NOK 1.872 billion, up 8%. Around 2/3 of the increase is in insurance, reflecting a strengthening of the organization due to high growth and increasing sales commissions. Outside insurance, costs were up 4% in the quarter and flat year-to-date. For the group, costs are up 5% so far this year, in line with our Capital Markets Day guidance of around 5% annual growth.

In other words, we are on track. And for 2026, we still expect around NOK 7.3 billion to NOK 7.4 billion before currency and performance-related costs. Financial items and risk results were NOK 355 million against NOK 495 million the year before. Adjusted for special items in both quarters, the decline was from around NOK 425 million to around NOK 300 million, mainly due to lower profit sharing, especially in Sweden and also lower returns on company capital. These are mark-to-market effects and higher interest rates increase expected returns going forward.

Tax was NOK 458 million with an effective tax rate of 32%. As in the first quarter, the reason is currency when the SEK is weakening around 6% against the NOK, yes. And our ownership in SPP is currently hedged to protect solvency. For tax purposes, changes in the value of shares are tax exempt under the Norwegian exemption method, whilst the gain and losses on the hedge are taxable. This tax asymmetry creates some tax volatility when the currency moves.

Compared with a normal tax rate, this added around NOK 160 million. Our tax rate guidance remains 19% to 22%. At a normal tax rate, the return on equity would have been around 2 percentage points higher for the quarter. By business line, savings delivered NOK 800 million, slightly below last year due to lower financial result and lower performance fees. Insurance grew 33% to NOK 485 million. Guarantee delivered NOK 191 million against NOK 316 million, mainly due to lower profit sharing and other delivered NOK 41 million. Together, savings and insurance grew 9% to NOK 1.285 billion.

Starting with savings. Earnings from operations rose 3% to NOK 744 million. Unit Linked delivered double-digit result growth in both Norway and Sweden. Income rose 16% in Norway. And in Sweden, income grew 7% in local currency, but was flat in NOK. Reserves grew 13% to NOK 563 billion or around 11%. Premiums of NOK 7.6 billion were lower than last year, mainly due to currency and the hybrid customer that left in the second quarter. In Asset Management, fee income was flat but up 10%, excluding performance fees, which were NOK 23 million against NOK 90 million Q3 last year.

Costs fell 5%, helped by efficiency measures and currency. Assets under management grew 5% year-over-year in NOK and 9% in constant currencies. So far, returns of around NOK 107 billion and net inflows of NOK 3 billion have been partly offset by around NOK 86 billion in negative currency effects. The bank result was NOK 151 million, stable from the second quarter, but down NOK 208 million from last year. As we expected, the net interest rate margin rose to 1.26% from 1.17% as rate changes from -- for existing customers took effect mid-July.

In insurance, the combined ratio was 87%, a 2 percentage points better than last year. Over the last 12 months, it has improved from 94% to 90%. Premiums for own account grew 17%. Portfolio premiums grew 10% to NOK 11.3 billion, driven by retail, while corporate was flat due to the customer outflow in the second quarter. In retail, the claims ratio improved to 61% from 65%, helped by runoff gains and despite the fire in Drammen, which cost around NOK 55 million net of reinsurance.

Costs rose to NOK 343 million from NOK 276 million, reflecting agent commissions from stronger sales and new teams to support growth. Across the Insurance segment, higher sales through our tied agents added NOK 16 million to costs compared to the third quarter last year. As all sales costs are expensed upfront, growth shows up in the costs immediately. Corporate Insurance delivered NOK 115 million, up from NOK 92 million with a stable combined ratio of 94%. Premiums for own account grew 14%. Corporate P&C continued to grow strongly with portfolio premiums in this business, up more than 30% over the last 12 months and a solid claims ratio.

We are now among the fastest-growing players in this market. Pension-related disability delivered stable results, while group life was positive but moderate with repricing and other measures implemented. Disability remains an area we watch closely. Guaranteed pensions delivered NOK 191 million against NOK 316 million last year, while the year-to-date result of NOK 912 million is close to that of last year's level. Fee income fell to NOK 364 million from NOK 387 million as growth in the public sector pensions was offset by the large customer transfer out.

Net profit sharing was NOK 82 million in the quarter compared to NOK 184 million in the same quarter last year as rising interest rates and wider credit spreads reduced returns, particularly in Sweden. The risk result improved to minus NOK 7 million from minus NOK 21 million, driven by defined benefit. High rates weigh on returns in the short term, but lift expected returns. In Norway, the expected return is now 230 basis points above the average guaranteed rate. Buffer capital was at NOK 35.4 billion or 8.6% of guaranteed reserves in Norway and 31.2% in Sweden, both up from last year.

Guaranteed reserves fell NOK 9.4 billion in the quarter to NOK 289 billion, mainly due to the weaker Swedish krona and account for 34% of total reserves. Then to the other segment. The other segment delivered NOK 41 million against NOK 91 million last year as higher interest rates had a negative mark-to-market effect on the company portfolios. The Norwegian portfolio returned 1.2% in the quarter and the Swedish 0.3%, also affected by wider credit spreads. As indicated last quarter, costs increased to NOK 89 million due to the Knif acquisition and nonrecurring project costs.

Company portfolios totaled NOK 29 billion and liquidity in the holding company remains solid at NOK 5.7 billion. Our climate work remains on track. The emissions intensity of our listed equity and corporate bond holdings is 52% below the 2018 level against a 2030 target of 60%. 44% of these assets now have validated science-based targets above our 42% goal for 2027. And solution investments are at 20%, in line with our 2030 target. With energy security now a key structural growth driver, we continue to invest in climate solutions.

Recently, our infrastructure manager, AIP, announced the acquisition of 2 operational offshore wind farms in Sweden with a combined capacity of 312 megawatts. Going forward, stable and predictable policy is key for the financial sector to reach its climate goals. And a stable EU emissions trading system remains an important driver of the transition. To round off, our Capital Markets Day ambition stand firm, a result of NOK 7 billion and cash return on equity of 17% in 2028 and growing dividends every year. By the end of the quarter, we have completed NOK 1.5 billion of this year's NOK 2 billion buyback program, with the rest to follow in the fourth quarter.

And as Odd Arild mentioned, the Board intends to propose NOK 2 billion in buybacks for 2027, above the NOK 1.5 billion guided at our Capital Markets Day, increasing the total buyback ambition to at least NOK 13.5 billion by the end of 2030. With a record operating result and 12% result growth so far this year, we are well positioned to deliver on these ambitions.

With that, we look forward to your questions.

Yes, Kjetil. Thank you. We are now happy to take questions from our audience. [Operator Instructions]. And we have a first question here from Ulrik in Nordea.

Yes. So 2 questions. The first one is on the transfer balance in the Unit Linked Norway. It's negative, but it looks like a step in the right direction. And then also, you're flagging some big corporate wins. So I'm just wondering how we should think about the direction of the transfer balance going forward? Can it turn positive?

Yes. I should start with that one. Yes, we had some big customer wins in Unit Linked Norway this quarter. A part of that will come into the booked numbers in the next -- in this quarter, the fourth quarter and also a part of it in the first quarter of 2027. And everything equal, we expect to see then positive transfer balance from the Norwegian business in these quarters.

Very, Great. And then just on the solvency because it seems like you're guiding a bit more specifically on the game from the regulatory changes. So I'm also wondering how we should think about -- or if you made up have anything to say about how the expected returns on the guaranteed assets will develop once you implement this?

Yes. No, I can start there. With the changes we see both from the new standard model coming from Europe and also the changes in product rules, we expect more than 10 percentage points increase in the solvency ratio. When it comes to expected return in the guaranteed book in Norway, we have increased the equity allocation already this year. And the discussion into next year is how to adapt the book further to reflect that. But it will be an incremental increase in expected return as most of the book is still in bonds.

Yes. Would you have some -- it seems like you'll have some capacity. You're telling us what you're going to distribute of capital. And it just seems like you have quite some capacity maybe to if you want to allocate to higher-yielding bonds or as you say, equities, but you haven't decided anything is what you're saying?

We're working on that right now, looking at the investment strategy for next year, both for the customers and for the company capital. And as you say, we will have larger risk capacity with these new rules and also with the regulatory changes. So that will be taken into account. But we will also make sure that we have a fortress balance sheet to make sure that we can withstand any volatility that may occur in the market. So it's the balance between the 2, that is important both for us, but also for the customer returns.

And I think also that the effect from the EIOPA changes in itself make us comfortable to guide for this 10%-plus increase in solvency.

Thank you, Ulrik. Next up is Nimrat Kaur from Bank of America.

I have the first one on rates. You say that the higher rates are supportive over the long term. So how quickly do they feed into the returns and profit sharing? Is the 2028 target of profit sharing for both Norway and Sweden still intact?

Yes. No, I think on the rate side, they will -- if they kind of stay like they are now, they will feed into the results already from next quarter on the company capital, right? So in the other segment and in the insurance segment, that will pick up again with higher running yields from the get-go. As for profit sharing, all else equal, expectations are a little bit higher than what we communicated on the Capital Markets Day, given that we are running at a somewhat higher expected return in that book of business now.

And then on the retail, what kind of repricing are you still putting in? And on the claims ratio improvement, how much of that is underlying versus runoff gains?

So on the retail side, what we have seen this quarter is not any kind of substantial runoff gains or losses. I don't know, Johannes, if you have any other comments on that. But what we have seen in general is a little bit lower frequency in the main lines in the Norwegian market that has been helpful on the claims ratio and of course, also the repricing that we did last year. As per forward-looking repricing, we are not really guiding on that other than that over -- in the long term, we expect this market to price at inflation plus pricing through the cycle.

Excellent. Nimrat, thank you. We have a next question from Hans Rettedal Christiansen in Danske Bank.

I want to ask a little bit about AI given that you brought it up, Odd Arild, in the beginning of the presentation, and you say you're preparing for several scenarios in customer distribution. Can you elaborate a little bit about what those scenarios are and where you see that going?

Yes, I love to. First of all, we work, of course, very heavily with AI in all different areas of Storebrand, both for more productivity, but also into the customer phase. And we see like [indiscernible] in U.S. now is also able to do agent-wise buying of financial products. I think for us, it's all about being ready for different distribution opportunities, making our data ready, making sure that our web pages is aligned to such a situation where we can be present in the best way. It's a relative game, and we are a challenger, especially in insurance as we talk about here. And I think we are well prepared in a concentrated market with our brand name to also meet the competition from more AI agents coming in, but we are preparing for that in all different ways.

Yes. And I think so far, we see little adoption. As you well know, these tools are not available in the Norwegian market yet. We see still that there are moats around this business with strong customer relationship, brand and trust still matter quite a bit. So we still think that is the base case going forward. But I think we're also very offensive on the offense about exploring the opportunities and thinking about scenarios where the customer front will look very different. So I think that's a very important part of how we work with this right now.

And of course, having the synergies we have in insurance, especially also aiming for a combined ratio of 90% as we do now or lower and still be able to deliver very high return on equity with such combined ratios makes me quite confident into also such a market.

And I guess staying on the same subject, but in terms of your own ambitions, since the CMD last year, what are you seeing in terms of potential cost savings? I guess you've seen DNB with some efficiency programs, LF and Sweden have also announced similar. Do you see increased potential on taking out costs going forward in terms of AI? And related to that, just on token usage, how are you sort of -- how is your token usage developing? And are you seeing some cost savings on that front as well?

Yes. No, I think our main thesis is that we will stick with the cost guidance from the CMD. That's kind of the starting point. But underneath that, it happens quite a lot. If you look at our capital or asset manager, it's -- we have reduced the cost base 5% from last year, and we have reinvested heavily in insurance and in digitalization and underwriting and more. So we see effects from using technology, including AI to streamline the business. But our main hypothesis right now as we're growing the business is to reinvest those cost savings in growth and keeping the cost ambition from the CMD.

When it comes to some concrete examples, we also, of course, see it in the development of software. We see large time savings and productivity gains in the coding of the software, which we are also taking out in the decision and discussion about what we make ourselves and what we buy from vendors. So that is also an important aspect. And altogether now, we have done a value chain analysis of the whole business. We're looking to identify where we have both the highest potential, i.e., the largest cost base and where the technology is mature enough to start doing measures. And then we are setting the project in motion and using AI to make the business more efficient.

And just you said in the CMD that you would provide a strategic update in 2026 or 2027 on sort of the progress. When do you plan on having this, do you think?

I think, for sure, not in 2026. So I think we will revert during 2027 with a little bit of a broader update on how we are progressing towards the Capital Markets Day targets and kind of what have changed since we launched them.

Thank you, Hans. We have a next question from Farooq Hanif in JPMorgan.

Just going back to the comment about expected return and profit sharing rules in Norway. Now that you've got a number on the solvency impact in mind, I'm guessing it's still roughly mid-single digit for profit sharing and another mid-single-digit plus for Solvency II review. But now that you have that number, can you give us a bit of a qualitative guide to how this will support both profit sharing in Norway due to flexibility, but also remittances, I'm guessing it will help you take out cash to the holding to use for reinvesting in the group.

And then secondly, going back to Nimrat's question a little bit. So your combined ratio is really good, given that you've got roughly 2 points in the quarter from Drammen. So can we unpack a little bit the detail of the runoff ratio, the Drammen loss and just kind of what is underlying here? And I know that nat cat is a big feature here, but it feels like you're doing a lot better than 90% to me. So if you could comment on that, that would be great.

Yes. Should we start on the solvency and the expected return? I think solvency is not a binding constraint, neither for remittance or for allocating capital to shareholders through dividends or buyback. It's more remittance, earnings and future outlook. That is the binding constraint on that. So I don't think we're going to do a lot of changes based on a some percentage points or more than 10 percentage points increase in the solvency. That said, it enables us to do changes in asset allocation that should increase expected profit sharing for customers. and for shareholders. So that is a good thing.

And we can also consider risk levels in other parts of the investment portfolio, which also could support higher cash generation. So I think those are the main effects to be expected from this change. When it comes to the combined ratio, the -- when you look at the large losses in the quarter, you had the Drammen incident. But then again, we did not have a lot of other large losses. So actually, looking through the whole portfolio, large losses was actually roughly as we would think it would be. So the way we look at it is that this number is pretty close to the underlying business, but taking into account that we are growing rapidly and that has a cost.

Just if I may come back -- sorry to hog the mic, but just to come back on the first question. I think what I was trying to get at was just the profit sharing itself in the cash result. Just obviously, it gives you more flexibility. So of course, part of it is because you can take more risk, but part of it is just that you can realize more.

Yes. It gives the ability to take more risk and then have a higher expected return. But there's also -- these assets are per contract, and there's not so many collective buffers. So it's hard to kind of realize returns across the portfolio. So we are -- we -- the higher risk you take, the more volatility you can expect in the result line and then we need to weigh those 2 factors against each other, both thinking about customers and shareholders to find their kind of right risk level and the right profit sharing level for customers and shareholders.

But I think everything equal from Capital Markets Day, increased interest rates, quite a large buffer between the guarantee and expected return, you should expect somewhat increased opportunities for profit sharing compared to what we said at that time.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Farooq. We have a next question from Thomas Svendsen from SEB.

Yes. So 2 questions from my side. Just on the bank you pointed out that the net interest margin is going up, while the results are flat Q-over-Q, and this seems to be due to the higher costs Q-over-Q. So can you comment on the costs there in the bank, the move there? And the second question on dividend and the dividend guidance. You showed this graph, it's 15% CAGR historically and now you are taking it down to 10% for 2026. So what are the considerations there between buybacks and taking down sort of the growth in dividends? And what should -- how should we think about that going forward?

We can start with the dividends. We were very clear on our Capital Markets Day that we, going forward, was aiming for more than 10% growth in dividends and on top of that, share buyback. Then we have done some considerations, also talked with a lot of our shareholders about the combination of dividends and share buybacks. We feel very strongly that doing share buybacks in these conditions with the growth and opportunities we see for Storebrand going forward is value creative for our shareholders and has then focused on increasing the share buyback from NOK 1.5 billion to NOK 2 billion when we have the opportunity to increase the total payout ratio.

Then we aim to have a very stable growth in dividends going forward. So we will be now focused on increasing our dividends steadily year by year. And we feel that, that growth rate of 10% plus, NOK 6 is 11% anyway. So that is what we are seeing as a mix going forward with more than 10% growth in dividends and more volatility actually around the share buybacks. When we have opportunities, we increase, but we can also reduce share buybacks.

And on the bank, what we see from the last quarter to this is somewhat higher costs, but also a higher operational result. I think the operational result is up by NOK 20 million. And then as you rightly point out, the total result is roughly flat as the last quarter had a positive financial result from a gain from a share we owned in a subsidiary, whilst this quarter, it's moderately negative, giving the bottom line being relatively flat between the quarters. So somewhat increased cost, often a little bit higher in this quarter, but also some cost with -- in line with the bank growing and professionalizing all functions.

Yes. And you know our bank is also the distribution channel very much for the whole retail area. We have built Kron now into the bank, developing Kron functionality coming also in now with bank functionality into the Kron gradually. We see the distribution mix altogether with also more advisers in combination with the digital solutions into a more private banking area is something we are working within the bank that has an upfront cost elements, but also huge opportunities for cross-selling and result generation going forward.

Just a small follow-up on the bank. The lending growth was also quite slow Q-over-Q. Is this something that has happened? Or has you increased prices too much in this July hike? So clients have left you? What are your targets over the next 4 quarters, for instance?

Yes. No, I think this is in line with what we said earlier this year that we are adapting the balance sheet to CRR3, getting some of the higher loans with high LTVs out or priced up in the balance sheet, and that has resulted in some outflow. And other than that, the guidance of somewhere around mid-single-digit growth is what we expect over the cycle.

Thank you, Thomas. We have a next question from Michele Ballatore from KBW.

Yes. So 2 questions from me. So the first is on the solvency. So in light of the, let's say, rerisking process you are doing. So what kind of impact we should expect on the solvency capital requirement? I mean, I believe if you invest more in equity or high-yielding corporates, maybe there is an impact there, if you can talk more about that and also on the sensitivity eventually? And then the second question is more about the fees in asset management. I mean, we see that -- I can see the inflows are quite low in asset management, but can you maybe talk more about the development of the fee income there, also the outlook, the competitive environment?

Yes. Should I start with the solvency? In expectation, we -- as you say, if you take on more risk, you will also have a higher capital charge. So we -- or I think bar that, we will still expect it to be around a 10 percentage point increase even if we increase risk somewhat in the business. I think that's the best estimate as of now. And then, of course, we will revert and update you on that as time goes by.

If I start on Asset Management, then we see quite stable overall top line fees in our asset management, and we have been able to press the cost margin down with real cost reductions, as you see from last year. So that's healthy for their results. And I think if you see their result without performance fees that has changed from one year to another, I think we have more than around 40% result increase from the same quarter last year. So that really comes through. We are also both in more conversional assets and in more private markets. And we have a very success in our private equity arm, Cubera, with more higher fees than you have, of course, in some of the other areas.

Also, you see some transaction in real estate comes through now. So that is healthy for the overall fees. So altogether, quite a stable situation. And also when you mentioned transfer balance, the third quarter was a pickup in transfers when we saw NOK 11 billion in transfer in for that quarter. So it also seems to being positive development in that area.

And more forward-looking, we still expect between 18 to 21 basis points in top line margin in the asset managers. So that guiding stands firm.

Thank you, Michele. Next up is Simon Brun from ABG Sundal Collier.

Yes. Good to have you back, Kjetil. Congratulations on the new family member during the summer. Just -- and apologies if this is highlighted before. But on Knif, the acquisition of Knif. One housekeeping question. When do you sort of expect to consolidate that into your reported numbers in the insurance segment? And secondly, in terms of synergies, I know you said that there are sort of talented coworkers that you want to have with you in the future as well. But in terms of top line synergies potentially to other products from these strong owners in the past, the membership base there and also specifically on the synergies related to reinsurance. Is it too early to say anything about that? And if not, please help me out.

Yes. No, I think on the result contribution, we will book the result from closing, i.e., last Friday until the end of the fourth quarter. That will come into the results when we present the fourth quarter results and on a continuous basis, obviously, in the insurance segment after that. And on the synergy side, I think it's a synergy in itself that the growth journey we're funding within Insurance, we can now get help from the new colleagues we're getting from Knif, which are highly skilled specialists that can fit right into our organization, working both with the Knif portfolio, but also with the growth of the rest of the corporate P&C portfolio in Storebrand.

Remember, we are the fastest growing in corporate P&C now in Norway with, I think, 33% growth over the last 12 months. So I think those new employees are very well sought after, and we look forward to welcoming them to Storebrand. And in addition, we have the capital synergies we have within Insurance. So that will, of course, be a part of it day 1.

And there will also be synergies, especially on reinsurance, but I think it's a bit early days to be too precise on that kind of numbers.

Thank you, Simon. It looks like we've covered all the questions. So that wraps up today's presentation. We look forward to seeing you again on the fourth quarter result presentation on February 10. Thank you for attending, and goodbye.

Good morning, and welcome to Storebrand's Second Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. As usual, our CEO, Odd Arild Grefstad, will start by taking us through the key highlights. He will then be followed by our CFO, Kjetil Krokje, who will dive deeper into the numbers. After the presentation, we will open up for questions from participants in the Teams webinar. Details on how to join the webinar are available on our Investor Relations website. With that, I'll hand it over to you, Odd Arild.

Thank you, Stig-Øyvind, and good morning, everyone. Storebrand builds on the momentum from last year and made solid progress in the second quarter. Our insurance business performed very well during the quarter and equity market rebounded.

Together, this contributed to a record strong group result with operational earnings up 17% year-on-year. This reflects the underlying strength and scalability of the group and not least, the effort of my fantastic 2,500 colleagues in Storebrand. In the Norwegian retail market, we continue to strengthen our position as a growing challenger. I'm proud that we have been able to combine strong growth in insurance with profitability in a market with strong incumbents.

For Storebrand, sustainability remains at the core of our strategy and product offering. Our work on sustainability continues to receive global recognition. Time magazine ranked recently Storebrand among the 50 most sustainable companies in the world. And we are also the only Scandinavian insurance company once again included in the Dow Jones Best-in-class World Index.

Another highlight this quarter was the agreement to acquire the shares in Knif Trygghet Forsikring and to establish a partnership with Knif, serving Christian organizations and the broader nonprofit sector. Cash-based earnings reached a new record in the quarter. The result of NOK 1.8 billion represents 26% growth year-on-year. The result for the first half was NOK 3.2 billion, a 22% improvement from the same period in 2025.

The operating profit grew 17%, supported by insurance and cost discipline. Unit-linked reserves were up 19% from the second quarter last year, while assets under management increased by 10% over the same period and reached a new record level. Return on equity for the last 12 months is 16%, and our solvency and capital position remains very robust. This gives me confidence that we will deliver on our capital distribution plans.

Our buyback program shows steady progress as we have bought back shares for NOK 1 billion so far this year. Since 2022, our ongoing buybacks have reduced the number of outstanding shares by 10% -- combined with strong earnings growth over the same period, this has led to a 77% increase in earnings per share from 2022 to 2025. Today, we are launching a new NOK 1 billion buyback tranche for the second half of 2026.

We remain committed to our long-term ambition of more than NOK 12 billion in share buybacks by the end of 2030, and this comes in addition to increasing annual dividends. Let me now turn to our strategy. We continue to execute on our ambition to lead the way in sustainable value creation. Our strategy is designed to grow capital-light business areas by taking 3 clear commercial positions.

First, to be the leading provider of occupational pension in both Norway and Sweden; second, to be a Nordic powerhouse in asset management; and third, to be a fast-growing challenger in the Norwegian retail market for financial services. And the strategy transforms into results. Across the group, we continue to see structural growth. Together with stronger equity market, this supported a rebound in asset under management and reserves during the quarter.

In insurance, portfolio premiums continue to grow by double digits. Lending growth is more moderate as we adapt the balance sheet to CRR 3. The overall picture is one of steady execution with commercial progress, disciplined capital allocation and a continued focus on profitable growth.

We aim to lead in the structural growing market for occupational pension. This quarter shows that we are taking important steps to strengthen this position. Unit-linked reserves continued to grow and are now up 19% year-on-year. In Norway and Sweden, our result increased by 30% year-on-year to almost NOK 300 million. Maintaining our position also depends on customer trust and satisfaction.

This is why I'm very pleased to see the result from the latest EPSI survey for private pension, where Storebrand had the largest improvement among all providers. Another important development is that the new flexible guarantee rules has now entered into effect from 1st of July.

These rules make paid-up policies more attractive, both for customers and for Storebrand. We expect this to increase pensions for customers and improve profit sharing for shareholders. In Asset Management, the underlying development was solid in the quarter despite lower performance fees from active funds and limited event-driven income.

The cost/income ratio continues to move in the right direction. Operating costs were down 12% from the same period last year. I'm also very pleased to see that we have created more than NOK 100 billion in returns to customers so far this year. Turning to the Norwegian retail market. P&C insurance continues to be a key growth engine for Storebrand. We have now seen 30 quarters in a row of market share gains. This is the result of a strong brand and distribution capabilities. We now hold more than 8% market share in retail P&C. Retail insurance results amounted to around NOK 400 million in the quarter and have more than doubled since last year.

In addition to insurance, the second leg of our capital-light growth strategy is the savings segment where Kron is an important growth platform. We now have more than 125,000 active savings agreements on the platform, and these agreements create a steady recurring inflow of new funds. On an annualized basis, this represents more than NOK 2.5 billion in savings volume, giving us a strong basis for further growth.

Finally, let me elaborate on the acquisition of Knif Forsikring and our strategic partnership with Knif. Knif is a well-established P&C insurer with portfolio premiums of around NOK 800 million. The company has a strong position within nonprofit organizations, which is a new and attractive customer segment for Storebrand.

The transaction adds meaningful scale to our business in insurance and strengthen our distribution and brings in a portfolio that diversifies our insurance book. Just as important, Knif brings very competent people with deep customer understandings and strong relationships. Together, we will further develop a leading offering in this segment. And with that, I give the word back to you, Stig-Øyvind.

Thank you, Odd Arild. Now let's take a closer look at the numbers. Kjetil, over to you.

Thank you, Stig-Øyvind. Let us start with the key figures for the quarter. The quarterly result was NOK 1.799 billion. This represents an increase of 26% compared to the same quarter last year, with earnings from operations up 17%. The result development confirms continued momentum across the business with double-digit result growth in all core segments. Earnings per share for the quarter were NOK 3.43, up 19% year-on-year. The annualized cash return on equity was 20%. Trailing 12 months, the return on equity is 16%.

Let me move to the solvency position. The solvency margin ended at 200%, a decrease of 6 percentage points from 206% at the end of the first quarter. The decline is due to increased symmetrical adjustment of the equity stress driven by strong equity markets and reduced volatility adjustment for the interest rate curve. Strong results contributed positively.

The share buyback program for the second half of the year is not yet reflected in the reported solvency ratio. With the current level of solvency buffers and interest rates, the balance sheet remains very robust to financial market fluctuations. Let's go a little deeper into the results line by line at the group level and then turn to the reporting segments. The result growth in the business continues. Fee and administration income amounted to NOK 2.031 billion, down 2% year-on-year, but up 1% year-to-date.

The soft year-on-year development despite strong AUM growth reflects 3 factors. First, performance fees in asset management were NOK 97 million weaker this quarter compared to 2025. Second, interest rates development and higher funding costs led to temporarily lower income in the bank. And third, currency, namely Swedish krona and Danish kroner, reduced the fee income to -- with low single digits.

From the third quarter, income will be affected by the transfer out of a NOK 13 billion outflow of a customer within hybrid and guaranteed pensions. This will, all else equal, affect results negatively around NOK 20 million per quarter, mostly in the guaranteed segment. Underlying, there is a good momentum in the in-force business.

The insurance results again showed strong growth, which I will come back to. Operational costs amounted to NOK 1.801 billion, a growth of less than 3% year-on-year. We have ongoing work to address our cost base. And so far, the development is satisfactory, especially in light of the sales costs within insurance being higher than expected.

For 2026, we still expect operational costs of around NOK 7.3 billion to NOK 7.4 billion before currency and performance-related costs. This is in line with our Capital Markets Day communication. Financial and risk results were strong this quarter at NOK 680 million. This is up from NOK 474 million, supported by higher profit sharing and solid returns in company portfolios.

The reported tax charge was NOK 355 million, an effective tax rate of around 20%. This is back within our expected range of 19% to 22% following the nonrecurring currency effect that elevated the tax rate in the last quarter. This table shows the same result split into the business lines, savings, insurance and guaranteed. Savings delivered NOK 708 million, up 12%. Insurance improved significantly to NOK 480 million, up from NOK 289 million last year.

Guaranteed delivered NOK 424 million, up 19% and the other segment contributed NOK 187 million. I will comment on each area in the coming slides. Let me start with savings. Supportive equity markets and operational improvements drove 12% result growth year-on-year for the segment, driven by unit-linked and asset management. The unit-linked business continued to grow. Reserves are up 19% compared to the same period last year, while premiums remained stable at just under NOK 8 billion.

Operational efficiency measures are progressing well, and we report a strong result development with earnings up 30% year-on-year. Asset Management showed satisfactory underlying development. Performance fees were weak and event-driven income was limited, but operational costs were down 12% year-on-year. This further improves the cost-income ratio for the area.

Within Asset Management, NOK 27 million financial income from the reevaluation of a future earn-out liability was recognized. This is a nonrecurring special item. Assets under management reached a new record of NOK 1,658 billion, up 10% year-on-year. Strong financial market contributed around NOK 100 billion in returns so far this year, partly offset by currency effects of around NOK 45 billion and modestly negative net flows.

The bank had a softer quarter. Net interest rate margin was down to 1.17%, driven by lower deposit margins and increased funding costs. While this is in line with the Capital Markets Day guidance of around 1.2%, we expect somewhat increase when the interest rate adjustments are reflected in our portfolio.

Lending grew around 7% year-on-year with continued modest growth as we continue to adapt the balance sheet to CRR 3 and optimize the return on regulatory capital. Turning to Insurance. We saw strong growth and result development within retail, while corporate delivered more modest results this quarter. This is driven by a disability-related reserve strengthening in group life.

The insurance portfolio premiums grew 12% year-on-year. Retail delivered 22%, driven by solid volume growth. The market share in Norwegian retail P&C increased further to 8.1% from 7.5%. Corporate Insurance had a negative development in portfolio premiums. This was due to the outflow of a hybrid and guaranteed pensions customer with a pension-related disability insurance.

The combined ratio improved by 4 percentage points from the same quarter last year to 87% for the quarter. The segment result rose to NOK 480 million from NOK 289 million last year. Retail was the main driver with a combined ratio of 80% and a result of NOK 397 million, more than double last year. The profitability in the quarter benefited from benign weather and runoff gains and large losses were broadly in line with expectations. Successful sales in the tight agent channel added NOK 32 million in operational costs in the quarter as we book all sales costs upfront and do not carry any deferred acquisition cost in the insurance segment.

Corporate Insurance delivered a combined ratio of 96%. This is explained by higher-than-expected disability claims in group life, where we strengthened reserves in the quarter. Pension-related disability and corporate P&C developed well. We continue to monitor disability-related lines closely. In Guaranteed Pension, we delivered strong result supported by profit sharing. Guaranteed delivered cash equivalent earnings before amortization of NOK 424 million, up 19% year-on-year. Net profit sharing was NOK 242 million in the quarter, and the risk result was solid at NOK 26 million, supported by positive longevity and disability results for paid-up policies.

The buffer capital position remains strong, increasing to 8.7% of customer reserves with guarantees in Norway and 29.8% in Sweden. Guaranteed reserves now make up 34.5% of the total reserves, and it continues to decrease gradually. With a solid buffer position and an expected return above the guaranteed rate, the outlook for profit sharing remains good.

Moving on to the financial results on company capital in the Other segment. The Other segment reported a result of NOK 187 million, up from NOK 147 million last year. The main drivers are the returns on company capital in the holding company and the life insurance company, less the cost of debt. The financial result was robust at NOK 243 million, driven by strong returns in the company portfolios.

The Norwegian portfolio returned 1% and the Swedish portfolio 1.1% in the quarter. The company portfolios in the Norwegian and Swedish life companies and the holding company amounted to NOK 30.7 billion at the end of the quarter.

Shorter term, we expect the result contribution from the company portfolios minus debt to be at least on the year-to-date levels. Costs in the segment will also be somewhat higher in Q3 due to the Knif acquisition and project-related costs. The liquidity in the holding company is at very robust levels at NOK 6.1 billion, reflecting that most of the capital upstream from the subsidiaries are now completed.

We remain on track towards our 2030 goals. We have reduced financed emissions from listed equities and corporate bonds by 52% against our 2018 baseline. We are well underway to our 60% target for 2030. 43% of these assets are now covered by science-based targets ahead of our 2027 milestone and solution investments make up 20% of the portfolio.

Finally, our financial ambitions from the Capital Markets Day remain firmly in place with a result target of NOK 7 billion and a cash return on equity of 17% by 2028. We are doing NOK 2 billion in share buybacks this year and at least NOK 1.5 billion annually from 2027 to 2030. This comes in addition to growing dividends every year. With the results today, we have a strong first half and excellent momentum to deliver on these ambitions. And with that, let's open up for questions.

Yes, Kjetil. [Operator Instructions] Kjetil to the trained I'm filling in for Johannes today. Could you explain to us what has happened?

Yes, there are some changes in the starting lineup this time around as Johannes just became a father for his first son very recently. So we wish him the best of luck in his new role as a father.

Yes.

And to add on that, Kjetil, congratulation to you as well. You also become father for a second time just a couple of days ago.

So I must say it's very good to see that the IR department takes responsibility for the demographic development in Norway. So that's good.

For sure. Big congratulations to you both. Now let's move on to the questions. And first question is from Thomas Svendsen from SEB.

Yes. So my first question on the total assets under management. What -- could you say what the net flow was there from Q1 to Q2? And also, I guess you have to do some adjustments because in the unit-linked assets, there were also some nonrecurring items as far as I can see. And the second question, on the non-life side, you write something about runoff gains there. Could you quantify that on the retail?

Yes. Okay. On the net flow, that was relatively close to 0 in the quarter. And as regards with the flow within unit-linked, if that was your second question, there we have 2 factors. We have the association I talked about that moved out of the segment, which was, I think, roughly NOK 6 billion in the quarter. And then you have the move of all the crude customers of roughly NOK 12 billion in the quarter going into that line.

That is -- when you look at the overall AUM, that internal change within the company that does not count into that move, only the funds that moved out of Storebrand. On the runoff gains, there was some runoff gains in the Norwegian P&C portfolio, some tens of millions. But when you look at the totality of the insurance segment, we did some reserve strengthening in the corporate lines. So the combined ratio we deliver on 87% is a good estimate of where we're at. And with 90% year-to-date, that's also a good estimate of where we're at.

Next up is Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan.

Congratulations to all of you for increasing the store brand family and the world population. So congratulations for that. Yes. So I mean, just going back to insurance, an amazing result again. It just seems that the store brand is defying gravity as always. So just want to understand again the mix between volume growth and pricing. And any kind of forward-looking statements you can give on the trends that you're seeing in the market around that. And going back to the previous question. I mean, are you effectively saying that 87% is a fairly clean number? So I just want to understand, again, subject to -- relative to your kind of less than 90% target, I get that weather is a factor in Q1 and Q4, but it just feels like you're getting there early.

So if you can comment on that. Sorry, that's more than one question, addresses one question. The second question is around your early thoughts on profit sharing with the rule change. There are many ways you can approach this. You could use all of the capital gain that you get and invest that in higher risk or you can use some of it? And would you also consider now growing or more actively growing paid-up pensions? Is this going to make it easier to grow that book?

A good start a bit with the insurance and helped by Kjetil and then we can move on to paid-up policies afterwards. I think Storebrand has a great brand name when it comes to P&C business, especially in the retail market, but also in the corporate market in Norway. That is a fantastic starting point.

We have the trust and we have the distribution strength to increase. And that has led to now 30 quarters in a row with increased profit. We did increase the market share within insurance. Now we see that most of the growth comes from taking new customers. Actually, more than 2/3 of the growth this quarter was volume growth, while 1/3 is on pricing. So that is, I think, the main elements within insurance.

As Kjetil said, we did some reserve strengthening within the corporate side. So we might see a couple of percent points too high combined ratio in that department this quarter, while you have some release of runoff gains in the private side that equals each other very well out. And then again, of course, the second quarter is a good quarter when it comes to insurance, good weather and no special large claims in insurance. And that is bringing us to a situation, I think, where you see the first half of 90% in combined ratio to be a good estimate of where we are at the -- as we stay.

And I think the bigger picture is as well then you look at the private lines are growing. The P&C within corporate is growing very rapidly and the more long-tail business is slowing down quite a bit. So we also see the move in the insurance portfolio from being more long tail, more biometric to moving into more short tailed and more repriceable business on an ongoing basis, which is kind of the strategic journey we are on and have been on for some time.

Yes. Paid-up policies and guaranteed.

So on paidup policies, we are expecting to increase the risk somewhat in these portfolios to give better pensions for our customers and then also better profit sharing. The current guiding is NOK 300 million in -- from the Swedish portfolio, which is not affected by this and NOK 400 million from the Norwegian portfolio in 2028 with the rules that were before the 1st of July.

So all else equal, we should expect somewhat higher profit sharing than that. It's it's a little bit early to quantify and obviously also market dependent going out in time. So it's hard to be very precise on a new estimate there, for, but it should at least be a higher number than the SEK 400 million.

But we do have a very strong buffer capital situation that the new rules brings new buffer capital, so to say, into the equation. And that brings this segment more important, gives bigger opportunities going forward. And we also do risk manage this in a very granular way in different segments. So I think it's -- in some segments, of course, this will give uplift also when it comes to risk taking. But in other segments, that will have more lower impact on asset allocation. So it's a combination.

Yes. And lastly, I think your question on appetite, yes, we will have more appetite for a certain subsegment of guaranteed. It will make a lot of sense for a lot of customers to move their pensions to Storebrand because they can free up their or get their buffer as a part of their pension capital, either in a guaranteed solution or a non-guaranteed solution. So we will definitely have more appetite for that going forward.

If I may just quickly follow up, apologies, but I think you gave some guidance on the potential Solvency II impact from this rule change. Could you remind us of it? And could you just say, would you be wanting to use all of that up in some form?

Yes. So I think last quarter, we said mid- to high single digit. I think the updated estimate is mid-single-digit-ish of solvency impact. I think it is -- we have the appetite to use the solvency, but we need to also have the appetite for potential result volatility and doing the right risk management. So I think it's -- on the solvency side, I think it's okay, but we need to kind of do the full holistic review of it.

I think also one part that also should be mentioned in this discussion is that -- we also see now better conditions when it comes to paid-up policies with investment choice and the opportunity now to move from the guaranteed paidup policies into investment choice and also keep the asset allocation all the way also in the payout phase within paid-up policies within Investment choice is something that I think can trigger even a bigger change in unit linked from this segment compared to what we have seen up to now.

Thank you, Farooq. Next up is Herman Zahl from Pareto.

Just following up, very interesting to hear that 2/3 are new customers. Could you -- in P&C, could you shed some light on your sort of cross-selling capabilities in insurance. It seems to still keep a very strong growth rate despite, I guess, the highest of rate hikes now being behind us. How does that cross-selling compare to, let's say, 1 or 2 years ago? That's the first one on P&C.

And then just if we assume the view that Norwegian P&C market will stay disciplined and market very strong, should we would you rather sort of overshoot or undershoot on your combined ratio target below 90%? Or should we rather assume that you target even higher growth?

Well, first on the cross-selling, we see -- when we do the analysis of around 600,000 retail customers, we see that the profitability between the insurance products and the different crosses we have, this is where we have some of our most loyal and profitable customers. So we are using both our own customer base, and we are using the broader Norwegian population, but we still see around 25% of pension customers from the corporate schemes, buying a retail product where as insurance is maybe the most important contributor to that.

So still a really important part of the business model to use the data and use the relationships we have through the corporates and sell to individuals. I think on the growth versus profitability, we stick by the CMD guidance to be at around 90% and the growth double digit.

I think that is what you should expect from us. You should expect us to stay disciplined and do this to grow profitably, and we would rather slow growth than to grow unprofitable.

Okay. And then just following up on that. Do you see your sort of insurance appetite sensitive to the interest rate level?

From our side, this is a strategic position that is, I would say, uncorrelated to interest rates. We will have strategic appetite for this with both high and low interest rates.

Thank you. We have another question from Thomas Svendsen from SEB.

Yes. Just another question on the non-life side. And you talked about this elevated uncertainty of disability in the Norwegian society.

Does that mean that you sort of think that the risk is that you could stay with a high combined ratio for a long period of time? Or is it a risk that material reserve strengthening may happen in the future? And also, could you just give us an update about this -- the issue of disability in the society?

Well, that's a big question, of course. We are at a very high level of disability, and that is built into our models and our estimates. So we have taken it into account. And just to give you some numbers on it, we saw, I think, an increase in disability within COVID of 10% to 15%, and that has been more or less on the same level afterwards, while in a lot of other countries have seen that the level of disability after the COVID period has been reduced.

We have taken that into account and reserved for such a high level of disability. Saying that, recently, we have seen some numbers when it comes to new people going into long sick leave and into disability that seems to be a bit better compared to what we have seen before.

So it's early days, and this is trend. So -- but we are somewhat more positive of the long-term trends for disability to finally start to be a bit reduced compared to what we have seen in the period after COVID.

Yes. And I think it's also a nuanced picture when you look at our portfolio, whereas the pension-related disability insurance, the ones that are attached to the unit-linked pensions are delivering sound disability results, whilst the group life portfolio is where we did the reserve strengthening this quarter has been more challenging. Hopefully, most of that is behind us now, but there are obviously still some uncertainty with how disability will develop in society.

This is more long-tailed insurance. So we should expect somewhat higher combined ratio in this part of the corporate segment compared to the more retail-based insurance segment, of course.

And also another question from Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan.

What can you tell us about Knif profitability? So you've given us the premium level, but where does it sit? And presumably, it's going to be on the P&C side of the corporate segment. That's one question. And the second question is going back to your strong volume growth.

I think there's an impression or there has been an impression that you're getting there partly because of your distribution efforts and the cost that you're investing in that, but also partly because you're more cost effective because you're able to be at a higher combined ratio for now willing to be. Which of those are...

Now we lost sound, I think, Farooq.

Got muted, I think.

Yes. If you could repeat the last sentence, Farooq. Your sound is -- we can't hear you. Let's try again.

All right. We'll start answering the questions anyways because I think we got most of it. So for Knif, they had gross premiums of NOK 792 million and a gross claims ratio of 55% last year.

So -- and with a combined ratio of 88%. So that's kind of the starting point where we take this business into the books. They delivered results of a little less than NOK 60 million after tax last year, and they have trending better this year. So that is kind of the top-down financials on Knif.

Yes. And it comes -- it increases our market share within the corporate segment with 1 percent point. but it will also add 0.3% points in the retail market. So you'll see it on both sides, but more heavy on the corporate side.

Okay. So a bit of a technical problem there, but thank you for your question, Farooq. Next up, we have a follow-up from Herman Zahl from Pareto. We cannot hear Herman.

If possible, Herman put questions into the Teams chat, and we will answer it from there.

Okay. Let's see. What's the verdict Yes. So please type the questions in the Teams chat. Then it looks like we have come to the end. It looks like we have covered all the questions. So that wraps up today's presentation. We look forward to seeing you again for the third quarter results presentation, and that happens on October 21st. So thank you for joining us, and I wish you all a good day.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Storebrand's First Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. As usual, our CEO, Odd Arild Grefstad, will present the key highlights, followed by CFO, Kjetil Krokje, who will dive deeper into the numbers. At the end of the presentation, participants in the Teams webinar will have a chance to ask questions. Details on how to join the webinar are found on the Investor Relations website.

But without further ado, I give the word to our CEO, Odd Arild Grefstad.

Thank you, Johannes, and good morning, everyone. Storebrand delivered a solid start to 2026. The macro backdrop of the first quarter was challenging with volatile financial markets. Yet our business model proved robust with positive developments across all business segments. The operational result grew 28% to NOK 1,026 million. The cash-based earnings ended at NOK 1,353 million, despite a moderate financial result due to mark-to-market effects. Assets under management ended at NOK 1,543 billion. While market movements negatively impacted the AUM this quarter, the changes were mainly driven by currency effects. Net flows remain positive, and we have seen the market rebound in the second quarter.

Our solvency ended at a new high of 206%. This underscores the solidity of our business and makes us confident that we will deliver on our capital distribution plans. It is encouraging to see all reporting segments delivering double-digit growth in operational results this quarter. This reflects the impact of our cost initiatives and demonstrates the resilience of our business model. Insurance had a strong first quarter with 151% result growth, mainly due to significant increase in new customers. In Savings, the operational result grew by 15% year-on-year. And Guaranteed Pension also achieved a double-digit growth for the quarter. I am pleased to see that the volume growth is converted into scalable operational results.

Let me briefly touch on capital distribution. Storebrand maintains a strong capital position, and the buyback program remains on track. Of the NOK 2 billion program for 2026, NOK 1.4 billion remains to be executed. With a 206% solvency ratio, strong remittance this year with liquidity levels well above targeted minimum levels and a strong earnings outlook, I'm confident that Storebrand is well positioned to deliver on the 2025 CMD capital distribution ambitions.

We keep executing our strategy to grow capital-light business areas. The strategy is built for Storebrand to take 3 commercial positions. A, to be the leading provider of occupational pension in both Norway and Sweden; and B, to be a Nordic powerhouse in asset management; and C, to be a fast-growing challenger in the Norwegian retail market for financial services. We take these positions and unlock growth by using our strategic enablers and group synergies. We continue to deliver strong growth in our strategic focus areas.

Despite volatile markets in the quarter, the underlying growth path remains firm. This is a continuation of strong growth consistently delivered over many years. In Asset Management, the decline mainly reflects a negative currency effect and flows remains positive. Growth in the bank was somewhat lower this quarter, reflecting a deliberate adoption of the balance sheet to CRR3. Occupational pension are a core growth platform for Storebrand.

I want to highlight an important milestone that Storebrand has worked for over time. In the quarter, the Norwegian parliament passed a bill, introducing significant changes to the regulation of paid-up policies and other guaranteed pension products. Key changes include more flexible guarantee rules designed to support longer-term investment strategies. This is expected to increase pensions and improve profit sharing. Kron continues to gain traction in the own pension account market. More than half of our sales within the own pension account market are now fully digital. Easy onboarding and intuitive fund selection ensure scalable and high conversion rates.

Despite market volatility, Asset Management delivered a strong operational result growth of 41%. Disciplined cost management contributed significantly. Operating costs were reduced by 6% and the cost-income ratio improved by 9 percent points compared to last year. We also completed the merger of Storebrand Fonder into Storebrand Asset Management. This has further simplified the organization, streamlined processes and strengthened our scalable platform.

We keep delivering strong growth in Norwegian retail market. Kron continues to attract new retail savings customers. Assets under management on the platform are now at NOK 43 billion, growing 80% year-on-year. Retail insurance is also an important growth area for us. Let me spend a moment on why this area is important for our long-term value creation. Norwegian retail P&C is a large and profitable market, and we are the fastest-growing actor in this market and now hold a market share of around 8%. Our brand is strong, our offering is competitive and the Solvency II diversification effects give us capital synergies that makes return on investment -- invested capital in the business very attractive. When very high return on capital compounds over time, it fuels the long-term Storebrand investment case in a way that few others can match.

The underlying profitability is back on targeted levels despite high upfront distribution costs, reducing the reported profitability. And remember here, we have no deferred acquisition cost in Norway. With ongoing organic growth initiatives supported by new initiatives such as Santander distribution partnership that goes live on the 4th of May, I'm confident that we can further improve our position in this market.

We have seen step change in the development of AI capabilities in the first quarter of 2026. I am now more than convinced than ever that AI is a key to remain competitive and strengthen our market position. We are measuring our progress across 5 strategic areas, and we are seeing real results. In customer service, our generative AI assistant now handles 60% of the chatbot traffic, improving customer satisfaction while reducing the need to escalate to human advisers.

In the bank, we have automated over 650,000 customer cases, which is a key enabler of growth without proportional cost increase. And our technology teams are moving significantly faster as we scale AI-driven development and increase the share of software built in-house. We see significant further potential, and we are systematically mapping our value chain to identify where AI can have the greatest commercial and operational impact. And with that, I give the word back to you, Johannes.

Thank you, Odd Arild. Now let's take a closer look at the numbers. Kjetil, please go ahead.

Thank you, Johannes. Let us start with the key figures for the quarter. The quarterly result was NOK 1.353 billion. This represents an increase of 16% compared to the same quarter last year, with earnings from operations up 28%. The result development confirms continued positive momentum across the business with double-digit result growth in all 3 core segments: Savings, Insurance and Guaranteed.

Earnings per share ended at NOK 2.10, and the annualized return on equity for the quarter was 12%. Both these items are negatively impacted by an unusually high tax rate in the quarter. I will return to this in a moment. Let me move to the solvency ratio. The solvency margin ended at 206%, up from 194% last quarter. Changes to regulatory assumptions contribute positively alongside a 7% strengthening of NOK to SEK and low growth in the retail banking business. This was partly offset by high booked tax rate, accrued dividends in the quarter and the inclusion of the first NOK 1 billion tranche of the announced share buyback program.

With the current level of solvency, buffers and interest rates, the balance sheet remains very robust to fluctuations in the financial markets. Let's go a little deeper into the results line by line at the group level and then turn to the reporting segments. The growth in the business continues. Fee and administration income is up 5% year-on-year and the insurance result is up 41% compared to the first quarter of last year. Growth, price increases and other measures in Insurance are giving the expected effects. Operational costs amounted to NOK 1.736 billion in the quarter, a 3% growth, excluding sales commissions. We have continuous work ongoing to address our cost base and find the development satisfactory in the current environment.

For 2026, we expect to have around NOK 7.3 billion, NOK 7.4 billion in operational costs. This is before currency performance-related costs, and this is in line with earlier communication. Financial results are moderate this quarter due to challenging equity markets, increasing interest rates, which have a negative effect on profit sharing and result contribution from the company portfolios. All taken together, this leads to an improvement in the operating results of 28% and a group cash equivalent earnings before amortization of NOK 1.353 billion, the strongest first quarter result on record.

The reported tax charge for the quarter was unusually high at 36%. This was due to a 7% strengthening of the NOK versus the SEK, impacting hedging instruments and this is a nonrecurring effect. We hedge our ownership of SPP for solvency purposes. The asset is at book value from a tax perspective and the hedge is at market value. This implies that the currency movements and asymmetry in how tax is calculated on assets and currency hedges will affect the tax cost quarter-to-quarter. And this quarter, the effect went the other way than it did the same quarter last year. Our tax guidance is still 19% to 22%.

This table shows the same numbers as on the previous page, but split into the business lines, Savings, Insurance and Guaranteed. Savings and Insurance both report strong development in the quarter and Guaranteed delivers a result improvement driven by cost reduction and improved risk results. I will comment on each area in the coming slides. The Unit Linked business shows continued growth with reserves up by 12% compared to the same period last year. Premiums remained stable at just under NOK 8 billion. While top line margins are down by around 3 basis points year-on-year, our measures to improve operational efficiency are progressing, and we are reporting strong result development.

The Asset Management business reports a strong result in the quarter with earnings before amortization up by 32% from the same quarter last year. This was achieved with limited event-driven income from real estate, which underlines the earnings capacity in this business. Total assets under management ended the quarter at NOK 1,543 billion, with the quarter-on-quarter movement reflecting NOK 55 billion in negative currency effects.

Net flows remained positive. The bank delivers a softer quarter with the net interest margin down to 1.29%. This is driven by lower margins on deposits, and this is also in line with the CMD guiding. The lending portfolio has grown 9% year-on-year, but have been relatively flat over the last quarter. The bank had robust gross sales, but has chosen to adapt the balance sheet to optimize return on regulatory capital under CRR3.

The insurance business continued to deliver stronger results after a challenging couple of years. The combined ratio has improved 4 percentage points to 93% for the quarter, a strong result given the seasonality in P&C and the disability-related business, combined with the cost for growth. Higher sales in the tied agent distribution channel had a NOK 34 million impact on operational costs in the Insurance segment compared to the first quarter in 2025. We book all sales costs upfront and do not book any deferred acquisition costs in the Insurance segment. So when sales are strong, all costs are taken upfront.

The corporate insurance business delivered moderate results in the quarter. This is explained by higher-than-expected disability claims in the quarter for group life. Price increases were implemented at the start of the first quarter with churn within normal variation, and we continue to monitor the situation across the disability-related lines of business.

The corporate P&C offering has continued to scale at satisfactory profitability levels. In Guaranteed, results improved year-on-year, driven by cost reduction and improved risk results with a positive contribution from the public sector pensions and stability in other segments. Profit sharing in the quarter was limited, reflecting weak equity markets and increasing interest rates. With a solid buffer capital situation and a 2% expected return above the guaranteed interest rates, the outlook for profit sharing is good and it's strengthening with the new regulation that has now arrived. Positive longevity and disability results for paid-up policies supported the improved risk results in the quarter.

Moving on to the financial results on company capital in the Other segment. The main drivers in the segment are the return on company capital in the holdco and the life insurance companies, less the cost of debt. The result contribution in the quarter was NOK 37 million, down year-on-year due to mark-to-market effects from increased interest rates. The company portfolios in the Norwegian and Swedish life insurance companies and the holding company amounted to NOK 29 billion at the end of the quarter.

As for the financial ambitions, with the results we present today, we have a strong start to the year and an excellent momentum in the Group to deliver on our 2028 ambitions.

And with that, I hand it back to you, Johannes.

Thank you, Kjetil. We're now happy to take questions from our audience. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Hans Rettedal Christiansen in Danske Bank.

So firstly, I guess, very positive to see the sort of cost income development in the business. And I think it came a lot quicker than a lot of us thought given that you were -- you announced it sort of in December. So my question is regarding how kind of sustainable is the run rate that you're at now? How much are the sort of nominal cost savings in the efficiency program? I suppose if I take NOK 1.7 billion and annualize that I arrive at sort of NOK 7 billion, which is below the NOK 7.3 billion to NOK 7.4 billion. And I understand that costs can be up and down, of course, from quarter-to-quarter. But just kind of trying to understand how sort of -- how much of that scalability that you were speaking about in the Capital Markets Day are we seeing already now? And how much is more just lower kind of costs in a lucky quarter in that sense?

And then my second question is on the change in regulation and the loan to equity. And I understand sort of from the customers' point of view, this is a good thing and that you're a little bit tight-lipped about what it means sort of financially. But from a shareholder point of view, how should we think about it in terms of profit sharing potential from these changes in regulations going forward?

Perfect. Thank you, Hans. Let me start on the cost side. This has been a very good start of the year.

As you see in our disclosure, it's roughly NOK 10 million. That is a, what you can say, a nonrecurring effect on the positive side. Other than that, this is a good reflection on where we are at, at the moment. And it shows that the effect of the programs we are doing, both in the corporate market in Norway and in asset management, especially as you see in the numbers.

And then as you say, obviously, costs fluctuate a little bit from quarter-to-quarter. We haven't changed the guiding for the full year, but we feel much more confident now that we are on a very good trajectory to reach them and rather risk that we can go under rather than over is our current assessment.

Yes. And I think also just to comment on -- especially on the Asset Management side, where we have very much focused on scalability and worked with that for a long time, we see that we have been able to make changes in the operating model that has streamlined the organization and very pleased now to see actually real cost reduction coming through in the cost base in Asset Management and real scalability coming through.

As for the changes in the regulation, it enables us -- at the first instance, it will increase the solvency ratio a little bit, all else equal. And it enables us then to increase the risk targeted in the customer portfolios. And obviously, if we achieve higher returns in the customer portfolios, this will translate also into higher profit sharing to shareholders. We haven't been very precise on the change, but it means that we think we will reach a higher profit sharing level in Norway than the NOK 400 million we guided for on the CMD. And then we will revert. This is quite new still.

We're working on balancing out what kind of asset classes we take more risk premiums in and what is the ideal for customers, both day 1 and after a shock to make sure that we do the right and prudent asset allocation, but that enables higher pensions for our customers.

We have a next question from Ulrik Zürcher in Nordea.

So I was just wondering about the net flows here. On the transfer balance in Unit Linked Norway, negative again. Was it the loss of some big clients or was more general attrition? That's the first one. And then secondly, I just -- I know you said you didn't expect a lot of or didn't win contracts in the public occupational pension, but this was expected that transfer balance there would be basically 0, right?

So let me start on the Unit Linked side. I guess main message from us here is we're still in kind of a structurally growing market. We have been the market leader for many years, and we have been very -- we are very clear that we should have a disciplined approach to pricing and disciplined approach to scalability. And we see that now in the numbers. We increased the results on the operating side on Unit Linked with 14% now in the quarter. That said, the transfer balance you see is a more general attrition. It stems from Q4 last year and then the actual transfer happens then now in the first quarter.

What we see so far in the first quarter is on the pure occupational pension Unit Linked side, we see quite good momentum for Storebrand. So of course, long term, we are not aiming to have a negative flow here, but we have done what is necessary to keep margins and keep scalability. And Johannes?

Yes. And when it comes to the public pensions question, Ulrik, we won NOK 3 billion during the autumn in public pension. So we expect that to be transferred during the second quarter.

Okay. Is that new? Because typically, it's been transferred in Q1. So I was just...

Yes, I think it's...

Than it was as expected.

Yes, it can vary a little bit from year-to-year exactly when the transfers happen.

Okay. That makes sense. Yes. And then all the -- when you say the margin on this -- in the Unit Linked segment and not Insurance, it just make it seems that these are large clients you have lost then?

So on the client side, and when we talk about margin, we talk about both the Insurance and the Savings side. So the real margin enhancement can be found in the pension-related disability insurance line.

We have a next question from David Barma in Bank of America.

Firstly, on the risk result and kind of disability, if I can ask you to elaborate around 3 areas there. One is the -- how sustainable the risk result in the guaranteed business is and whether that's driven more by seasonality, seasonally higher mortality in the period? And then on the non-life corporate business, I thought we would have seen a sharper improvement in the claims ratio this quarter on the back of the measures you've taken last year. So if you can update us on what you're doing there and how fast you think you can return to your targeted levels of profitability?

And then kind of linked to that, on your answer just now on the Unit Linked transfer balance. I understand that more discipline for disability cover might be one of the areas that makes you less competitive. Is this what you're seeing as the key driver of the negative transfer balance? And if that's the case, why would it reverse this year? So those are my questions on the kind of risk and disability. If I can squeeze one -- other one on solvency. You're now at a very high level and you still have some modeling benefits to come next year. How should we think about your priorities to come back within your target range of solvency?

Perfect. Let's start with the results in Guaranteed, the risk results. We see a little bit higher results this quarter than what we guided on as a normalized result on the CMD. This is due to a little bit increased longevity in the paid-up policy portfolio and somewhat more people coming back to the workforce from disabilities. Those are the main effects. We -- these are long-tailed coverages, and it's hard to draw an inference from a single quarter. So we will monitor it and, of course, report this quarter, but we don't kind of change the guidance on the back of this.

When it comes to group life, you are correct, still challenging. We have done high price increases in this area, and we will further this year consider if we are to be present in all the parts of the market we are present in today. I think that is the -- that is what we're working on now and obviously also working with further price increases. Should we go to the...

I think the question was also about the price pressure and the competitiveness in Unit Linked. And I think on that side, we see quite healthy margins now within the more insurance product linked with Unit Linked. So we are in a good place when it comes to be competitive going forward in the Unit Linked market.

Absolutely. And I think you are correct that it's that line of -- in our reporting that has been most competitive previously.

When it comes to solvency, we are reporting a record high solvency. As you know, we both look at the solvency ratio. We look at the liquidity in the holdco. That is also on a very high level. And we have a good reserve generation in the Group. All of this together is measures that we look at to be able to, with high confidence, deliver on the capital distribution plan we have put forward with a growing dividend and NOK 2 billion in share buybacks this year. And it gives, of course, an excellent momentum to deliver on these targets and also flexibility for the Board to review what they are going to do with distribution going forward.

We have a next question from Thomas Svendsen in SEB.

So 2 questions from me as well. So first on this new regulation from the parliament there. If you were to use sort of the new flexibility improve solvency, could you sort of indicate the range of what the solvency ratio would increase with if you took that decision? And also on the parliament's sort of decision here, they asked the government to look at other things as well. So could you give some more flavor on that? Is that -- if there is any significant things there that could impact you that the parliament asks for?

And second question on Asset Management operations and the flows there. The bridge you show that the net flows was moderate in this quarter. So does this have something to do with sort of your cost-cutting efforts in that operations and external lack of sales of external mandates, et cetera?

Well, let's start on the solvency ratio. The effect just taking it straight in without doing any measures is mid-single-digit plus. So somewhere between 5% and 10% points would be a fair assumption. But I want to stress that we are going to look at the best asset allocation to get good pension for pensioners and also, of course, higher profit sharing for our shareholders. And on other discussions and also with the parliament...

Well, I think it's a lot of positive elements. It's also some good elements when it comes to paid-up policies with profit sharing.

Investment choice.

With the investment choice in here, both when it comes to opportunities to have a good asset allocation also in the payout phase. It's making it more easy to do good advices around paid-up policies with the investment choice. So it's going on the whole broad direction of both the old guaranteed paid-up policies and the paid-up policies with the investment choice that should bring new momentum into this market.

I think it's also fair to say on the asset management side, there have come some positive news on the regulatory side for Norwegian domicile now in the latest publication from the government. So we see that things are happening.

And then you had the last question on the flows in Asset Management, Thomas?

Yes.

Yes. On the flows of Asset Management, I think we have seen that the PPM system in Sweden had a negative influence on the flow in the quarter. That was some billions. I don't remember exactly number now, but that there was an outflow with quite low fees, but we have an inflow that was then very positive. And the net number was not that big, but it is still a good momentum in sales and growth and net flows, I think, in Asset Management.

We have a next question from Michele in KBW.

Just one question about the -- I'm sure you're following the consolidation wave in the banking sector in Norway. Just wanted to ask if you have any intention to participate to this consolidation?

Well, we, of course, are following the market and the players very, very tight. And we see a consolidation, especially for the savings bank sector in Norway. We are not in the market to add any banking activities to our balance sheet. We have a bank setup that suits us well to be a savings actor. The integration with Kron is going very well for us to increase our savings and our cross-sales activities based on the bank we have. So we are happy with the bank setup we have. We are -- you should not expect us to take part actively to add banking activities to our balance sheet.

It looks like we've covered all the questions. So that wraps up today's presentation. Actually, there's a follow-up question here from Thomas in SEB.

Just a very quick one on the bank. NII declined sharply Q-o-Q. Do you expect it to rebound over the next 1 or 2 quarters? What should we expect there?

Well, I think it's a bit of countervailing forces there. I guess if the interest rate curve materializes and interest rate goes up, that obviously, in banking, hurts a little bit in the short time period and but feels better in the long time period. So that is one factor. And then on the other hand, we are working to adapt the balance sheet even more to CRR3 and you saw a decline in LTV in the quarter. And that is, of course, something we can work with ourselves to do changes in the LTV and also engage more customer as daily, what we call daily bank customers that could go the other way.

It seems like we have a next question from Herman Zahl in Pareto.

Just on the bank, you're saying the lower growth is somewhat related to adjustments in the CRR3 and new sales were stable. So should we read that as sort of the underlying growth is similar to recent trajectory and there were some deliberate specific exposures in this quarter?

What we said on the CMD was we expected 5% to 10% growth in the bank over the next year. I guess with the growth you see this quarter, we are more at the bottom end of that trajectory rather than the top end.

Yes. And because we saw that the NSSA published a report on the bank. So could you just state your view on that and if you see any sort of changes needed remaining to sort of meet that criticism?

Well, first of all, the bank has been growing a lot for a very long time. We have had this report from the FSA. It was based on the situation back in 2024, and it was also based on a quite limited part of the portfolio. Of course, we have taken a lot of measures from 2024 to now to increase some important functions within the bank to cope up with the growth of the bank balance. And I think we are in a much better place now compared to what we were back in 2024. And I feel comfortable about the bank balance and our growth going forward.

It seems like we're done through all the questions. So that wraps up today's presentation. We look forward to seeing you again at the second quarter result presentation on July 15. Thank you for attending, and goodbye.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Storebrand's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results Presentation. As usual, our CEO, Odd Arild Grefstad will present the key highlights, followed by CFO, Kjetil Krokje, who will dive deeper into the numbers. At the end of the presentation, participants in the team's webinar will have a chance to ask questions. Details on how to join the webinar are found on the Investor Relations website. But without further ado, I give the word to our CEO, Odd Arild.

Thank you, Johannes, and good morning, everyone. I am excited to share a strong set of results for the fourth quarter today. Before we jump into further details, I will start with a few reflections on the progress we have made in 2025. 2025 was another year of clear progress and strong performance. We achieved a record high NOK 5.7 billion result. This means we surpassed our target outlined in the Capital Markets Day in 2023 by 14%. We also saw 26% growth in the operational result for the full year.

A large share of the operational result came from short-tailed insurance and capital-light savings products. This leads to increased quality of earnings. Return on equity was 16% for the full year, surpassing the target of 14% significantly. 2025 was also a solid year for our Savings customers as they received NOK 147 billion in returns. To enhance customer experience and strengthen scalability, we invest selectively in AI and digital platforms. I'm therefore pleased to see clear progress in this area. One example is our AI-based customer service chat for insurance that recently ranked first in the market.

AI-driven customer interaction is key to scalability going forward. In December, we updated the market on our strategic direction and set financial targets for 2028. The organization is now in execution mode with full focus on operational improvements and scalability across business areas. As shown in this graph, Storebrand has delivered solid result growth over the last 3 years. Two factors are important to understand this progress. First, it is a result of a group strategy built for capital-efficient value creation within Savings and Insurance.

Our diversified business with strong synergies makes us resilient in various scenarios. Second, the progress is driven by great execution. My 2,600 colleagues bring our priorities to life through an action-oriented culture built on teamwork and shared goals. I want to thank all Storebrand colleagues for your dedication and contribution throughout 2025.

Let me now turn to the highlights for the quarter. Storebrand delivered a group profit of NOK 1,515 million in the quarter. The operational result was NOK 1,131 million, up by 61% year-on-year. The underlying operational result is the best ever for the quarter and for the full year. The record high result is driven by significant growth in insurance with premiums up by 20% from the last year, together with increasing profitability.

Within Savings, the result development in asset management stands out positively. Cost control remains a key priority, and I'm pleased to see cost development in line with what we outlined for the year. Turning to capital distribution. I'm pleased to confirm a 15% increase in dividends to NOK 5.4 per share. On share buybacks, Storebrand has a long-term ambition to distribute more than NOK 12 billion by the end of 2030. By the end of 2025, NOK 5 billion of this has been completed. Reflecting solid capital and liquidity positions, we aim to conduct NOK 2 billion in share buybacks during 2026. This will be done in 2 tranches of NOK 1 billion with the first one starting today.

We keep executing our strategy to grow our capital-light business areas. This strategy is built for Storebrand to take 3 commercial positions. A, to be the leading provider of occupational pension in both Norway and Sweden. B, to be a Nordic powerhouse in asset management. And c, to be a fast-growing challenger in the Norwegian retail market for financial services. We take these positions and unlock growth by using our strategic enablers and group synergies.

So let me dive into our progress. Across the group, we can once again report double-digit growth. This is due to both structural growth in the savings business, increased market shares in insurance and banking and supportive markets. Let me start with the first strategic position, being a leading provider of occupational pension in Norway and Sweden. In 2025, we saw double-digit growth in both Unit Linked reserves and corporate insurance premiums. Contributing to this, we captured the largest share of the net customer flow in the individual pension market in 2025.

In Sweden, SPP keeps expanding. A highlight in the quarter was the broadening of the distribution agreement with Danske Bank. SPP will be the sole provider of pension services to Danske Bank, an important valuation of SPP's solutions. Our second strategic position is to be a Nordic powerhouse in asset management. Several of our flagship funds performed very well in the quarter, taking performance-related income to NOK 475 million for 2025.

Within alternatives, our second Nordic real estate fund has experienced strong investor demand and completed its second close. We are very happy to see that investors value our long-term Nordic strategy. In addition to this, AIP management, where Storebrand has a 60% stake has developed well. With support from existing investors, AIP reached the first close of EUR 2 billion for its newest clean energy fund.

The AMU growth is supported by positive net flow over the last years. An important competitive advantage is our group synergies, where the growing pension business provides a steady flow to asset management. Over the past years, external assets have grown faster than captive assets, showing that our offering is competitive in the market. Finally, the third strategic position. Storebrand aims to be a growing challenger in the Norwegian retail market. We are very pleased to have partnered with Santander in the fourth quarter, a leading player in the market for car financing. This further strengthens our capabilities in the car distribution channel and will be an important driver for our growth strategy.

Growth in retail insurance was a key highlight. 26% growth in portfolio premiums in 2025 has increased our market share in P&C to almost 8%, and this is up from almost 7% a year before. To sum up, 2025 was a year of clear progress with strong result growth, improved return on equity and increased capital distribution.

Johannes, back to you.

Thank you, Odd Arild. Now let's take a closer look at the numbers. Kjetil, please go ahead.

Thank you, Johannes. Let's start with the key figures for the quarter. The quarterly result of NOK 1.515 billion is 42% better than last year, driven by strong results from insurance and asset management. The operating momentum into 2026 is strong with solid growth, pricing measures flowing through in insurance and record high AUM levels across the business. Storebrand delivered 16% return on equity for the full year and increased underlying earnings per share. If we move to the balance sheet, the solvency margin is reduced by 1 percentage point in the quarter with both higher own funds and capital requirement.

This is still a very robust balance sheet that provides resilience if financial markets were to become more volatile. The expected return on our investments in the guaranteed business is well hedged and still 180 basis points above the guaranteed rate. In order to pay dividends and fund share buybacks, we need both solvency and liquidity. As you can see on this slide, we have around NOK 3.7 billion in liquidity as of the start of 2026. With strong remittance from subsidiaries, we will be able to increase ordinary dividends by 15% and execute our share buyback program of NOK 2 billion in 2026.

The projected upstreaming of capital secures long-term predictability in our capital distribution in addition to strategic flexibility to support organic growth and accretive bolt-on opportunities that can occur. It's fair to mention that remittance is particularly strong this year, driven by strong results, tax loss carryforward and because of strong upstreaming from the bank due to the implementation of CRR3 for Norwegian banks. This should be considered when forecasting future remittance from subsidiaries and the consequent liquidity position of the holdco.

Storebrand provided a remittance outlook at the Capital Markets Day in 2025 that includes further details on expected remittance levels from 2026 onwards. The solvency margin ended at 194%, down from 195% last quarter. Post-tax results contributed positively. This was offset by regulatory factors and accrued dividends in the quarter. The announced buyback program of NOK 2 billion is expected to reduce the solvency ratio with approximately 3% at the Q1 reporting and another 3% in connection with the next tranche.

With the current level of solvency, buffers and interest rates, the balance sheet is very robust to fluctuations in the financial markets. Let's go a little deeper into the results line by line at the group level and then turn to the reporting segments. The top line growth for the full year was 13%. The insurance result is up 49%. The increase in insurance is mainly attributed to significantly improved results in the Retail segment, supported by repricing measures and continued volume growth.

Operational cost is within our guidance of NOK 6.9 billion, excluding performance-related costs and extraordinary strong sales in P&C. For 2026, we expect to have around NOK 7.3 billion, NOK 7.4 billion in operational cost before currency and performance-related costs. All taken together, this leads to an improvement in the operating results of 2026 for 26%. The financial result is strong, and this leads to a group result of NOK 5.7 billion, NOK 700 million higher than the ambitious targets we announced at the 2023 Capital Markets Day.

The tax charge for the quarter was 20%. This is within the normal range. The tax rate was lowered by currency movements and the asymmetry in how tax is calculated on assets and currency derivatives, while higher earnings from the Asset Management segment increased the tax rate. For the full year, the tax charge was 15%. The low tax rate was caused by lower taxes in our Swedish operation and currency movements. Our tax guiding is still 19% to 22%.

This table shows the same numbers as on the previous page, but split into the business lines, savings, insurance and guaranteed. Storebrand's front book continues to grow strongly, while the guaranteed back book shows relatively stable results. The segment Other is mainly return on company capital and cost of debt. Let me start with the Savings segment.

In Unit Linked, assets under management are growing double digit, fueled by structural market growth. Top line margins are reduced by 4 basis points year-on-year. The bank delivers a weak fourth quarter caused by periodization of loan losses and reduced net interest rate income driven by lower margins on deposits. The bank will implement measures to actively improve the deposit base and continue to cross-sell to improve the income base. The bank delivers an ROE of 10.5% for the full year. Asset Management contributes very well in the quarter with strong performance in active funds and event-driven income from the alternatives business.

The business delivers positive net flow and keeps the share of external capital at 54%, while internal capital is also growing strongly. Within insurance, the combined ratio for the last 12 months has fallen to 92%. This is down from 97% last year and 102% the year before. The full year improvement is in line with previous communication. And with implemented measures, we maintain our CMD guiding for a combined ratio at or below 90% for the full year 2028.

Despite strong profitability measures to get back to the targeted levels, it's pleasing to see that churn is within normal variation and that the growth in premiums and market shares continues. Zooming in on the quarter, we still see strong growth and result development within retail, whilst we see more moderate results in corporate due to weak disability results in Group Life. However, I'm pleased to see that in the corporate P&C offering, it's continuing to scale at satisfactory profitability levels.

In Guaranteed, results are satisfactory. The guaranteed reserves as a percentage of total reserves continue to fall. We deliver improvements to profit sharing in Norway and Sweden, in line with the levels communicated on the CMD in 2023. Over to the Other segment. The company portfolios in the Norwegian and Swedish life insurance companies and the holding company amounted to NOK 28 billion at the end of the quarter. The returns range from 3.1% in the Swedish portfolio to 4.8% in the Norwegian portfolio for the full year.

Storebrand is funded by a combination of equity and debt. Interest expenses for the group amounted to NOK 175 million in the quarter, excluding hedging effects. Let me close off the results with a slide that zooms out a little, but represents a story many of you are familiar with. Both savings and insurance, which is the future Storebrand business model and the runoff business in Guaranteed are improving profitability. And the runoff business require less capital as it runs off.

This means that we have produced improved cash results while we have spent excess capital to buy back shares. This has led to higher earnings per share and a significantly higher return on equity, a development we aim to continue in the years ahead. In addition, Storebrand has ambitious sustainability targets across the group. I will not go through this in detail now, but you can look forward to a comprehensive reporting in our annual report, which will be published in the middle of March. With the results we present today, we deliver on our 2025 ambitions, and we have excellent momentum in the group to deliver on our newly announced 2028 ambitions.

And with that, I will hand it back to you, Johannes.

Thank you, Kjetil. We're now happy to take questions from our audience.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Hans Rettedal Christiansen in Danske Bank.

Congrats on a good end to 2025. And I was just wondering if we could dig a little bit into the results in the Savings segment and in particular, the asset management. And just wondering how much of that result we should kind of extrapolate going forward. Performance fees can obviously vary from quarter-to-quarter, but looking a bit away from that and thinking about the event-driven fees that you're reporting in Q4, I guess, net the Q4 result is up some NOK 100 million, which I guess is also attributable to that. Can you talk a bit about sort of what we should expect from ongoing fundraisings or planned fundraisings for 2026 and the impact of those -- that's the first question.

And the second question is on the Unit Linked business, specifically the transfer balance, which looks again like it's sort of trending downwards. Just trying to triangulate your updated fee margin guidance given in the CMD. I'm wondering what sort of front book margins you're seeing now versus back book and when in 2026, you would expect the turn in the transfer balance for that business?

Thank you, Hans. Let's start with the Asset Management segment. Around NOK 150 million came from performance-related fees in the fourth quarter. In addition, we had around NOK 70 million in event-driven fees. Of course, looking forward and into 2026, we do expect some both event-driven fees and performance-related fees throughout the year. We have said that for AIP, we have now just closed a EUR 2 billion -- done a the first close of a EUR 2 billion fund, and we expect through the end of 2026 or early '27 to do the final close and do another EUR 1 billion in that fund.

So that should affect the event-driven fees also in 2026. On the Unit Linked transfer balance, well, let's first start by saying that this is -- we're still in a structurally growing market. We grow this AUM base by 13% last year. And that being said, this has been a market where the pricing on risk has not been profitable for the last years. We have been very disciplined and priced it to profitability in our books. We have also seen a small part of the portfolio migrates to own pension account. And of course, we are very happy with our market share of 22% throughout 2025 in own pension account, but this is still lower than the around 30% we have in the occupational schemes. So these factors altogether explains the NOK 2 billion roughly transferred out in the fourth quarter.

And again, we're not happy with it. It's not something we're pleased with. So we are, of course, working with measures here to make that transfer balance neutral and positive again throughout 2026. And I guess on the margin side as well, we can comment on that, 4 basis points down this year compared to last year. We gave a guidance on the CMD that the margins are expected to be in the 45 to 50 basis points range out in 2028. And I think the development we have seen this quarter points in that direction that we will be in that range when we come 2028.

Thank you, Hans. We have a next question from David Barma in Bank of America. Please go ahead, David.

Two on the Insurance segment, please. First on Disability, where we've seen a deterioration of the trend in Q4. Can you run us through the measures and price increases you're putting through in that space. And in group life, in particular, are you able to pass everything through in your '26 renewals? And then on the retail part of the business, so Q4 appeared to be a really good quarter for the industry, but you're flagging that you took some reserve release in the period, implying the underlying profitability would have deteriorated a bit more compared to the last quarters. So can you talk about that, please, and how you're pricing compared to the market so far into the year?

Yes. No, I can start on that. And when we look at the Insurance segment as a whole, on the retail side, we've been hit by the Storm Amy on one hand, but we've also seen some runoff gains and a little bit lower large losses in the quarter than we normally would expect. On the other hand, we have had a reserve strengthening in the corporate segment that kind of takes it the other -- goes in the other direction. So all in all, the 93% we report in this quarter is a pretty good -- it shows pretty good the temperature on the -- of the underlying business.

And we're very pleased, of course, to meet the target of 90% to 92% with a 92% combined ratio for the full year.

And when it comes to disability and pricing, we have sent through high double-digit pricing and based on the customer, quite high price increases now for this year's renewal. It's fair to say that disability is a long-tail business. It's been something we have had not the best results in over some time. So it's a really important focus area for us to be able to price this up at the right level or consider other measures to make sure that this does not -- will be a drag on the results also going forward. So it's an extremely important focus area for us internally at present.

Yes, it's an important focus area for us and for the whole society in Norway with the disability. We see still high disability levels in the society. We have now priced our main portfolio in a way where we have profitability, especially the ones that is linked to our Unit Linked business, we see a healthy development. There is still some smaller portfolio, which we see long tail and need for, as we saw in this quarter, reserve strengthening, but that is minor portfolios altogether. And we work with different measures.

We talked about price increases here, but we also have our well concept that we now have given -- delivered to all our 400,000 customers, where we have expertise in-house, medical expertise where we can also be very fast on delivering solutions for people that are in the phase of getting into sick leave or disability. And we see very promising results out of this system and this program.

Thank you, David. We have a next question here from Roy Tilley in Arctic Securities. Please go ahead, Roy.

So 2 questions from me. Just the first one on insurance. You announced a letter of intent with Knif a couple of weeks ago. Just wondering if you could say anything more about that company and what the plans are and whether or not you see a merger is likely at some point, it's a small one, but still interesting.

And then just secondly, I saw some news that you are moving Kron, the customers to the Storebrand platform. And to my understanding, at least initially, it means that the available mutual funds on the platform will drop from around 500 to around 80. So just wondering if you've seen any pushback from customers on that switch or what you're hearing from customers from the group.

Yes. I should start on Knif. First of all, it's very early days, of course, in the development of this relationship. We are looking into that as we speak. But it's very interesting to see. Knif is a company or a system that has a very strong position within the nonprofit sector in Norway and have different financial solutions for the nonprofit sector. As a part of that, also an insurance company that has around 1% point market share within corporate insurance. And around 0.3% market share within retail and premiums around NOK 800 million.

And of course, with Storebrand's very strong synergies, especially on capital when it comes to insurance, this is an interesting company for us to also have a cooperation with. And we think also that they have a position within the nonprofit sector that can be broadened and can be a very important element for growth within that sector for Storebrand with a broad overview of our products.

And on the move from Kron to the life insurance company, this is only the pension customers that we -- that are moved to the regulatory platform of Storebrand Life Insurance. All interaction will still happen on the Kron platform, so that's important. And all the savings customers in Kron using Kron for mutual funds, et cetera, they will still have the wide fund offering that they have today. And then we are building up a wide fund offering also through the platform in Storebrand Life Insurance. There has been some moves out in connection with the move, but not anything significantly. And we still think that they will have a market-leading both solution with Kron as the platform and with the Storebrand as the actual provider in the back. So, so far, so good.

I think more than 90% of the customers that moves over to Kron, we had 2 solutions now for pension, and we merged that into one solution that is the leading solution we have from the life insurance company and 90% coming for the more fund-based solution will have the same fund selection when they move into Kron. And for the ones that has some special funds that we see that there is not a part of this platform today. We add some funds to cover up for that. And altogether, I think we meet the expectations in this portfolio in a very good way.

Thank you, Roy. We have a next question from Farooq Hanif in JPMorgan. Please go ahead, Farooq.

My first question on insurance. Would you be willing to give some sort of guidance on the pathway to less than 90% for 2026. There's always a tension between pricing, profitability measures and your desire to grow share. So can you explain or help us with where you are in that journey in 2026? And then turning to remittances. I mean, you did flag extraordinary remittances in 2025 at your CMD, and you're guiding towards remittances being closer to the net cash result in future years. But when you say closer to, are there any other pockets of surplus capital that might still come through that you could talk about in the remittance ratio in '26.

Well, let's start with insurance. We've said that we should be at 90% or below in 2028. And the way we see it is that, that will be a gradual improvement from now and until 2028. And it's also fair to say that insurance business fluctuates a little bit, so there might be some fluctuations around that straight line. So that is kind of the best expectation we have for 2026.

But then again, delivering 92% now for the full year 2025 means that we are very well in line meeting that target.

Absolutely. And when it comes to remittance, as you said, it is stronger this year. And one of the reasons for that is both the fact that we are in the last year on nonpayable tax that would, all else equal, reduce remittance with some NOK 0.8 billion next year. And also the fact that this year was changes in the standard model in the bank that released capital as we went over to CRR3. So the main pockets of remittance capacity in this system comes from either earnings or from the capital that are in the life insurance companies. And I think we've given a pretty clear guidance that, that will be NOK 1 billion above the results also for next year. So I think that's the best expectation we can give for now, Farooq.

And if I may just quickly return on insurance. No change, I guess, in your ambition to grow share here at the current pace?

No, I think we feel that we really are a challenger in this market. And with 4 large competitors in the Norwegian market, we really feel that we have a good momentum, a very strong brand name and the opportunity to grow our market share with profitability in this market.

And as we have said many times, it has to happen with profitability and with the profitability targets we have set, but it's still a good market to grow in.

Thank you, Farooq. We have a next question from Thomas Svendsen in SEB.

Two questions from me. First, on this agreement with Santander. I guess they have a large market share of car financing in Norway. So what was your value proposition. Why did you win over competition to get this deal? And also, do you see more opportunities, distribution opportunities in the car channel?

So I guess on Santander, we have been in dialogue with them for a while. It's obviously both the fact that we are now a larger and more robust P&C setup. So we could be a full partner with Santander in -- together with them, offering good services to the customers. And obviously, it's always a discussion about price. It's a discussion about service levels where we were deemed to be the best partners.

I also want to mention, I had my own meetings with them actually. And what they also tell us is that the Storebrand brand name is an extremely strong brand name, as you know, for insurance, makes it easy for the dealers out there to also use that brand name in connection with car financing.

Yes. And when it comes to other opportunities, I think this is a significant one. We're always having our eyes and ears open, and we are exploring some other dialogues, but we will revert to that if something materializes.

And then the second question on the bank there. So should we expect you to sort of have this loan loss charges or impairment charges every Q4? Or should we expect more equal charging throughout '26.

Yes. No, I think when you look at '24, we had more equal charging throughout the year. This year, we were at the same nominal level of loan losses for the full year, but it was back-end loaded. I think going into 2026, I would expect it to be more equal throughout the year.

We have a next question from Michele Ballatore in KBW. Please go ahead.

So 2 questions. So the first is going back to Non-Life. If you can maybe explore a little bit more in terms of the pricing trends, both in retail and in corporate, if there is any -- I mean, I guess the claims environment is pretty good. I mean, is there any sign of softening that you see or anticipate for maybe the second half of 2026. So this is the -- as I said, both in retail and corporate.

And the second question is about -- I mean, we have seen in the past couple of days, the impact of news about AI in asset management hitting pretty strong on asset managers. So it's debatable if it's a threat or if it's an opportunity. I just wanted to have your view on this.

Yes. I can start on the pricing. What we see in insurance, and this is both in retail and corporate is that we've been through a pricing cycle now in the Norwegian market with extremely high inflation, both driven from the currency movements with a weakened NOK and the general value chain disruptions that happened after COVID, leading to high inflation on car parts, building parts and more.

In addition, we were hit by higher frequency in the Norwegian market, arguably driven by the large proportion of EVs in the Norwegian car market. So what we have seen that we've gone from years with almost 20% increase in prices at the highest point to a downward trend where over time, we expect the pricing within insurance to go back to a more inflation plus like pricing. We're not there yet, but that is what we expect to happen over time.

And your question on AI, was it the use of AI within asset management or.

No, it was more -- I mean, there is a debate on the market, especially when it comes to asset managers, especially in the past couple of days about is this a competitive force? Or is it an opportunity? Because it looks like from the market reaction, people are worried -- more worried about the, let's say, incumbents.

Yes. No, I think you see a couple of examples. You see it in insurance. You saw some trends in Australian insurers with new services going up where you get custom quotes on insurance through AI-based platforms. You've also seen similar things in asset management. That obviously, like I remember earlier, the risk of kind of big tech moving into finance, that is still an ongoing threat that can take many forms.

We don't see a lot of it concretely right now, but it's obviously on our strategic radar. And then on the other hand, I think when we work with AI internally, just as Odd Arild mentioned with the Chatbot and more, we see quite interesting opportunities for scaling both customer dialogue kind of directly, but also down in settlement processes and these kind of processes, which are quite labor-intensive today, but where you can scale the business without really adding much new people, but adding new AI-based tool. So it's a little bit on both sides that it's both potentially a threat to some part of the business model, but also a lever where you can drive operational efficiency.

Thank you, Michele. We have a follow-up question from Hans in Danske Bank. Please go ahead, Hans.

So I just wanted to go back to the Slide #13 on the liquidity bridge that you have and you provided -- you say that you're going to have NOK 5 billion in liquidity by year-end. I think you previously said you want to have somewhere between NOK 3 billion and NOK 4 billion in the holding company at any given time. So you have sort of NOK 1 billion to NOK 2 billion more at year-end. So going back maybe to the previous question on Knif, it's not completely obvious to me exactly what kind of discussions that you're having there is? Is that part of the capital allocation sort of split given the liquidity bridge and sort of what price expectations are there, there? And maybe just linking that to what your liquidity expectation or capital allocation plans are for going into 2027.

Well, let's start on that. First of all, you see we gave the guidance now in our Capital Markets Day, both around, of course, as we have done for a long time, solvency and over capitalization and also targeted levels with a soft closing around that for liquidity. Very pleased now to announce another year with a 15% increase in dividends and also an increase now in share buybacks this year. Then we expect, but it's still to see coming through high remittance and a very strong liquidity positions year-end 2026.

That is, of course, both possible to use for -- if we need to support any subsidiaries, if we do a bolt-on M&A as Knif might be one-off, but also another set of flexibility for the Board to make the decisions around capital allocation by year-end 2026. So that is how we view it. We have clear guidance now for what we have said. And then if we have this NOK 5 billion, that gives a good starting point for the discussion with the Board, I think, a year from now.

Just to follow up on that, the sort of -- your hope is to acquire Knif at some point throughout the year.

It's very early days. We have started to look at Knif now and have a good relationship with them. We think a combination of insurance company with Storebrand can be a good thing to do. As I said, altogether around NOK 800 million in premiums. That can give you an indication, of course, of the size. And if you know the metrics, also the price for a company like that, but that is where we stand today.

Thank you, Hans. We have a follow-up question from Farooq in JPMorgan as well. Please go ahead, Farooq.

I'm aware this is a bit of a silly question I'm going to ask now for an earnings call. But can you talk briefly about what you're doing about this autonomous cars debate and remind us again of your share of car in your retail business versus other lines?

Yes. I can start. Well, the facts, I think, is around 8% now in market share on cars in the P&C lines. I think the development we have seen now in Norway is that autonomous cars hasn't really come here yet as this is not regulatory approved. It's probably one of the hardest places to do fully autonomous cars due to the geography and the winters we have here in the North. But obviously, at some point, you will have more driver assistant and maybe also fully autonomous cars going into Norwegian roads.

And then there's always the debate on what will that do to claims ratios? Will OEMs take a larger share of the market. I think all we can do is to position ourselves well, both towards the OEMs and towards the end customers and continue to work with both to make sure that we are an important part of the value chain going forward. I don't know, Odd Arild, if you have.

No, that's fine.

Thank you, Farooq. It looks like we've covered all the questions. So that wraps up today's presentation. We look forward to seeing you again on the first quarter result presentation on April 29. Thank you for attending, and goodbye.

Welcome to Storebrand's Capital Markets Day. We have really been looking forward to this. It's great to see so many of you here at our headquarters and a warm welcome to everyone following us on stream. While today's presentations are led by us in the executive management team, the true force behind our ability to deliver on our ambitions lies in the collective expertise, commitment and passion within all of us who work at Storebrand. And what unites us across businesses, national borders is our core, the essence of who we are and aspire to be for our customers, our employees, shareholders and the world around us.

We are in business to create a brighter future. This shared purpose is what fuels our long-term value creation and enable us to adapt, grow and lead by integrity. We know that purpose-driven organizations grow faster, are more adaptable and create greater value and that's Storebrand. We don't just believe in our mission. We invest in it. The majority of my 2,500 colleagues are shareholders in Storebrand, a clear signal that we are deeply committed to the long-term success of this company and what unites us creating a brighter future.

We have an exciting agenda ahead of us today. And let me lead you through it. First, our CEO, Odd Arild Grefstad, will take the stage to present the group strategy, the direction that will guide us into the future. Then members of the executive management team will share insights on 3 key areas: savings, insurance and guaranteed products. These presentations will follow the same structure that you recognize from our financial reporting. And finally, our CFO, Kjetil Krokje, will summarize what all this means in terms of financial ambitions and capital allocation. And we'll wrap it up with a Q&A session, giving you the chance to ask questions.

So let's get started. And let me introduce on the stage our CEO, Odd Arild.

Thank you, Tove. As we open this year's Capital Markets Day, I want to start with one clear message. Storebrand is built for the long run, with a strong commitment to creating value. Today, you will see a long-term growth strategy, a strategy that positions Storebrand for success the next decade. We will spend time on the financial targets for the 3-year strategy period. But just as important is the bigger picture. The future-focused Nordic Savings and Insurance group we are building. Let's now look at how far we have come.

Storebrand has reinvented itself many times. That journey has shaped who we are today. We began as a Norwegian fire insurance company back in 1767. Today, we are a leading Nordic financial service group shaped by the needs of our customers and society. Since 2012, we have followed a strategy to grow our savings and insurance operations and the impact shows. Back in 2012, Guaranteed made up almost 2/3 of our results. Today, Savings and Insurance are roughly 2/3 of the earnings. This is driven by a fivefold increase in these areas. The shift has made expected earnings more resilient with a greater share from long-term savings and short-tailed risk.

And this lays the foundation for the momentum we are now seeing. We hold leading positions in unit-linked and asset management. Two areas supported by long-term growth drivers. And we are increasing our market share in Norwegian insurance and retail banking. As a result of this growth, group profit has exceeded the NOK 5 billion ambition from the Capital Markets Day back in 2023. Return on equity is well ahead of our target of 14%. And we expect dividends to increase to about NOK 5.4 per share this year. This represents a 15% annual growth the last years. And for the third year in a row, we are doing a NOK 1.5 billion of share buybacks.

Over the past decade, we have transformed the company. We now have a resilient balance sheet and more room to distribute capital and enter the next decade from the strongest position in our history. With that in mind, let me turn to our strategy and to our ambitions for the years ahead.

As we look ahead, I will start with external forces impacting our business. Then I will move to our group strategy. I will focus on the strategic enablers and the synergies across the group. And last, I will explain what this means for value creation and financial targets, but let me begin with the Nordic macro backdrop. The Nordic region remains highly attractive for long-term savings and insurance. Public finances are in good shape, and the region has solid fiscal headroom compared to other markets. This allows for stable frameworks for pensions and long-term savings, at the time when other countries face tight budgets and higher taxes.

The Nordics are also known for stability, high income and high trust. This makes the region one of the most predictable long-term savings market in the world. Norway's policy rate remains at a high level. Digitalization is advanced and customer adoption is fast. For long duration business like Storebrand, this environment is a clear advantage. At the same time, megatrends, are changing our markets and customer expectations. AI is set to benefit financial services more than most sectors. Storebrand is digital, rich in data and process driven. We are well placed to benefit.

The demographic landscape is changing. An increasing number of people is growing older. In addition, financial responsibility is moving from the state and collective providers to the individuals. The result of these trends is increasing the need for long-term savings. These megatrends create exciting opportunities and Storebrand has a unique starting point to take advantage of these trends. This brings me to how we are positioning the company to do exactly that.

As many of you are familiar with, our strategy focuses on scaling our capital-light front book business. This strategy is anchored in 3 commercial positions. One, to be a leading provider of occupational pension in Norway and Sweden; two, to be a Nordic powerhouse in asset management; and three, to be as an insurer in the financial retail market in Norway. This strategy is powered by 3 strategic enablers: people first, leadership in sustainability and digital frontrunner. We also benefit from strong group synergies in revenue, costs and capital. I'll talk about these synergies in a moment, but first, I will take you through the enablers.

We have been a pioneer in sustainable finance for 30 years. And we have stayed committed in good times and in hard times. This gives us a clear view of risk and help us deliver better risk-adjusted returns. We do this because it creates value for society, for customers and for shareholders. Our progress on sustainability shows in numbers, and we continue to lift our targets for sustainable investments. We also strengthened our efforts in sustainability in other areas. Within insurance, our health concept, VEL is a strong example. It helps employees stay healthy and return to work faster. We are now implementing VEL from pilot to an integrated part of our disability insurance offering from 2026. You will hear more about this from my colleagues.

Speaking of my colleagues, I'm very proud our experienced management team. Together, we have more than 140 years of combined experience at Storebrand each with a strong track record from key routes. Attracting and developing talent is essential for high-performance culture. This team reflects our long-term focus on leadership development and succession planning. Three of the 7 members have been part of our training program. The top management team received 25% to 35% of their compensation in locked-up shares. This ensures common objective and strong alignment with shareholders.

While this team sets the direction, the real engine of Storebrand is all our employees. They shape our unique culture and drive the company forward. We will know here from Jarle Roth, our Chairman on what makes Storebrand culture unique. And after that, Trygve will present our third strategic enabler, Digital, before I return to conclude the group strategy section.

Thank you. As Chair of the Board, I'm honored to address you today at this important event for Storebrand. Having spent decades leading organization across international markets and various industries, I have come to understand what truly sets exceptional companies apart and what sustained success generally means. It stems from a clear vision and leadership, steadfast integrity and the relentless drive for excellence in execution among talented individuals. But truly sets Storebrand apart and what competitors cannot imitate is the culture.

Our culture is built on the long-term and collective performance, teamwork, shared goals and a focus on what we can achieve together. The achievement speaks for themselves. In the past 10 years, Storebrand has continuously delivered double-digit growth, outperformed benchmarks in share price and achieved top tier employee scores. This is the result of disciplined strategy execution, operational excellence and a management team that anticipates change and adapts. At the same time, we recognize that there is always room for improvement, and we are working continuously to address these challenges, whether it is improved customer satisfaction, customer journeys or service offerings.

Looking forward, Storebrand stands stronger than ever. Our robust financial position and proven business model give us the opportunity and navigate uncertainty with confidence. As Chair, I take great pride in Storebrand's progress and the extraordinary people driving our success. I'm confident that together, we will continue to set new standards for value creation, resilience and responsible leadership. The future is bright for our customers, our employees, our shareholders and for Storebrand as a leading Nordic savings and insurance group to the shareholders and other stakeholders following Storebrand. Thank you for your trust and your commitment and for following the 2025 Capital Markets Day.

A clear message there from our Chairman. And if culture is at the core of Storebrand, Digital is our engine. Technology forms the backbone of financial services, and it's a key enabler in Storebrand's strategy. As a company, we already operate in the branchless and technology-driven world. Our ability to lead digitally is critical for driving growth and creating long-term value. In recent years, we have transformed from a traditional infrastructure and siloed operations to a modern platform and a business-focused digital organization. We have invested purposefully in modern technology, digital competency, automation and AI to accelerate our digital journey.

On the platform side, we are running on a scalable and secure foundation. Our cloud migration has cut costs and improved stability. We have built out advanced cyber capabilities, responsive detection engineering, proactive threat litigation and compliance with emerging regulations like DORA. On this foundation, we run business platforms that enable growth and expansion. We have consolidated and modernized our platforms for asset management and pensions in Sweden. In Norway, our pension business runs on one unified platform, a single holistic cloud-based CRM system covers all businesses in the group. This has enabled us to integrate a range of acquisitions quickly and efficiently, unlocking synergies and supporting expansion into new markets such as public pensions.

Storebrand has a long history with advanced analytics and machine learning. Years of experimentation and integration across our core businesses has given us a solid foundation for AI. This has led us to a disciplined approach, focusing relentlessly on value creation and avoiding big bets on hype, prioritizing high potential platforms and scalable use cases with clear commercial goals. In customer service, gen AI agents now handle over half of Chatbot traffic, speaking natural language with our customers, and in some cases, even performing controlled operations on their behalf.

For these conversations, customer satisfaction is up 43% and escalations to human advisers have dropped significantly. In insurance operations, AI now automates 67% of back-office cases for the private market, optimizing costs and enabling a win-back team to retain over NOK 100 million this year. As we can see, our lean commercial approach to AI is generating tangible value with a clear path to further scale. Our digital organization is fully aligned with each of the group's 4 profit and loss areas, operating on a one-to-one basis with shared financial targets.

By leveraging cross-cutting capabilities such as AI, cloud, cybersecurity and CRM, we avoid duplicate functions and drive synergies that amplify value for the entire organization. We've established strong governance over all technology investments, embedding them within commercially aligned digitalization programs, allowing us to focus on what matters most, clear commercial priorities and disciplined execution.

Our end goal is clear, and this slide shows proofs of our progress towards our digital vision, delivering consistently top-ranked digital solutions, shifting to digital distribution of our products and driving end-to-end automation of back-end processes. Going forward, having modernized our platforms for asset management and pensions, we will now rewire our insurance technology stack, renewing the core and leveraging technology to drive better performance in risk selection and underwriting, more effective distribution and faster, more efficient claims handling. We will continue to expand on broadening the offering and deepening engagement with customers as the market becomes more individualized and more digital.

And we will continue to build out scalability through automation across the group, where we believe AI with our disciplined and value-driven approach will present significant opportunities. Together, these steps ensure we continue our digital journey to build the digital, data-driven and scalable Storebrand for the future. Now back to you, Odd Arild.

Thank you, Trygve. Let me now turn to our group synergies. Like the strategic enablers, our synergies in revenue, cost and capital are key to deliver our strategy. Let's start with revenue synergies. Our broad customer base is a powerful growth engine. One example is the 540,000 members we have in the Norwegian corporate pension schemes. The business has a solid inflow of new members every year. This adds a stable flow of cross-sale opportunities for individual pensions, savings and insurance products.

As an example, we have the last 2 years increased the share of retail customers coming from these corporate pension schemes from 20% to 25%. And with our initiatives like integrating offerings in Kron, this should continue to increase in the years ahead. We use share capabilities in digital, people and finance to gain scale. This avoids duplication and shares best practice. We also create operational leverage from consolidating NOK 1.6 trillion of internal and external capital on a single asset management platform.

Having captive capital comes with several advantages. We see customer needs early and have cornerstone investors available to launch new strategies. Our diversified business model gives clear capital synergies. The synergies reduces our Solvency II capital requirements. In non-life, diversification effects cut capital needs by around 75%. These effects are expected to remain well past 2035. This is because market risk will still be Storebrand's dominant risk factor also in 2035. As a result, we have run the business with low capital needs under Solvency II and with an effective use of shareholder capital.

Now let me turn to how our strategic initiatives and ambitions starting with the financial targets for the upcoming strategy period. We raised our reserve targets to NOK 7 billion for 2028. We lift our return on equity target to 17%. We aim to achieve double-digit dividend growth starting with roughly 15% uplift for the current year. We stick to our long-term share buyback commitment and today announce our intention of executing NOK 2 billion in 2026. While we raise our ambitions for returns and shareholder distribution towards 2028, we remain just as focused on long-term growth over the next decade.

I want to highlight 3 very important areas to achieve this. Let me start with retail savings. In 2023, we acquired the savings platform, Kron. It is now fully integrated with pensions and Storebrand funds on the platform. Kron has become one of our fastest-growing areas with highest customer satisfaction in the market. Now we want to make Kron our full retail savings platform with more functionality and market-leading customer engagement.

The second area is insurance. We are investing in better technology, stronger distribution and best practice, pricing and underwriting teams. This will support profitable growth and strengthen quality and customer satisfaction.

The third area is our unit-linked and asset management. We are working to increase scalability in these businesses. In asset management, we will make better use of our platform and significantly improve cost income the next years.

Now let us explore what this implies for Storebrand over the next 10 years. Storebrand is present in savings markets that are growing structurally faster than inflation. And on top of that, we see increasing market share in retail, banking and insurance. And we have several growth initiatives built from our core. This gives solid earnings growth potential well past 2028. And with the ongoing buyback program, growth per share will be even higher. As these initiatives unfold, we expect a future Storebrand with a larger share of earnings from Insurance and Retail.

And let me finish with one very important point. Storebrand offers a unique combination that few others can match. We have high growth, increasing return on capital and attractive yields.

I will now hand over to my colleagues, who will take you through Storebrand in line with our external reporting format, starting with the leaders within our savings business. And first up is Jan Erik, the CEO of Storebrand Asset Management.

Thank you, Odd Arild. Storebrand has 3 reporting segments: Savings, Insurance and Guaranteed. The Savings segment itself consists of asset management, Unit-Linked Sweden and Norway and Retail Banking. Let me highlight 3 key takeaways from the Savings segment. First, we hold strong positions in attractive and growing markets. We aim to improve our cost income ratio across all Savings segments. Together, this has the potential to drive double-digit growth in operating results.

Let me now go deeper into the core of the Savings segment, Asset Management. The current state of the business, the ambitions in the strategy period and the long-term opportunities as a Nordic powerhouse in Asset Management. Our Asset Management business has been through a strong transformation, from an internal asset manager to a strategic area for commercial growth in the Storebrand Group. We are recognized as a front runner in the Nordics and have a clear commitment to future growth, both as a local partner and a Nordic partner for clients.

I'm proud to be part of this journey. And I do believe we have what is needed for future success. We observe that competitors are raising their Nordic ambitions. Yet, we remain confident in our future success. Firstly, we have the capabilities to fill the role as a strategic partner for our clients. Secondly, we have a clear position on sustainable investments. Thirdly, we have an engaged workforce and a strong ability to attract and retain people.

We have demonstrated a strong ability to grow. Since 2015, we have grown our assets under management 3x, and we now manage NOK 1.6 trillion. We have grown the non-captive part of the business almost 6x. This has transformed our revenue composition and the non-captive business now makes up roughly 70% of revenues. Still, as Odd Arild mentioned, the captive capital is key to realize scale and it plays an important role as a cornerstone investor and a foundation for non-captive growth and innovation. The strong growth has been driven by markets and organic growth and from active use of M&A to build strategic capabilities.

While continuously growing the core fund business, we have added capabilities in the alternative space. We now cover most key asset classes, and strategies for institutional and wealth clients and can service clients as a strategic partner. Building on this foundation, our focus is in the upcoming strategy period on organic growth.

Currently, we hold the position as one of the 5 largest asset managers in the Nordics, a position we are proud to hold and motivated to improve. The Nordic profit pool is significant and represents a substantial growth potential. We currently hold a strong position in Norway in all asset classes. However, in Sweden, Denmark and other Nordic markets, there are ample growth opportunities.

In the strategy period, we have 2 key drivers for scale and scalability. Firstly, we target to continue our top line growth and to maintain overall revenue margins through alternatives and strong active strategies. We intend to improve the operating leverage and scalability, as Odd Arild mentioned. We have demonstrated scalability in our business, but we have also invested in future growth, both organically and through the acquisitions we have made.

Over the next years, we will streamline the business and further to demonstrate even greater scalability. One of the key challenges in asset management industry today is the pressure on revenue margins. Capital flowing into low-margin products, institutional investors increasing their bargaining power and transparency on fees are all factors driving realized revenue margins down. Despite this, we have maintained relatively healthy margins and believe that especially our strong offering in alternatives will be key to maintaining margins going forward.

It is, of course, also important to keep up the performance of our active products as they also make a significant contribution to the overall margin. We and many advisers believe that growth in alternative assets is the key trend that will continue. In 2024, alternative assets generated more than 50% of global asset management revenues, while only representing 20% of global AUM. Alternatives typically provide higher revenue margins, and it is important for us to maintain our current share of alternatives through successful fundraising in these strategies.

Despite some recent headwinds in both infrastructure and private equity, alternatives are expected to continue to grow and investor sentiment is positive. 40% to 50% of investors intend to increase their allocations. We have made targeted investments in our alternative assets platform, ensuring we are well positioned to meet client needs across 3 core areas: infrastructure, private equity and real estate. In private debt, we cover asset-backed credits for the captive portfolio and use external partners beyond that.

Through AIP, we offer clients access to infrastructure projects that are not only financially attractive, but also support the energy transition to a more sustainable economy. The investments required in these transitions are significant. Our real estate arm, Storebrand Real Estate, manages a portfolio with a strong presence in key Nordic capitals. The acquisition of capital investment has been key to build a truly Nordic platform and expand our institutional Danish and international network of investors.

Cubera acquired in 2019 provides both Nordic and international private equity programs and has a long history of delivering best-in-class returns. With over 500 investments and a focus on secondary markets and co-investment opportunities, Cubera is a key pillar in our alternatives offering. The alternatives profits are inherently more dependent on specific fundraising efforts. There is a positive underlying trend but also peaks in 2026 and 2028, in the strategy period related to commitments for AIP's infrastructure fund in 2026 and the launch of Cubera's next secondary fund towards 2028.

Scalability is a well-recognized challenge for the industry, increasing regulatory requirements, complexity and distribution and historically, lower returns on digital investments are factors that are limiting the bottom line effect from volume growth. Despite this, we have managed to scale the underlying conventional business. However, the scalability overall has been somewhat diluted by investments in alternatives, as I mentioned, and fundraising capacity. It is a key priority to demonstrate even greater scalability for the total asset management platform going forward. And given normal market conditions, we anticipate as Odd Arild mentioned, a clear improvement in the cost income ratio and cost relative to AUM.

We have initiated a multilevel program in order to succeed with greater scalability. These ongoing efforts are an important part of our longer-term strategy, preparing us for a continued profitable growth.

While the strategy period highlights top line growth and scalability of the business, we are also looking further into the future with a 10-year perspective. Going forward, capturing larger share in the Nordic market is a key ambition, especially in Sweden and Denmark. We have a strong starting point in the Swedish market being one of the larger conventional asset managers with more than NOK 500 billion in Swedish domicile mutual funds. However, there are very clear long-term growth opportunities in the Swedish market, both in new client segments and asset classes that are currently untapped. We also have a strong starting point in the Danish market, especially within alternatives. And we believe we can widen our footprint in the conventional space and broaden our client relationships.

Our financial ambitions sum it all up. Towards 2028, we target a 7% to 9% growth in AUM and to improve the cost income margin with more than 5 percentage points. This lends itself to a strong double-digit growth in operating results.

I hope this was informative and I will now hand it over to the head of the Swedish Unit-Linked business, Jenny.

Thank you, Jan Erik. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now review the Savings segment from a Swedish perspective. Some key takeaways from this 10 minutes is that SPP has constantly delivered strong value creation. We believe Sweden is an attractive market opportunity for the group and we are now setting the course for the next 3 years with the ambition of achieving double-digit profit growth within this segment.

First, a short introduction and setting the scene. SPP, as many of you know, is the Swedish life pension company, a platform part of the Storebrand Group since 2007. Our core focus is on pension and long-term savings primarily through unit-linked insurance, complemented by additional products for employers and their employees. We have a multichannel distribution strategy with strong partner integration abilities alongside with high ambitions as a digital front runner. Our business is founded on strong group synergies. Most of our pension products based on our in-house asset management, well recognized for robust return and sustainable brand.

So at first a click -- a quick touch on the external perspective and a market outlook. The Swedish life and pension market has demonstrated sustained double-digit compound annual growth, a trajectory, we anticipate will persist. Structural market expansion is driven by demographic shifts, regulatory reforms and an increased demand for private pension solutions. People are expected to work longer, increase private savings and also now have great flexibility in pension withdrawal planning due to new regulations.

The Swedish market with a total addressable size, larger than the rest of the Nordic combined, offers compelling growth prospects and expansion opportunities. So we believe the market is attractive. Then an internal perspective, reflecting on our own progress in this market. We have demonstrated robust double-digit premium growth and positive net flows. We have maintained a strong focus on operational efficiency and scalable growth, which we will continue onwards to respond to market margin pressure. Over the past decade, asset under management have doubled, while total cost levels have decreased.

Looking closer on cost, we can split them into operational cost and acquisition cost. Operational cost is linked to running the business. And as you can see here on the right, the cost in relation to assets under management have more than halved during this period. On acquisition costs, growth in premium income has been achieved at significantly lower cost levels, thanks to more efficiency, both for external distribution partners and more efficient internal sales channels. Our scalable platform will continue to be a key driver of efficiency improvements.

Over the time, our portfolio has also shifted. The legacy book with high guarantees has declined, replaced by capital-light front book. Today, the total portfolio consists of more than 80% of capital-light front book business. This shift has enabled us to upstream capital to the group. Since 2015, the entire annual result has been distributed with additional capital release paid out. So the acquisition of SPP back in 2007 has been an attractive asset from a group perspective. We have benefited from and contributed to strong group synergies. Increased profitability and lower capital requirements have led to strong development in return on equity.

So to summarize where we come from, we have delivered scalable growth. We have increased operational efficiency and increased profitability. The internal operating model has, over the last year, transformed into an agile digital workforce, with cross-functional competencies to accelerate speed and accuracy. Speed and accuracy is key. This is a solid foundation for the next phase of growth and value creation. So our objectives onwards then, focusing on maintaining our existing business while laying the groundwork for further deliveries of profitable growth.

We are evolving from a niche unit-linked position in Sweden with new capacity to expand and increase addressable market within the life and pension space. This means that we will maintain core business qualities but add savings product capabilities to address additional segments needs of long-term savings.

So looking then towards the strategy period ahead of us. We are charting a new course to expand our life and pension footprints in Sweden. We have set clear ambitions and this journey is already underway. It's building on the objectives articulated at the previous Capital Markets Day.

We will accelerate from 3 strategic pillars. One is levering a strong market position, including strengthened distribution capacity. We will expand value proposition to address targeted segments need and, of course, continue managing costs and operational excellence to sustain created value.

Clear commercial initiatives underpin the strategic pillars and I would like to highlight a few examples for you. This will pave the way forward, and we have -- one of them is that we have significantly increased brand awareness and preferences, driving progress in key segments during the last year. This will fuel our conversion ability onwards. We have a strong partner integration capabilities already and we have now announced a partnership with Danske Bank as a new distribution partner, enabling broader market reach and new growth opportunities. This means a strengthened capacity into the SME segment as well as added value proposition for individual customers.

Our core value proposition targeting employers and their employees has evolved through smart digital solutions that streamline the customer journey, which will boost efficiency and strengthen our competitive edge. Our new capital-light guaranteed savings product that will be reviewed by Vivi in the Guaranteed session later, has already surpassed SEK 1 billion in asset its first year. It demonstrates growth potential and client demand. We are also advancing group initiatives in data and AI to further enhance scalability and operational efficiency. Just during the current year, 26,000 cases have been processed through robotics instead of manual people.

So that was a few examples of our ongoing commercial initiatives for the 3 years to come. And if we look even further ahead, to what we call the future of SPP, we see opportunities to expand our presence in the Swedish market further. New capabilities provide additional options for extended market footprint, nearby pension and savings segments. By building the digital machine with a fully digital servicing model, we aim to deliver superior customer and partnership value, drive transformation and unlock new revenue stream. A mature and fragmented local market presents also opportunities for consolidation. And we believe SPP is well positioned to play a key proactive role in this evolving ecosystem.

So in conclusion, our overall targets for the Savings segments in Sweden are continued double-digit top line growth and positive net flows, leading to robust asset under management growth. Relentless focus on operational leverage for reducing cost income. All of this leads to our stated key target, 10% profit growth for the segment in Sweden. And this is based on maintaining our current core business while we are expanding our footprint into growing life and pension market.

So thanks for paying attention. And now over to you, Vivi, for the unit-linked business in Norway.

Thank you, Jenny. It's my pleasure to present the growing and attractive Norwegian unit-linked business. I will start by giving you an overview of our business before I move on to the structural growth in the Norwegian market. After that, and as a key part of this session, I will focus on our performance the last few years and our strategy and efforts in this market going forward.

We are the leading player in Norway's unit-linked market, managing NOK 222 billion in occupational pensions, which constitutes a 28% market share. Furthermore, we have NOK 50 billion in retail savings. These positions are supported by a strong value proposition. We have the most liked investment at Kron, which was recently launched for pension customers. We have market-leading digital platform and services as well as a comprehensive range of pension investment profiles with strong investment performance. In addition, we have Norway's most satisfied corporate customers.

As you may recall from our previous Capital Markets Day, this slide outlines the key elements of the Norwegian pension system. The occupational market consists of 3 distinct segments and product types amounting to nearly NOK 2.5 trillion in total. In the following section, I will focus on the strategically important private sector defined contribution market, the upper part of this overview. Later, in the Guaranteed session, we will revisit the defined benefit and public sector pension segments.

Defined contribution schemes were introduced in Norway in 2001, a short timeframe in pension terms, meaning that only a small portion of pension assets are currently in the payout phase. Today, more than 2 million employees hold individual pension accounts, and market has reached NOK 740 billion. These assets cannot be withdrawn before retirement, creating a stable and highly resilient asset under management base. We expect annual contributions to exceed pension payments in about 20 years going forward. And at that point in time, investment returns will still involve asset growth in the market.

With the individual pension account reform back in 2021, employees were allowed to select their own pension provider. Currently, this segment amounts for roughly 10% of the total assets under management. Another key factor that will add to future market growth is policy initiatives to increase the mandatory minimum savings rate. It is currently at 2% and has been unchanged since the introduction of defined contribution. While average contributions are higher, more than 600,000 employees still receive only the minimum contribution.

We continue to deliver strong and consistent performance. Over the last 12 months, earnings reached NOK 703 million, representing a 23% annual increase since 2023. Most assets are managed by Storebrand Asset Management, creating synergies that reinforces group profitability. Assets under management has grown by 18% annually since 2023, supported by solid pension premiums, favorable markets, developments and strong investment returns. The revenue model combines fixed administration fees and assets under management fees. As assets scale, margins will decline due to the fixed fees. At the same time, the industry continues to face pressure from falling management fees and a shift towards index investments.

As you can see, we have achieved material improvements in the cost/income ratio, driven by disciplined cost management and ongoing efforts within efficiency, automation and scalability. With further initiatives underway, we are well positioned to sustain strong profitability and resilience in a competitive landscape.

Going forward, the defined contribution market will remain a core pillar of our growth strategy. In the near term, we will defend and strengthen our position despite intensified competition from retail-focused providers. We will leverage scale through further automation, digitalization and operational efficiency. With that in mind, we will now turn to the 2 key drivers underpinning our competitive position, starting with our efforts to maintain our strong market position.

We will maintain our leadership in the defined contribution market by excelling in both a self-selected segment and the corporate business-to-business market. We are executing several strategic and operational initiatives to deliver on this ambition. And let me highlight three of them. First, we are a specialist in pension and savings, offering a uniquely comprehensive product range. This allows us to leverage scale and deliver high-quality experiences across all customer segments, from large corporates seeking a full-service solution to smaller companies preferring an easily accessible and off-the-shelf digital offering.

Secondly, we operate a multichannel distribution model. We have strong internal distribution capabilities through our own sales advisory, which we combine with leading digital sales solution. It is complemented by external channel such as brokers and strategic partnerships. And thirdly, our distribution capitalizes on the Kron, now fully pension ready, as a key asset for distribution and retention in both corporate and individual segments. Our growth in the self-selected market is a strong example of this, where we currently hold a 21% market share and new sales in 2025 is at the same level. And where most of our growth is through Kron, which has proven to be a highly scalable distribution platform.

Altogether, these key initiatives give us the strength to sustain our market leadership and strong commercial success. In parallel with our growth ambitions, we plan on further improving the scalability of our pension platform. Following several successful improvement programs across core systems, IT and automation, we are well positioned for the next phase of efficiency initiatives. We see additional potential in automation, including the use of artificial intelligence and continue to drive operational excellence supported by a strong cost-conscious culture.

Cost discipline remains a priority to ensure that top line growth translates into earnings growth. And together with structural market growth, these initiatives will continue to strengthen our efficiency and improve key performance indicators on operational leverage. As this chart illustrates, the cost/income ratio has already declined materially in recent years, and we are fully committed to continue this positive trajectory going forward.

So to sum up, our ambitions for the Unit-Linked Norway is clear and firm. We aim to maintain our market-leading position and by that, deliver 12% to 14% volume growth to improve our cost income ratio by 2 to 4 percentage points and to achieve 7% to 9% annual growth in operating profits.

I will now hand over to Camilla, who will cover the retail market. Thank you.

Thank you, Vivi. I will then sum up this part of the Savings segment, and I will cover the results for the banking and retail savings now. Storebrand Bank has become a significant challenger in the Norwegian market. And over the past years, we strengthened our position across mortgages, deposits and savings. The mortgage market share has increased from just above 2% to roughly 3%, supported by volume growth and improved profitability. Through the integration of Kron, we now combine a fully digital bank with Norway's leading digital savings platform and this positions us in both the fast-growing savings market and the affluent segment.

Our private banking offering combines Kron's digital strength with our banking advisory, scaling a business model aimed at capturing a larger share of the fast-growing wealth market in Norway. Mortgages represent a mature and steadily growing market with growth rates closely linked to GDP, and we're gaining market share gives us access to a large profit pool. The retail savings market is driven by strong underlying structural growth with an ever-increasing number of Norwegians choosing to save in mutual funds and equities. We see that customer prefers digital platforms and self-directed pension and investment accounts. This is the environment that Kron is built for.

In 2023, we committed to double-digit growth in mortgages, savings and cash earnings. And as you can see, we have delivered on all 3 commitments, driven by higher volumes and stable margins. Storebrand Bank is now a significant source of income for the group with a healthier deposit to loan ratio and an improved net interest margin. Mortgage lending has been and will continue to be a main revenue stream for the bank. However, as I mentioned, over the next decade, we see savings and other capital-light revenue streams as ever more important. We have a clear advantage in capturing an unfair share of this growth given the group's strength and position in fund management, pension and insurance.

Between 2026 and 2035, lending is expected to grow at a stable pace and our savings ambition is to capture an increasing share of the growing market through scaling our savings and pension distribution and extracting leverage from platform economics. As our income model is shifting, net interest income for mortgages and deposits remain important. At the same time, an increasing share will come from fee-based distribution driven primarily through deposits and savings through our Kron platform and banking advisory and also from pensions and unit-linked distribution. Cross-sales across the whole Retail segment ensures synergy effects.

The bank's role as a customer hub strengthens long-term customer retention and lifetime value. The Kron integration amplifies this by lowering acquisition costs and improving conversion across the group's product set. Kron is now the scalable digital core of our savings strategy. Three drivers matter most. The first driver is product distribution with broad fund offering and engaging individual pension and long-term saving customers. Our hybrid model, where we combine Kron's digital journeys with private banking advisory for affluent customers will enhance growth.

Second, Kron has the highest customer satisfaction in the Norwegian market, driving customer loyalty and engagement. And third, low marginal cost per new customer and continuous automation improves efficiency and enables scalability. In combination, this creates a capital-light growth engine aligned with the group strategy. Three structural trends work in our favor. Increased individualization of pension saving decisions, a stronger preference for self-service and own savings, democratic shifts and rising individual responsibility for retirement, rapid digitalization and AI-driven personalization.

Kron already supports pensions, mutual fund savings, and we launched private banking functionality just last week. The group's collected pension customers were able to check their pension schemes starting in September of this year. And already, over 80,000 customers have used Kron to engage with their pension savings. Looking ahead, Kron will support customers' daily banking needs and further down the line, we plan to capitalize on the growing trend of retail securities brokerage. The potential is significant and we have just gotten started.

And with that, I'd like to summarize our ambition across the entire Savings segment for the group. Within Asset Management and the Unit-Linked segments, we aim to deliver double-digit growth in operating profits, driven by strong volume growth and improving cost income ratio. Within Retail Banking and Savings, we are further strengthening our position as one of the leading asset managers in Nordics and shifting from building scale to extracting value in the Retail Banking segment. Our retail mortgage portfolio will continue to grow at a stable rate, supported by a strengthening deposit base.

We now have meaningful scale in mortgages, deposits and savings. Kron gives Storebrand a clear structural advantage and differentiates us in a rapidly changing market. This positions us well to capture growth in the Digital Savings segment going forward.

We will now have a 10-minute break before we return to the Insurance segment. Thank you.

[Break][Presentation]

Welcome back. What you just saw was an introduction to our new disability prevention program, VEL, and more on this later. So now let's move on to the Insurance segment. The insurance business is presented in line with the external reporting format, divided into corporate insurance and retail insurance. I will start with a brief overview of the entire segment then move on to corporate insurance and finally wrap up with a more in-depth view on retail.

Storebrand's insurance business has become a sizable, diversified part of the group. Premiums passed NOK 10 billion in Q3 this year, up about 20% year-on-year, driven by both price and volume growth across the segments. Growth is supported by a broad distribution model, strong partnerships and solid in-house competencies. In the retail market, our Norwegian footprint keeps expanding, now at 7.7% market share and 350,000 customers. In the Corporate segment, we hold a strong position and pension-related disability and are scaling our P&C offering currently at roughly 2% of the market.

The insurance portfolio has both grown significantly and undergone a shift in segment composition in the past 8 years. The mix has shifted from about 55% to 45%, respectively, corporate retail to 42%, 58% today with retail taking the larger role. Storebrand has executed a clear turnaround in the Insurance segment after a couple of challenging years. We are currently at 92% combined ratio as promised, while growing both market share in both Retail and Corporate segments. We are therefore on track to meet our 2025 combined ratio targets, and we have exceeded our growth plans.

Cash equivalent earnings before amortization and tax has risen 262% from 2023 to 2025. This uplift comes from rapid profitability actions, repricing, higher deductibles, tighter terms and early disability prevention through our new concept, VEL, that you just saw on the video. We've tightened risk selection, reduced costs related to claims and driven operational improvements across the business. This gives us a much stronger and more scalable platform for continued profitable growth.

In sum, we now have a diversified portfolio across the group, and I will now look a bit closer at each of the segments, starting with a look at the Corporate segment. In Norway, 20% of people of working age or around 700,000 are outside of work or education with disability benefits as the largest group. Mental health issues and fatigue are the main drivers behind rising sick leave and disability and Norway stands out in Europe in negative terms. Our goal is to help employees on sick leave or disability to return to work and ideally support them before they reach that point. That's why we have launched Storebrand VEL, a preventative program that we built into our corporate disability products from 2026.

Our CEO talked about VEL earlier today, and the aim is to strengthen inclusion, reduce long-term sickness and support broader social sustainability. Storebrand pays out more than NOK 3 billion a year in disability pensions, cutting disability by 5% through VEL would reduce payouts by roughly NOK 115 million. Once fully scaled in early 2026, VEL will reach 40,000 corporates and 500,000 employees, making a measurable national impact. Corporate P&C has scaled fast. We guided for 25% to 30% annual growth at the CMD 2 years ago and we landed at 35%. The portfolio now exceeds NOK 600 million in portfolio premiums, about 2% market share and 13,000 customers.

Motor fleets and property make up most of the book. We see a huge potential to push harder and aim to double premiums by 2028 with 25% to 30% annual growth. And our focuses are clear, strong risk frameworks in motor and property, more firepower distribution across agents, brokers and direct channels and digital development to support scale and sharpen our value proposition. And as you can see, we have an ambitious growth journey ahead of us.

Now it's time for deep dive in Retail Insurance. The Norwegian retail market is big, steady and profitable. Non-life premiums are about NOK 67 billion with long-term mid-single-digit growth once recent price effects levels out. Growth is driven by population gains, rising wealth, high insurance penetration and regular repricing. Nordic markets share the same strength, concentrated competition, disciplined players and strong digital distribution. The top 4 hold roughly 80% of the market across Norway, Sweden and Denmark, which keeps pricing rational and margins resilience.

Since 2018, Storebrand has been the only player consistently gaining share, adding about 0.6 percentage points every year. In 2018, we shifted to a growth-focused strategy in retail. We expanded distribution through partners, brokers, digital channels and build a tight agent force with significant reach. Partnerships with Norwegian organizations Huseierne, Akademikerne and Coop further boosted our reach and visibility. And the insured portfolio acquisition added scale and kickstarted our SME expansion.

In '22 to '25, we invested in rapid retail growth through agents that drove higher upfront acquisition costs, a deliberate choice to build long-term capacity. We're now moving from heavy investment to a more balanced, sustained growth. Scale benefits are already in place and as the portfolio matures and digital and renewal-driven sales rise, acquisition costs will fall as a share of premiums. That shift will bring a structurally lower cost, lower claims ratio and support stable, profitable growth ahead.

In 2025, we adjusted our segment reporting to show the true performance of Retail Insurance. The picture since 2018 is quite clear. Strong, consistent growth while keeping profitability intact. Retail is inherently more stable, thanks to broad diversification, predictable personal line claims and high renewal rates. The claims cycle in 2023 to '24 was tough for the whole market with higher frequency, mainly driven by extreme weather and cost inflation in motor and property. We responded with pricing measures, tighter terms and stronger underwriting.

The portfolio is now back at normalized profitability levels. While growing fast and handling higher claims, we've also reshaped our cost base. Distribution spend within Retail Insurance rose from 4% of premiums in 2018 to 11% today, with no deferral so the full cost is taken each year. At the same time, we've built new capabilities in digital, pricing, underwriting, product and control and still manage to cut other costs by 5 percentage points since 2018 through scale. As the portfolio grows, we expect distribution and other costs to decline as a share of premium given the scalability of the platform. We're pushing all main value drivers to scale even further.

Our priorities are clear. Keep growing profitably with a balanced distribution mix across external, internal, digital and partner channels, tightened pricing and underwriting to protect margins, reduced claims costs through automation, smarter steering and stronger procurement and unlock more scale by automating sales, service and operations.

Now I'll break these down in more detail next. We're keeping our growth ambitions high, and we will use all levers to drive it, but with a more balanced distribution mix. The external agent network is large enough. So the focus shifts to improving efficiency rather than adding capacity. Their share of sales will naturally decline as the mix matures. We'll grow inbound sales and expand in transaction channels like real estate and car dealerships. On top of that, we continue to benefit from strong group synergies, brand strength, an attractive customer base and capital advantages, all supporting profitable growth going forward.

Our rapid growth naturally affects churns and claims ratios. A young portfolio has more new customers, and they come with higher churn, introductory discounts and limited claims history. The mature part of the book already performs at our long-term targets. So as growth normalizes and the share of new customers drop, the portfolio will price more accurately and both claims ratio and retention will improve. And our pricing and underwriting we've implemented differentiated tariffs that lift margins without losing our best customers.

We're tightening across the board with sharper pricing, better claims insight and closer tracking of inflation. A key driver is our new pricing engine, which lets us update tariffs faster and use a more granular risk segmentation. We've also strengthened the pricing and underwriting teams to push this further. On claims, our focus is efficiency and costs. Most customers report digitally, but only 1/3 of our claims are automated today. We're on our way towards 50% by 2028. Staring to preferred suppliers is around 90%, supported by digital guidance, especially in motor. And we continue to reduce cost and footprint by preventing claims where possible and pushing repair and reuse over replacement. And together, these enablers drive a steadily improving claims ratio going forward.

Moving on to the cost ratio. We're lifting operational performance through scale, automation and digital tools. This reduces admin and sales cost, speeding up processing and improving customer experience. Our automation robot, Bob has taken over a big share of manual tasks, cutting FTE needs and delivering clear savings. As an example, the call center that sits up here needs 15 fewer FTEs, and we can keep growing without adding back office staff. These initiatives have improved our cost ratio substantially as illustrated on our previous slides. And the next step is upgrading customer interaction with full AI-driven service. As automation increases and processes keep improving, we strengthening our margins and overall competitiveness.

So to summarize the ambitions for the Insurance segment as a whole going forward. We are targeting sustained double-digit growth of more than 10% annually. Our objective is to maintain our combined ratio at 90% or below. This approach is expected to support continued profitable expansion and enable us to further increase our market share.

Thank you for your attention, and I will now proceed to the Norwegian and Swedish Guaranteed business, which will be presented by Vivi. Thank you.

Thank you, Camilla, and it's great to be back on the stage again. It's my pleasure to present the Guaranteed segment. There are 3 key takeaways from our plans going forward. First, closed book portfolio remains profitable with an expected increase in profit sharing. Second, we are pursuing new guaranteed business opportunities with significantly lower capital consumption. And third, we aim to further reduce capital intensity and improve return on equity.

Let me now move to how we will succeed. Storebrand has a strong history in guaranteed pensions with a large footprint across Norway and Sweden. We serve more than 1.1 million individuals and manage over NOK 300 billion in reserves. This is a financially healthy market that contribute solidly to both our life company earnings and asset management profits. Our legacy Guaranteed portfolio is largely closed for new sales. It is managed with strong discipline to protect shareholder equity and increase long-term value. At the same time, we are developing new guaranteed solutions with lower capital requirements than the closed book allowing for profitable growth.

We are operating in 3 segments of the Guaranteed market, including Defined Benefits and Paid-Up Policies in Norway, and guaranteed products in Sweden. The Defined Benefit segment constitutes a NOK 58 billion of reserves altogether. Roughly half of this segment is private sector-defined benefit pensions. As most Norwegian corporations are now offering defined contributions, this part of the portfolio is in runoff. The other half is the fast-growing public sector, and I will revert to this opportunity in a moment.

The largest segment is the paid-up policies of NOK 156 billion. These reserves stem from private sector-defined benefit schemes and are mainly in the payout phase. We are also operating a Swedish Guaranteed business with NOK 89 billion of assets. Altogether, the Guaranteed business in Norway, Sweden constitutes an important part of group earnings. Across the Guaranteed business, our ambition is to grow reserves both through the strategic period and over the longer term. The predictable runoff in the existing portfolio will be more than offset by growth in capital-efficient products in Norway and Sweden. Moreover, volumes are expected to grow significantly in case of the public sector transfer market becoming more open, which I will come back to soon.

To explain the value creation potential for the Guaranteed business, we have illustrated areas which might be of particular interest, both short and long term. These are: one, to increase value creation from existing closed business; two, being the preferred manager of closed corporate pension funds; three, to succeed as a challenger in the public sector; and four, growing capital-light guaranteed savings in Sweden. The existing guaranteed business has generated results for many years and increasingly over the past years through profit sharing. A modest decline in operating results going forward is likely to be more than offset by increasing profit sharing from the Norwegian paid-ups portfolio. This means that results will increase for the strategy period in normalized markets.

In Norway, many companies still operate close pension funds, dating back to when guaranteed pensions were mandatory. These funds hold roughly NOK 270 billion in reserves. Companies are now facing challenges as assets decline, while regulatory and operational complexity remains high. Consequently, several corporates are divesting these funds to free up regulatory capital and remove guaranteed liabilities for their balance sheets. We have a strong track record as a partner in these transactions, having transferred NOK 8 billion of pension funds on capital-efficient terms.

To further support our growth ambitions, we see the public occupational pension market as an attractive opportunity. This includes extending our corporate pension offering to public sector customers and to increase cross-sales into the retail market as well as adding assets under management to Storebrand Asset Management.

The public sector represents a total addressable market of NOK 1,000 billion. It is large, it is profitable and it's a growing market and it's currently dominated by a single provider. This is because tender processes are not yet perceived as mandatory, resulting in the transfer market, far from its full potential.

We believe in an opening of the market over time. This could be accelerated if the FTA surveillance authorities follows up their preliminary view that tender processes are mandatory. We have a strong track record in this market, having won the majority of tender offers to date. This success reflects our competitive pricing across several components as well as our robust solutions and services. In addition, transferring public pension schemes to Storebrand provides an opportunities for municipalities to release tied-up capital to support their own budgets.

Let me now move on to Sweden. The Guaranteed segment in Sweden has been growing since launch of our new capitalized guarantee in 2023. This has driven positive developments in both premium income and transfer balances. The growth journey is still in its early stages with significant potential to capture transfers from the large unit-linked market. Customers are responding well to our offering, brand positioning and value propositioning, particularly those in our target segment, age 55 and above. Growth in this market is especially attractive for Storebrand due to the combination of relatively low capital requirements, higher margins and low churn.

Our ambitions for the Guaranteed market for the strategy period are threefold and as follows. First, increase the total asset under management from current levels. Our ambition is to more than offset the decline from the runoff business with new capital-light guaranteed business. Secondly, to increase the total results by 3% to 5% per year. And thirdly, to increase return on equity for the Guaranteed portfolio to 8% to 10% from 2028.

Before I conclude, I want to add a particular important effect on value creation. As the transition toward a more capital-light guaranteed portfolio progresses, capital will be released from the business, enabling additional cash upstreaming to our parent company. As a result, the actual cash flow generated from the Guaranteed segment will significantly exceed its book results over the strategy period, strengthening the capital distribution capacity for the group.

And on that note, let me now hand over to our CFO, Kjetil, who will dive more into this and present our group's financial ambitions. Thank you for your attention.

Well, thank you, Vivi. We have heard the strategy, and we've heard the business side. I now look forward to present our financial ambitions. We're looking 10 years into the future, this Capital Markets Day, but let me also take the opportunity to look 10 years back in time.

Storebrand has outperformed its relevant comparison benchmarks and delivered more than 20% annual return. Looking back to when Odd Arild Grefstad took over as Group CEO, Storebrand has in total delivered 872% total shareholder return. With the plan we present today, we believe that we are well positioned to create shareholder value also for the next decade.

I'll spend most of my time today on 2 main messages. First, I want to show how our increasing results, combined with a strong balance sheet and increasing remittance, give a solid foundation for increased capital allocation to dividends, buybacks and growth. Secondly, I want to show that the structural change in the business is not a 3-year horizon. Our ambition is that this will continue to play out over the next decade, meaning higher earnings per share growth than result growth combined with a capital-light business with higher total return on equity over time.

I'll start with the results then the balance sheet and remittance before we look at how it all plays together to increase capital allocation to shareholders and profitable growth over the short and the long term. Let us start with result generation. We have delivered on the growth and the margins we needed to reach our result target from the 2023 Capital Markets Day and we have delivered on guided costs and the financial results. With this backdrop, I'm very happy to reaffirm that we are well underway to deliver above our NOK 5 billion result target for 2025.

We today announced a new target of delivering NOK 7 billion in results before amortization in 2028. This implies an 8% to 10% annual result growth for the group. Let me just highlight that the numbers we present here today are based on our cash-based reporting. And factors outside our control, financial markets, regulatory environment and other factors will affect actual result generation going forward. And we also realized that 2028 is a bit out. So we plan to host a strategic update in '26 or '27 to present the progress towards the target and especially if some factors outside of our control shift significantly.

Let's now dive deeper into the top line costs and financial results we need to achieve to end up at the NOK 7 billion ambition. First, let me spend a couple of minutes on the volumes and margins that make up our top line. In Unit-Linked Norway, we have around NOK 500 billion. We expect that to grow double digit over the next 3 years and the top line margin to be in the area of 45 to 50 basis points. The reduced fee margins compared to current levels reflect a combination of fee pressure and as Vivi said, the fact that some fixed per contract fee elements become a smaller part of the total as assets under management per contract grow.

For the Asset Management segment, we expect that today's NOK 1,500 billion will grow somewhere in the area of 7% to 9% annually with a top line income margin of 18 to 21 basis points. In the bank, 5% to 10% growth annually and 1.2% in net interest rate margin. For the insurance business, we're still expecting organic growth, both from pricing and market shares. The annual growth is expected to be 10% or above with a combined ratio of 90% or below. Lastly, we expect the Guaranteed business to be flattish in the period.

Let me move on to the operational cost development. When it comes to cost, the most important thing is to manage costs for scalable growth and to do selective investments in certain growth areas. In the savings business, we will invest in a fully-fledged retail savings platform and make on a full savings platform for the whole Norwegian market whilst also working on measures to scale the business better in asset management. Taken together, we will have roughly 4% annual growth in cost in the Savings segment and an improved cost income over the period.

In Insurance, we will improve the cost ratio, but the strong growth means that we need to scale up the business and invest in more digital core systems and streamlined price and claims handling. In total, we expect around 8% to 10% annual cost growth from this area depending on the growth of the top line. The Guaranteed is in runoff. And here, we expect more inflation minus like cost development, and we need to work very hard to maintain the cost income in this segment. Altogether, this gives us a cost development of around 5%, and we do have levers to adjust the cost development if the top line growth is unsatisfactory.

So if we take this all together, and we get an operational result development that is expected to grow double digit. A couple of observations on the development in operational results. First, we expect operational results to grow faster than the financial results. This increased the quality of earnings in the group. Second, a higher proportion of operational result is expected to be generated by the Insurance segment compared to the current composition. The implication is that operational results will be less impacted by financial market volatility over time. And thirdly, the insurance business is developing into a more shorter tail business with lower exposure to biometric risk. This should also on an expected basis, mean lower result volatility.

Let me move to the last result element, the financial result. We see a growing financial result driven by increased profit sharing from the Guaranteed business. Altogether, we increased the expected level for profit sharing to NOK 700 million. This is due to higher buffer capital in the Norwegian business and the persistent higher interest rate environment priced into today's market curve. When it comes to company portfolios, including insurance, we expect around NOK 1.5 billion in annual return. The cost of debt is around NOK 0.6 billion, meaning that net company capital is expected to give around NOK 0.9 billion in annual result contribution.

So to sum up the results part of the presentation, we announced a result ambition of NOK 7 billion. Continued double-digit growth in savings and insurance all the while we improve cost income and combined ratios.

So let's move to the solvency and the balance sheet. The headline here is that the long-term balance sheet transformation reduce capital intensity leading to a more resilient group with higher return. This is illustrated by the transition from capital-consumptive Guaranteed business to a diversified Nordic Savings and Insurance group. The shift in premiums and total assets under management illustrates this in a good way. Most of the premiums and the assets under management came from the Guaranteed business back in 2012. Today, Guaranteed is 13% of premiums and 19% of assets under management. The rest is made up by Savings without any guarantees and insurance.

All the while total assets under management has tripled in the same period. When we look at the resilience from a solvency perspective, we see that we are quite robust towards various shocks. This is a reflection of closer matching of assets and liabilities, lower interest rate guarantees and higher buffers and a more profitable group, also including the Guaranteed back book.

The group has modest leverage. We have a little less than 20% leverage in the group today. We aim to be moderately leveraged compared to peers, and we think this strengthens the robustness of the balance sheet.

If we look into the next decade, we can expect a continued and material change in the balance sheet from Guaranteed liabilities towards Savings and Insurance products, reducing capital intensity and improving the overall risk profile. 43% of the capital requirements today come from the Guaranteed back book. Whilst out in 2035, this is expected to be only 20% of the capital requirements of the group. In my view, this underscores the point that the change we have seen for the last 10 years is going to continue also for the next 10 years as a driver for value creation in the group.

So in summary, we show resilience with low solvency sensitivities. We have moderate leverage and a balance sheet transformation that will continue over the next decade.

Moving over to the next part, liquidity and remittance. We want to put a little bit more emphasis on this topic as this is more and more important for the understanding of the cash buildup and the capital allocation in the group. As a starting point, the results we present are close to cash. So the baseline is that results are upstreamed to the holding company. And over the last years, we have done so with some extra upstreaming from the overcapitalized life insurance company, but also some capital to fund double-digit growth in insurance and banking and growth in the public sector.

And this is how we expect it to look for the strategic period until 2028. The short story here is that we think roughly 100% of the results after tax will be streamed up to the holding company. Our expectation is that we will remit NOK 1 billion above the result in the life company on an annual basis until the end of the 2028 strategy period, but we will also keep some liquidity to grow the bank and insurance.

As for the year 2026, based on the results we expect to create this year, we expect a stronger than normal year for remittance. This is reported by capital release from the bank and also that this is the last year with tax losses carry forward.

As for the holding company, we have a normal financial flexibility to do dividends and planned buybacks and small M&A with a liquidity level between NOK 2 billion and NOK 4 billion. If liquidity is in the NOK 4 billion to NOK 6 billion range on an ongoing basis, the Board will consider to do extraordinary capital distribution to shareholders outside the ambitions we have given here today.

So to sum up, liquidity and remittance. Results are close to cash. Remittance ratio of 100% is expected and we have provided some liquidity thresholds to help the market understand how the group think about holdco liquidity, not as a firm rule, but as a guidance.

That moves us into the last part, which is taking result generation, the balance sheet and remittance into capital allocation. If you look at the period since the last Capital Markets Day, we have delivered strong shareholder returns through prudent capital allocation. If you look at the results and the total cash generation coming from results and capital release, we have used around 20% to fuel the much more than double-digit growth. We have also done some M&A, but as these are both businesses acquired and divested, the net number is not a very material number in this period. Around 95% is spent on dividends and share buyback and the rest, a minor liquidity buildup.

When we look at the expected capital allocation for the next 3 years, we believe that we are well positioned to continue delivering strong returns with a highly capital-efficient model with double-digit dividend growth and planned buybacks and that the NOK 7 billion result ambition materializes, additional capital will likely be available for shareholder-friendly purposes. This can be allocated through dividends, share buybacks, organic growth and structural initiatives with a hurdle rate well north of the group's cost of capital.

We keep our dividend policy and uphold our threshold for our capitalization. If we are above 175%, we will continue to do increasing dividends and share buybacks. But going into 2026, we raise our ambitions for capital distribution. Looking more specifically at the strategic period, the Board has said that they expect dividend growth from '24 to '25 to be broadly consistent with previous years, which was 15%. Going forward, the Board expects to have a dividend growth of 10% or higher for the rest of the strategic period. When it comes to share buybacks, we have said that we do not plan to build a war chest. And if we see liquidity building up, we also have said many times that we plan to give more of that back to shareholders or invest in further growth.

With the visibility we now have on remittance, we plan to do NOK 2 billion of share buybacks in 2026 and then back to NOK 1.5 billion in the years to come, ending up at more than NOK 12 billion total share buybacks by 2030. This means an increased ambition from our CMD in 2023, and it's also worth to note, given that we are in a 10-year time frame that we see no reason why we should not be able to continue with share buybacks or other capital distribution to shareholders after 2030.

We have talked about the transformation of the balance sheet before. This illustrates the same point with a snapshot of last 12 months return on equity for the Savings and Insurance business, we call Future Storebrand and the Guaranteed back book. Future Storebrand growth with a low need for new shareholder equity allocated to the growth and hence delivers high return on allocated IFRS equity. At the same time, the Guaranteed business is improving and set to approach 10% return on equity over time. And this means that the group ROE is also set to increase over time.

So let's take the more long-term glasses on. If we are able to deliver on the ambition of NOK 7 billion in 2028, that gives an annual result growth of 8% to 10% and an earnings per share growth above 10% for the group. But we also have an ambition to improve results and capital efficiency well beyond the strategy period. This is, of course, not a formal guidance, but to underline that we believe that to truly understand Storebrand, there's a need to have an understanding of both the short-term and the long-term horizon. And longer term, of course, there's a lot of uncertainty, but even with moderate assumption, we expect sustained high EPS growth for the group as long as we can combine result growth with share buybacks.

Today, we increased our target return on equity from 14% to 17% in 2028. And we see out in time as the balance sheet continue to shift and we continue to do share buybacks and we continue to have lower capital requirements in the new business that the ROE should be sustainably above 20% over the longer-term horizon.

And lastly, we believe that we have a robust value proposition to shareholders in various scenarios. Even in a no-result-growth scenario, the business will approach the 20% return on equity as the balance sheet naturally shifts. In this scenario, it will still be around NOK 50 billion in capital distribution potential.

This is, of course, not a scenario we plan for or believe in, but it shows that even in a very demanding scenario, shareholder value will be created. If results go more in line with scenario 1, based on the current strategic plan, it should lead to a markedly higher results to do multiples on in 2035. In this scenario, the group will have delivered attractive capital allocation along the way and end up with a structurally higher return on equity from growth in the front book and strong EPS growth from continued share buybacks. And scenario 1, continued growth over the next 10 years is what we go to work every day to deliver.

Let me end up with a summary of Storebrand's updated financial ambitions. We raised our result target to NOK 7 billion for 2028. We lift our return on equity target to 17%. We aim to achieve double-digit dividend growth, starting with a roughly 15% uplift for the current year. And we today announce our intention of executing NOK 2 billion in buybacks in 2026. Lastly, we stick to our long-term commitment of NOK 1.5 billion of buybacks per annum towards the year-end 2030 with a strong capital distribution capacity also beyond 2030.

That concludes my presentation. Thank you for your attention, and I will now invite Odd Arild up on stage for some very brief concluding remarks before we open up for Q&A.

Thank you, Kjetil, very clear. To sum up this Capital Markets Day, I would like to leave you with one very important point, a point that really defines Storebrand's position and potential. Storebrand offers a unique and unmatched combination in our industry. We are delivering strong growth, and we are seeing increasing returns on capital, and we provide an attractive and reliable yield. This is how we are scaling our leading Nordic Savings and Insurance Group, our business built for long-term value creation.

And with that, I would like to invite Johannes, our Head of Investor Relations, to the stage to lead the Q&A session.

All good with the sound? Yes. We are now ready for the Q&A session. To ensure everything runs smoothly, please note the following practical guidelines. We will start by taking questions from analysts and institutional investors here in the room, followed by questions from those joining us online. [Operator Instructions] Let's take the first question from the audience here in the room, maybe starting with Hans in the front.

Hans Rettedal Christiansen, Danske Bank Markets. Thank you for very thorough present. Trying to limit it to 2 questions is difficult. But maybe if I start where you started on strategy, and I guess a word that keeps going again and again is scalability, maybe perhaps especially within asset management.

So my question is, in the improved cost/income ratio, how important is sort of the alternatives initiatives that you have? And how much of it is, if I can say, true scalability versus how much is just operational leverage from fundraising within those funds going forward here? That's my first question.

And then my second question is on capital, and thank you for providing the slides on remittance. So now you say you expect 100% remittance. And just if I can do a calculation and see if it's correct, if you have NOK 7 billion in pretax profits in 2027, you take that net of tax, you're maybe at NOK 5 billion to NOK 5.5 billion in net income. If you're growing dividends, let's say, 15% per year, you'd be at NOK 3 billion to NOK 3.5 billion in dividends in 2027. And then you have NOK 1.5 billion in share buybacks. How much capital does the future business need to grow? That's my first question. And then the second question is, at which point would you consider sort of increased share buybacks if you don't see any other structural opportunities?

Should I start with asset management and you think about the remittance, Kjetil? I think we see underlying strong scalability in the more conversional part of our asset management business. And we, as Jan Erik showed, have a lot of tools now to really consolidate on the platform. And that means also that we will have real cost efficiency over the next couple of years that will give the leverage you are seeing.

Then, of course, alternatives will have impact in some years, but we are looking at these 2 ways to have a scalability in the more conversion part with effective cost elements giving that scalability. And on top of that, see that the income from the alternatives comes through year-by-year by fundraising as also shown in the slides.

All right. On remittance. I think top down, you're thinking correctly. So -- and what we've said is that we will upstream NOK 1 billion extra from the Life company, but consume more or less that for growth. So I think that roughly answers the question of how much the growth is projected to cost. And then, of course, we will see what the actual growth will be over the period. And I think you're also correct in saying, as I think I mentioned that if we deliver the NOK 7 billion and we grow as planned, there should be a liquidity buildup along the way.

And I think the guidance the Board has given with solvency and also holdco liquidity should give a reasonable guidance on how they think. So if we have the solvency we expect to have and we see the holdco liquidity being in the NOK 4 billion to NOK 6 billion range, the Board has said that they will consider to do additional share buybacks or other capital allocations to shareholders. So I think that is the best guidance to give. And then, of course, it's a year-by-year discussion and before the Board communicate to the market their intention. It's a forward-looking view every year, of course. But I think the Slide 136 in combination with 142 gives you quite clear what the ambitions from the Board is when it comes to distributing capital based on liquidity and also result generation.

Thank you, Hans. It seems like we have some questions there from Ulrik.

Ulrik Zürcher from Nordea. Two questions. One is a follow-up. So I'll start with that one. I was just wondering, you have NOK 100 billion AIP. It's not making any money right now. Is it possible to give any sort of effect on that when they, at some point, start to make an operational profit?

And then secondly, just wondering is like one IT investment you're making that was pointed out was the P&C rewiring the system, I think, was used. Just curious like how much does that cost? And I also assume it's part -- is the cost in the insurance segment or given the synergies between areas, how do you do that?

I can start by say, but all the costs are included in the projections we have shown here. So of course, it will be a cost of acquiring, but then, of course, also a write-down over time in such a situation. Should we start with AIP? Yes, AIP has, as you know, 60% owned by Storebrand is now in a process for fundraising, and we hope for a soft close this year that will have some impact, and we also will see then the full impact of the close in 2026. And that is an important part of the expected topping of the result, as you saw Jan Erik showed in the graph in 2026.

Then there is also expected a new fund coming in place in 2028. So it's typically very good result coming through in the years when you have the fundraising, while it's more or less 0, well, should be some positive result, but not a high positive result in the years where you don't have this fundraising income.

Yes, and to be clear on your question, it should not be a cash burn next year. It should make a significant profit.

Was it more on the second question?

No, I think on the insurance side, we've said we will invest in a new core system and also do other digitalization investments. We haven't gone out with a specific number on the investment. We're still working on it. But of course, you're right, it's not something that you find in the cheapest shelves in the digital storefront. So of course, it's a substantial investment. But we see that with the growth we are having in insurance, these kind of acquisitions and digitalizations, we still see a very healthy reduction in the cost ratio in the insurance company.

Roy Tilley from Arctic. Thank you for the presentation today, it's very interesting, very good, clarified a lot of questions already, I think. But I have 2 and one of them is a 2-parter, I'm sorry. So just to start on unit-linked. So you've improved the transfer balance in Sweden over the last few quarters, and it's near 0. But the Norwegian transfer balance has gone the other way. So we're losing a few billion each quarter in unit-linked. So where are those customers moving? And in your 12% to 14% AUM CAGR, is there an assumption that transfer balance will be 0? Or what's kind of underlying that assumption?

Yes, I can start on that. We -- as you see, we have now also taken into account somewhat lower margins going forward in unit-linked. We have had a quite healthy buildup of the margins in Insurance also within this combined unit-linked product, but it has come with a price when it comes to transfer balance.

Now we will focus on both profitability, but also the volumes and keep -- we have a very good competitive situation that we want to also utilize in the market in a good way going forward. That is reflected in these numbers. And based on that, we expect to have a positive -- well, a neutral to positive transfer balance going forward, and that is one of our clear goals.

And then just a question on the bank. The margin outlook for 2028 is 1.2%, which is fairly in line with what you had in 2022, even though, I'm assuming policy rates will be a lot higher in '28 and '22. So how much margin pressure are you baking into those assumptions?

Yes. So right now, we see some natural margin pressure coming from the rate outlook. And then I think we're going to work very hard to deliver higher than the 1.2%, but that is the kind of stated ambition we have today. So there's obviously some margin pressure in there, but that is one where we will report back and do a lot of measures to try to end up higher than the 1.2%.

I think we're a bit cautious based on the rate we saw when we made this. It was somewhat better today. But anyway, we take a bit cautious view into the banking margins when we did the overall plan.

Thank you, Roy. Could you pass the microphone forward or backward to Simon. Thank you.

Simon Brun, ABG Sundal Collier. Just first question is circling a bit back to Hans and Ulrik, on the remittance potential. You mentioned NOK 1 billion in excess of your group result. Is that amount sort of to smoothen it out over the strategy period? Or is there a reason why it's limited to NOK 1 billion? Is that due to more difficult to get it approved by the authorities? I guess that's the first question.

And the second question is about the securities brokerage platform or the trading platform within Kron, which I guess will complement your offering and be a driver of revenues there. Do you have any time line for that rollout? Would that be within the strategy period? Or should we expect that to be pushed out into the 2030s?

I'll start with the first one. Just to be clear on remittance, the NOK 1 billion in excess from the life company, that is counteracted by capital we need to grow. So this 100% in total, that is the guidance. So we are clear on that. And then the NOK 1 billion in the Life company reflects that the Life company is getting more and more capital light over time. And then we take out this overcapitalization over time in a prudent manner. I think that is how we think about it.

When it comes to the broker platform, I look at the share members in the around here, they also expect that to come quite soon. So I expect we will absolutely start to work with that within the strategy period. Not sure if it will be the real driver for results, but I think it will be a very necessary part for a complementary platform for savings altogether to get the growth we expect over the strategy period and beyond to really get the results and the growth from the Kron platform as a fully-fledged savings platform.

Thank you, Simon. Would you please pass the microphone forward to Ola.

Ola Øvrebø, DNB Carnegie. I just have a few questions on demographics, actually. You mentioned the average age of the guaranteed policyholder age is 64 now. Could you just remind us what is that in Norway? And also for the closed pension plans that you have, sort of taken on these past few years, what is the average age of that pension holder? And since you have hybrid or public sector occupational pensions as well, should we expect the average age of the guaranteed policyholder to flatten going forward? Or should it continue to increase as these people increase?

I might start and you help me, Kjetil. But I think if you look at the chart, that is the paid policies in Norway. So that is the average age of the 64 years. That's been in a closed book for quite a long time now. So it's an elderly population. And most of the closed book we have taken has also quite the elderly population in it. So it's comparable to what we see in the guaranteed book of business.

Yes. I think -- and to be clear, the illustration in the book is for the total. And what we have seen over the last years is actually that the average age has gone a little bit down. And the reason why it's gone a little bit down is, as you alluded to, that we have taken on some new business. So when you take on, for example, public sector business, the average age of those customers are lower. So they dilute the average age here, but it's business we want. The paid-up policies, I'm thinking it's 66 years, but I'm -- yes.

It sounds correct.

He's nodding. So we're nodding. So 66 years, I think, is the average on the paid-ups.

And in the public sector, I think the age distribution is the same as we have in the population and the workforce altogether and more comparable to what you see in -- well, unit-linked and the core and the defined benefit altogether.

Yes. And closed pension fund is more like a paid-up policy type of demographics.

Perfect. So the -- in Norwegian -- the Norwegian pension, they are in retirement on average then, I guess.

On average, they will be in retirement in paid-up policies. Yes.

Thank you. Do we have any more questions here among the audience? I think we have Thomas in the back there before Herman in the front.

Thomas Svendsen from SEB. So first, on this pretax profit guidance, you exceed your targets in 2025. So do you think this CAGR, do you think it will be front-end loaded or back-end loaded? Or should we think a linear growth pattern towards NOK 7 billion? And the second question on non-life insurance. How do you think it will be that easy to grow when you are changing the distribution model towards less acquisition costs? And how comfortable are you with your disability -- or the reserves on the disability insurance you have already written?

Perfect. I'll start on the profit guidance growth of 8% to 10% and the reason why it's 8% to 10% is that we don't know what the full year results for this year is. And then you asked about when the growth will come. And here, I think we can go a little bit back to what you talked about just now, that there is some fluctuation in the alternatives. So we would expect 2027 to be a good growth year and then will be a little bit affected in -- sorry, '26 and then '27 be a little bit affected by the fact that there's no kind of extraordinary coming from alternatives, and then '28 to be somewhat better again. So I think that is, from what we now know, a reasonable guidance.

The rest of the business is quite stable result growth in the period, I think.

On the distribution side in insurance, I can start on that. We don't plan to scale down markedly the distribution, but we plan to add on more internal distribution, partner distribution and digital distribution. So it's more an add-on rather than a scale down.

And just on the reserving on the disability side.

Yes. On the disability side, we have, of course, worked with that a lot. You heard about our well practice today that we see good results from and hope to see even better results when we scale it for the whole portfolio. There is some trends now that is a big positive when it comes to sick leave in the Norwegian market. So it seems like we have at least got to a level that has evened out and not increasing with the scale we have seen before.

And we are, of course, doing a year-by-year view on the different products and portfolios to have the right reservation all the time and feel that we are in the right place for reservations. But of course, you never know, there might be elements, subportfolios that needs to be strengthened, but we don't have any view on that as we speak.

Thank you, Thomas. I think Herman had a question in the front. Could you please pass Herman the microphone.

Herman Zahl from Pareto Securities. First, I have a question on the profit sharing in Norway, NOK 400 million guidance. Since you have built a lot of buffer already over the last year, does that assume sort of flat buffers in the profit sharing portfolios?

I think when you look at -- we actually added a slide in the appendix on that. And I think if you look at the expected return and what is needed for profit sharing, it should be a marginal buildup of buffers here and especially when you go out in time, it can be a substantial number. But then again, trying to predict financial markets out 2, 3, 4 years from now is not very wise of me. So I'll just say on an expected basis, there will be a buffer capital buildup.

And then just on the insurance or implied insurance financial result, it seems to be NOK 300 million. And sort of given where you are so far year-to-date and the growth you target, is it merely interest rates explaining why that isn't higher?

Yes. I think that's just based on it is invested in low-risk papers with a year credit duration or something like that. So it's -- I think that explains it, yes.

Any additional questions? Hans in the front might have an additional question.

I was wondering just a follow-up question on Kron and the investments you're making there. In the retail market, I think you used the expression taking your unfair market share in terms of growth. What do you think is your sort of fair or unfair market share in the own pension accounts if you succeed in Kron, are you happy at 21%? Or do you think that's going to be higher in the period going forward?

I think the starting point with the 28% to 30% market share in corporate pension and a stronger position in corporate pension than we used to have and have in the retail market with a bank with a 3% market share. Well, that made us quite happy to see that we were able with the combination of Kron and our advisers in the bank to reach the 20% plus market share in this individualized market.

And of course, we will build more functionality into Kron. We will work with our work -- agent force and so on to be really a big part of also the individualized pension account market going forward. But at the level of 20% plus, I will say that we are quite satisfied to see what is falling out in that market as we speak.

Thank you, Hans. Could you please pass the microphone backwards.

My follow-up was also on Kron. I was just wondering how you're -- in the own funds, you can maybe assume there's a little bit more price competition -- actually in the own pension funds when they select themselves. I was just wondering how you're thinking about Kron cannibalizing your unit-linked like the main segment in a way. Is that any concern? Or talk about like -- an example would be if you can get a fund or management cheaper actually in Kron at a certain point in time then you can if you just have it, don't move it.

I think the starting point is that we feel that the very best solution for most people is what your corporate actually has bought with a full-fledged portfolios, including private equity, real estate, all the solution around the pension is a very good solution for most people.

But then we see there is absolutely a churn also into own pension accounts. And we have the full solution there. You can have, of course, the risk-free -- the better products as such that will be low cost, but they also have this now over time, other type of solutions built into the Kron app. So it's not necessarily a cheaper solution. It can be as good solution over time as you also see from the corporate schemes.

And you also have to bear in mind that, I think when you come into Kron and you have made that choice to withdraw your pension account from your provider, then you have made a choice that is quite sticky. The duration of the assets will be quite high compared to some of the corporates that do tender offerings every 5, 10 years or something. So it's a mixed balance, I think, both when it comes to margins and especially when you look at also in combination with the duration.

Yes. And if you look at the margins for the retail compared to the collective agreements, Ulrik, I think you will find that it's not too different, but it's a slightly higher level in the retail market compared to corporate.

But the retail, are you including just Kron or...

Kron and the total pension margin from the individual contracts.

I'll try to be very brief. Just a clarifying question on the combined ratio target of below 90%. Is that for 2028 or for each year in the period?

Well, on the combined ratio target at or below 90% to be 100% precise. It is the ambition in 2028 that we need to have to deliver the NOK 7 billion. And then you should expect us, as we've said many times now, to approach our 90% to 92% target. And there should be a clear trajectory to get to that also during the period. That's how we think about it.

Thank you. Are there any additional questions here? Yes, please go on, Thomas.

Just in front of you.

So Thomas Svendsen from SEB again. So back to the bank, it's a quite sharp reduction in margin compared to the run rate you posted the first month of this year. So is this a reflection of what you see in the market now? So you sort of expect a quite quick reduction in the net interest margin in the bank and then a more rebound equilibrium level or -- yes, when should we expect to see this margin pressure?

Yes. No, we should expect to see it throughout next year as we see the funding costs right now. But again, as Odd said, we would say it looks a little bit better now than it just looked a couple of weeks ago. So we'll -- it's a dynamic picture, so we'll see. But we should see it during next year, yes.

Thank you, Thomas. Ola, please go ahead.

Yes. Just a final one from me. It was mentioned that I think 600,000 people have the lowest mandatory savings rate in Norway, that's 2%. I think the largest labor union in Norway, LO, wants to raise that to 4%. Have you made any scenario analysis on that? You know the impact that would be for you?

I think the last time we saw I think around 40% of our portfolio was still at the lowest level with a 2% savings rate. So around 40% of the -- if you had uplift from 2% to 4%, you can then do the math when it comes to the premiums because 40% of the portfolio will then be uplifted from 2% to 4% savings rates.

The 40% of this are?

Customers, I think, 40% of the customers...

I think individual rate it's lower than that on premiums. We have the number, but I honestly don't remember it in my head what the actual uplift will be if we move from 2% to 4%, but obviously a very good tailwind for us if that was to happen.

Just checking if there are any additional questions on Teams or in the room. It seems like it's not, which brings the Capital Markets Day in 2025 to an end. If any additional questions arise, please feel free to contact us by phone or e-mail, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. For those attending here in person today, you are warmly welcome to join the executive management team for refreshments upstairs afterwards.

Thank you for joining today, and we look forward to seeing you again when we present the fourth quarter results in February. And finally, we would like to wish everyone a wonderful day and happy holidays. Thank you, and goodbye.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Storebrand's Third Quarter Results Presentation. As usual, our CEO, Odd Arild Grefstad, will present the key highlights of the quarter, followed by CFO, Kjetil Krokje, who will dive deeper into the numbers. At the end of the presentation, participants in the Teams, webinar will have a chance to ask questions. Details on how to join the webinar are found on the Investor Relations website.

But without further ado, I give the word to our CEO, Odd Arild Grefstad.

Thank you, Johannes, and good morning, everyone. I am excited to share another strong quarter with you, marked by substantial growth and improved profitability. We gained trust among new and existing customers and are on track to deliver on our targets for 2025.

Before I get into the numbers, I want to highlight one important change in our executive management team. Kjetil Krokje, as many of you are familiar with, has been appointed as Storebrand's CFO, succeeding Lars Loddesol, who steps down after nearly 25 years in executive management positions in Storebrand, including 14 years as CFO. Lars has been instrumental in shaping Storebrand's financial strength and strategic direction. And I want to thank him sincerely for his dedication and leadership. And I appreciate that Lars will remain an active contributor to the group also going forward.

Now let's start with the financial highlights. Storebrand delivered a record high group profit of NOK 1,586 million in the third quarter, reflecting continued growth, solid cost control and improved insurance results. The operational result was NOK 1,091 million, up 16% year-on-year. It's worth noting that insurance premiums exceeded NOK 10 billion, representing a 20% increase from last year. These results show the strength of the diversified business model and our ability to deliver value for both customers and shareholders.

Our commitment to increasing dividends and long-term share buybacks continues. Since 2016, we have steadily raised our dividend per share, and our ambition next year is to continue a growth rate broadly consistent with previous years. The Board's long-term plan is to return NOK 12 billion to shareholders through annual buybacks by 2030, while also growing the ordinary dividend. It remains NOK 342 million in share buyback in the fourth quarter, completing the NOK 1.5 billion program for 2025.

As many of you are familiar with, Storebrand aims to take 3 commercial positions in the markets we operate in: A, to be the leading provider of occupational pensions in both Norway and Sweden; and b, to be the Nordic powerhouse in asset management; and c, to be the fast-growing challenger in the Norwegian retail market for financial services. These positions are strengthened by our strategic enablers, people, sustainability and digital frontrunner, together unlocking additional growth.

Let's look at the growth delivered in the quarter. I am pleased to report that the double-digit growth continues across the group. Our strong growth underlines Storebrand's robust and consistent performance. Storebrand is positioned in attractive and structural growing savings markets as well as rapidly increasing our market shares within insurance and retail banking.

Moving to occupational pension. Storebrand and Kron has now more than 20% of the assets under management in the fast-growing market for individualized pension, reflecting our strong offering and competitive position. This is the part of the pension system where individuals freely can choose their own provider as a part of the corporate-sponsored schemes.

In the Guaranteed segment, activity among closed pension funds has increased and several public occupational pension tenders are ongoing. A highlight this quarter is the commercialization of our innovative and preventive concept, VEL, designed to help employees stay healthy, recover faster and reduce long-term sick leave. The concept now progress from a pilot to full-scale implementation. VEL will be an integrated part of our disability insurance products. Rising disability levels are a pressing challenge for Norwegian society. We believe that VEL will make a positive contribution both to helping people back to work and reducing costs for our corporate clients. We also expect reduced insurance claims.

The government has proposed tax exemptions for mutual funds. This is good news for our customers. Consequently, Storebrand can maintain Storebrand domicile for its mutual funds instead of reallocating them. The government's proposals show a willingness to listen to industry feedback and to create a more competitive environment for Norwegian fund management.

Operationally, this quarter, Storebrand Asset Management reached NOK 1, 561 billion in assets under management. Net inflows were NOK 16 billion, mainly from external clients. Active funds generated NOK 90 million in performance-based income this quarter and NOK 239 million year-to-date. Speaking of performance, I'm proud to share that our flagship Norwegian equity fund, Storebrand Norge, has delivered a stunning 10,000% net return to customers since its launch in 1983. This is a milestone in the Norwegian fund history with no other domestic equity fund reaching this level of total return. The fund has outperformed its reference index by around 4,300 percentage points net of fees. The performance illustrates the power of successful active management when done right and the power of compound interest. If you had NOK 100,000 in Storebrand Norge fund in 1983, your investment would be worth NOK 10 billion today.

Finally, let's look at our strong progress in the Norwegian retail market. We have reached a 7.6% market share in retail P&C, up from 7.4% last quarter. Retail insurance portfolio premium grew by 26% year-on-year. And our bank lending portfolio increased by 12% to NOK 95 billion. Our digital-first multichannel approach is reasoning well with customers, and we continue to see strong growth in both insurance and banking. Kron is a key enabler for Storebrand's retail growth, an important part of our strategy to deliver scalable customer-centric solutions for savings and also now for pensions.

Storebrand Kron assets under management have shown impressive growth, reaching approximately NOK 29 billion by the third quarter. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 70% since Storebrand's acquisition of Kron. The platform's growth is driven by both pension and savings products with about 45% of assets now in pension solutions and 55% in savings products. Kron's digital-first approach and user-friendly interface have made it an attractive choice for customers seeking simple, transparent and cost-effective ways to manage their long-term savings and pensions.

And with that, I leave the word back to you, Johannes.

Thank you, Odd Arild. Now let's take a closer look at the numbers. Kjetil, please go ahead.

Thank you, Johannes, and let's dive a little deeper into the numbers. The quarterly result before amortization was NOK 1.586 billion, this represents an increase of 5% compared to the strong third quarter last year and an 11% increase compared to the second quarter this year. The result development confirms the positive momentum in the business. In particular, the operating result is strong with a record NOK 1.091 billion, benefiting from improving insurance results and growth in the business.

As for special items, in the top left corner, we have chosen to highlight NOK 70 million of the finance result as a positive special item as this stems from a reevaluation of future earn-out liabilities related to the acquired Danish infrastructure asset manager, AIP. Earnings per share ended at NOK 3.08. This is slightly reduced from the third quarter last year, which was influenced by a lower tax rate than normal due to currency hedging and hedging effects in general. The annualized return on equity for the quarter ended at 19%, confirming Storebrand's trajectory towards a capital-light business model. It's also fair to note that this is higher than our medium-term expectations as there is some seasonality and special items in the results.

Let me move to the solvency ratio for the quarter. The solvency margin ended at 195%, down from 200% last quarter. Post-tax results contributed positively. This was offset by the NOK 750 million buyback program and accrued dividends in the quarter. The remainder of the reduction in the quarter was driven by growth in the business and changes in regulatory assumptions. With the current level of solvency buffers and interest rates, the balance sheet is very robust to fluctuations in the financial markets.

Let's go a little deeper into the results line by line at the group level and then through the lens of the reporting segments. So the growth in the business continues. The top line growth for the third quarter was 8%. The insurance result is up 44% compared to the third quarter last year. Growth, price increases and other measures are giving the expected effects. Storebrand has a double-digit growth ambition for 2025 and a corresponding cost guidance of NOK 6.9 billion for the full year. Performance-related costs and currency effects was not included in the guided amount. Record strong insurance sales have led to additional distribution costs year-to-date.

Altogether, these items add additional NOK 100 million in costs compared to the guided amount so far this year. The underlying cost development since the beginning of the year is broadly in line with the plan. Changes to the Norwegian VAT Act as announced in the national budget is expected to have a negative cost impact for Storebrand amounting to approximately NOK 100 million annually starting from the second half of 2026. We are working with measures to mitigate the effect of the VAT change.

Financial results are strong following an increased profit sharing in the Norwegian guaranteed portfolios. Good profit sharing in the Swedish portfolios and a stable return on company capital has also contributed in the quarter. Amortization and write-down of intangible assets from acquired business amounted to NOK 128 million in the quarter. The increase compared with the third quarter in 2024 is mainly due to a NOK 50 million write-down of intangible assets related to the capital investment acquisition.

The tax charge for the quarter was 18%. Currency movements and asymmetry in how tax is calculated on assets and currency hedges will affect tax cost from quarter-to-quarter. Our tax guidance is still 19% to 22%. This table shows the number as on the previous page, but split into the business lines, savings, insurance and guaranteed. Savings and Insurance reports a positive development in the quarter and year-to-date, whilst guaranteed is slightly reduced. I will comment on each area in the following slides.

The unit-linked business shows continued growth in premiums and reserves. Reserves has grown at 11% compared with the same period last year. The margins are down by approximately 3 basis points in the same period. The Asset Management business reports record high AUM at the end of the quarter and strong performance results. The top line margins are at 20 basis points, in line with expected levels. The infrastructure asset manager, AIP, is still in a buildup and commercialization phase. Longer lead times in attracting new capital in the current financial environment have caused delays in the current fundraising. This has led to a negative result of around NOK 10 million in the quarter and NOK 60 million year-to-date. We expect a neutral result for AIP in the fourth quarter and a positive contribution for 2026.

Lastly, the bank grows lending by 12% with satisfactory margins in the quarter. When we go to Kron, we see that the assets under management is now close to NOK 30 billion and has more than tripled since the acquisition of the platform. The insurance business is delivering strong results after a challenging couple of years. In particular, the retail P&C business is developing strongly. We continue to grow the number of customers despite price increases and our market share, which is recorded with a quarterly delay, has increased from 7.4% to 7.6%. Growth comes at a cost and strong sales have led to increased sales provisions. We book all sales costs upfront and do not book any deferred acquisition cost in the Insurance segment. The increased sales cost weakens the combined ratio by approximately 2 percentage points compared to the same period last year. With 89% combined ratio, it's fair to mention that it was a quarter with lower large losses than normal. We maintain the ambition to deliver 92% or less in combined ratio, but continued strong sales and associated sales costs and weather-related claims could lead to somewhat higher combined ratio for 2025.

Looking into the fourth quarter, we expect a negative impact of less than NOK 50 million from the Storm Amy that hit Norway after the close of the quarter. In Guaranteed, the results are satisfactory. Worth to notice is profit sharing improvement in the Belgian financial markets, especially in Norwegian paid policies. Customer buffers are increased in the quarter and is now at 8% in Norway and almost 27% in Sweden.

Moving to the financial results on company capital in the Other segment. The main result driver in this segment is the return on company capital in the Holdco and the life insurance companies, less the cost of debt. The company capital was at NOK 28.4 billion as of the third quarter, and the financial result in the segment amounted to NOK 155 million in the quarter.

Let's end with a status update on our nonfinancial and financial targets. Storebrand is here for the long term, and we want to help our customers create a brighter future for the long term. It means that Storebrand is still committed to science-based target setting and the green transition. I'm happy to report that we are ahead of our sustainability targets this quarter. Also worth noting this quarter is that we were ranked among the top 5% in the insurance industry in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment. Furthermore, the broker, Soderberg & Partners, recognized Storebrand as the most sustainable Norwegian life insurer.

As for the financial ambitions, with the results we present today, we have good momentum in the group, and we are well on our way to delivering on our 2025 ambitions on results and return on equity. Lastly, we want to remind you and extend an invite to our CMD in Oslo on the 10th of December. The event will be hybrid and may be followed online, but we hope to see as many as possible in Oslo to meet us in person. I would also again invite all stakeholders to contact us with any suggestions you may have for which topics you want us to cover at the CMD.

And with that, I hand the word back to you, Johannes.

Thank you, Kjetil. We are now happy to take questions from our audience. [Operator Instructions]. While we are waiting for the first question, Odd Arild, you added a little test on the return in the flagship fund, Storebrand Norge, is that correct?

Very well spotted, Johannes. It's a tremendous story about Storebrand Norge, but of course, NOK 100,000 with this development since 1983 would have been NOK 10 million today, not NOK 10 billion, but well spotted.

Good to have that clarified. With the returns of this fund, we might actually come there someday.

Now over to the first question, which comes from Hans Rettedal Christiansen from Danske Bank.

So my first question is on the Savings segment and just trying to kind of understand the broader picture here. Looking at the cash equivalent earnings in the quarter, it's NOK 815 million, but that includes sort of AIP extraordinary effect. So if you adjust for that, it looks like it's sort of just below Q3 in 2024. So I'm just trying to understand the dynamics there given the fact that your AUM growth is up 16% year-over-year and what the moving parts are and how you kind of plan to show increasing profitability in that segment?

And then my second question is, you've previously mentioned around the liquidity in the holding company, and it looks like it's at NOK 3.9 billion this quarter, where you've said you aim to be at around NOK 3.5 billion to NOK 4 billion going forward. So in Q4 '24, you gave us an expectation of remittance of NOK 4.2 billion in 2025. Can you just say something about how that NOK 4.2 billion in total remittances is developing according to your expectations back then and with the deliveries so far in 2025?

Thank you, Hans. Let's start with the Savings segment and the earnings development. As you are correctly pointing out, there's been flattish if you exclude the bank over the last year. Looking on the medium term, we see that the growth has come through also in the result in this segment. And then as you mentioned, this year, there has been a negative drag from AIP of around NOK 60 million. We have done some investments in growth, and it's worth to mention that the segment now in unit-linked is having costs associated with distribution in the bank of unit-linked products. And that means that the success we have seen in own pension account now taking 20% of the market share of the flow also on the retail space, adds some cost in the unit-linked line, but this is an internal cost allocation, not a new cost. And then it's -- our view is that over time, you will see the structural growth on the top line and the AUM also come down and continue to scale down on the bottom line, even with some further margin pressure.

On the Holdco liquidity, I think the short answer there is that you should, all else equal, expect somewhat more from the bank and in the insurance business than you saw last year. So those will be the main changes, I think, in the liquidity upstreaming from the NOK 4.2 billion you saw last year to what you can expect this year. And also, we aim to take out somewhat more than the annual results from the life insurance company also this year.

And if I could just have a follow-up. Could you maybe on timing of the life insurance company, sort of what do you expect there over the perhaps medium term? When do you expect to see more remittances going forward?

Yes. So on the life insurance company, that is overcapitalized with a solvency ratio well above 100%. And then over time, we will take out capital from that company as a part of the capital management in the group, but you shouldn't expect any kind of sudden lumps in capital coming from the life company. It should be predictable, and it should be in good dialogue with all stakeholders.

I think you saw us taking NOK 1 billion last year, NOK 500 million the year before. And that's the ballpark number, I think, you should expect us to also be able to take out going forward.

That was all from my side. Congratulations on the appointment, Kjetil.

Thank you for the questions, Hans. We have a next question from Ulrik Zürcher in Nordea.

Sorry, I thought there was one guy ahead of me in the line, so I was a bit -- the two questions. I was just wondering if you could help me year-to-date. If we take the solvency generation, subtract the dividend accrual and the buybacks and the cost of the net growth from P&C insurance, bank, but also runoff from guarantees, like how much solvency are you generating above when we net out the growth and the accruals?

Yes. It's actually a tricky question to take on the back foot here, Ulrik. I'll work a little bit through the numbers and get back to that. I think the guidance of roughly 18% before any dividends, buybacks, that is roughly where we are at, at the moment. And then I need to go a little bit back in time to look at kind of what is special, what is allocation changes in the guaranteed portfolios and other things that kind of impact from moment-to-moment analysis. But on a run rate basis, the around guided level from the last CMD shouldn't be too far off.

Yes. That's very helpful. But then I was also following up a bit on what Hans is saying. If you -- you're basically saying that you will upstream or remittance will be roughly the same from Life, but you are generating a lot of capital and you have a lot of excess capital. Is there anything on the sort of runoff buyback potential assumptions that has changed?

I can start. And I think what is most important here is that we've always said that if we end up with more liquidity, more solvency and more result generation, of course, then you will continuously make new assessments. But you need to -- you can't sell the skin before you have shot a bear. So that I think is an important place to start.

But just to be clear also, last year, we gave the hold result in the life insurance company, upstreamed it to Holdco. And on top of that, we took NOK 1 billion up to the holding company. And of course, over time, such an upstreaming above this year's results that you also need to have an apply to the regulator to do more than 100% upstreaming. But we have done that for a couple of years, and as I said, expect to do that also going forward.

Yes. That's helpful. And then I was just wondering, one last thing, you have, I think, a record high spread between your guarantees and the expected return, Page 13, 190. I was just wondering what is the amount of assets that's in position for profit sharing in the Paid-up segment right now?

Yes. I think we can also point back to the Capital Markets Day guidance from 2023 there, Ulrik, where roughly 1/3 of the portfolio were in profit sharing last year in Norway, meaning NOK 50 billion. And then we are around NOK 100 billion this year, meaning 2/3 of the paid-up policies portfolio and some individual contracts. Then we will give you an update on that area when we have the Capital Markets Day on December 10, I think.

Okay. But in general, I get the feeling this is a very stable business.

Yes, I think what we -- we are very pleased to see the development in the Guaranteed segment, where we have been now massively building buffers also in this quarter. It's, of course, much used also the opportunity to take out the mismatch, interest rate mismatch very much in the portfolio. And that, of course, gives opportunities for more stable and also somewhat growing profit sharings going forward. And the guiding this year is for around NOK 600 million in profit sharing, somewhat lower in Sweden this year compared to what we said, but it seems to be somewhat higher in Norway. And on top, we should, with normal, of course, markets, be able to be a bit above the guided NOK 600 million.

Sorry for a bit difficult questions today. But how dependent are you on the equity in the Life company to keep that asset liability hedge?

So the asset liability hedge is only coming from interest rate papers, whilst the equity allocation is there to provide risk premiums so that we can have surplus return in the portfolios that have high buffers.

Thank you, Ulrik. Then we have a next question from David Barma in Bank of America.

Firstly, on insurance, could you please give us a sense of where you see the underlying performance in the quarter and maybe how you expect margins to develop? You still have a lot of pricing to earn through, and you've made a big point about the cost being upfronted and that becoming a tailwind. So is there any reason you wouldn't be able to get below 90% in the next quarters? That's my first question.

And then secondly, on the solvency partial internal model, can you just update us on the time line for this, please, and whether we should expect it by year-end still?

Yes. No -- on the insurance part, I guess it's worth noting on this quarter's 89%. We had a quarter with lower -- large losses than normal. And then when you look into the fourth quarter, we still think it's possible to reach the 90% to 92%, but we've also said that with the NOK 50 million coming from the Storm Amy and continued high sales, it might be a little bit above. We will see where we end up when we do the fourth quarter accounts. And then going forward, we still see a good trajectory within the P&C business, both on the corporate side and on the retail side. As we have said earlier, we have had somewhat weaker result on the disability line on workers' comp and the more long-tail lines. So they are still delivering higher combined ratios than the more pure P&C. And then looking at the longer-term picture, what's happening in Storebrand is that we are moving from a predominantly long-tailed insurance business to a more short-tailed insurance business with more P&C in it.

Yes. And I think it's fair to say that it's quite a strong seasonality in the Nordics when it comes to insurance. It goes without saying with the winter, with car insurance and so on. So typically, you see higher combined ratios in the fourth quarter and the first quarter. But it also goes with the more personal lines in corporate pension, where you see more disability reported in the winter time compared to holiday seasons and summer. So seasonality is a part of this.

And then again, fourth quarter will be fourth quarter. We have Amy and these kind of things. But long term, of course, we see disability, some pockets still coming out with negative result, but we have pricing effects coming into 1st of January in these smaller portfolios that we believe will take care of the profitability in these products. And also, as I talked about, our VEL concept really shows promising results and I think might be a differentiator for us and also reduce our costs in the disability products going forward.

As for the partial internal model, as you're familiar with, we have sent it to the regulator, and we're now in the period where we are discussing elements of the model with the regulator. I think in general, it's very hard to guide on time lines when you're working together with the regulator. And it's also worth noting that this is the first partial internal model for a Norwegian life insurance company. So this is new also for the regulator. So those discussions will continue, and it's hard to guide on an exact time line. The most important part, though, is that we use this model as a risk management tool and a capital allocation tool day-to-day in Storebrand, and it helps us make better decision on capital allocation.

Can I just ask you on the disability point? Are you able to give us an estimate of the combined ratio for disability within insurance in the first 9 months of the year?

I think we're close to 100, but a little below. I'm looking at you, Johannes.

Yes. I think that's true Kjetil. The Corporate Insurance segment we report externally very much represent our disability products. The disability-linked insurance product is the largest by far product in that segment, and it has delivered results year-to-date, more or less in line with our plans.

We have a next question here from Thomas Svendsen in SEB..

Yes. I have two questions. First, on the mortgage bank, you posted strong growth Q-o-Q this quarter as well. So with increased competition from Sbanken, maybe other players, do you see any change in -- or how much do you feel the increased competition in this mortgage lending space?

And second question on non-life insurance. What is the message from the sales force these days? Are there any changes in sort of the competitive pressure on selling these nonlife insurance policies? Or is it unchanged?

I can start with the bank. I must say the development in the bank is very strong. We have a very dedicated sales force in the bank in combination with the digital platform, Kron, as we talked about. We are not seeing that the growth in the bank is tailing off. We have a good inflow of clients. And I think one of the elements here is to have good solutions, digital solutions close to your customers. You are swift in giving the right, well, set of cates and so on if someone is hunting for a new home. So it's a lot of elements that is important to attract new customers. And we feel that we are in a very good competitive position to still have good growth in the bank going forward.

Yes. And then I'll just continue on the insurance part. What we have seen so far is a little bit higher churn in the second half of the year, but not any large changes really. And you see that we're still increasing the market shares with 0.2 percentage points now in the quarter. So I think it's -- we are, of course, trying to have a disciplined approach to pricing in this segment as this is a segment where we need to, from time to time, have [indiscernible] and other things. So I think a disciplined market and there's competition, but there is not a huge increase in churn.

Thank you, Thomas. It looks like we have covered all the questions. So that wraps up today's presentation. We look forward to seeing you again on the Capital Markets Day on December 10 here at Lysaker. Thank you for attending, and goodbye.