ALBKY - Alpha Services and Holdings S.A. (ALBKY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-03-08 13:46:08 ET
Alpha Services and Holdings S.A. (ALBKY)
Q4 2023 Results Conference Call
March 07, 2024 07:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Iason Kepaptsoglou - Head of IR
Vassilios Psaltis - Chief Executive Officer
Lazaros Papagaryfallou - Chief Financial Officer
Marios Kalotychos - Chief Investment Officer
Conference Call Participants
Eleni Ismailou - Axia Ventures
Mehmet Sevim - JPMorgan
Alex Demetriou - Jefferies
Olga Veselova - Bank of America
Alexandros Boulougouris - Euroxx Securities
Osman Memisoglu - Ambrosia Capital
Presentation
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Yoda, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Alpha Services and Holdings conference call to present and discuss the Full Year 2023 Financial Results. All participants will be in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by question-and-answer session [Operator Instructions]
At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Alpha Services and Holdings' management. Gentlemen, you may now proceed.
Iason Kepaptsoglou
Hello, everyone. This is Iason Kepaptsoglou, Alpha Bank's Head of IR. Thank you for joining us. A slightly different format this time as we have a lot of ground to cover. Vassilios Psaltis, our CEO, will lead the call, focusing on the main elements of the strategic and financial progress made during 2023. Lazaros Papagaryfallou, our CFO, will then update us on the financial performance over the coming three years. Q&A will follow, and we aim to finish within the hour.
Vassilios, over to you.
Vassilios Psaltis
Thank you, Iason, and good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for joining. Let's go straight to Slide 5, please, to look at last year's performance. 2023 has been, by all accounts, a strong year. Like others, we too have benefited from higher interest rates and a benign retail funding environment.
We have used this opportunity to ensure two things: one, that we accelerate the delivery of our strategic objectives; and two, that we continue to position the business and our balance sheet to maximize the recurring value we can create for our shareholders. Our actions have translated into tangible results. Our profitability exceeded the 12% target for 2025 that we set in our Investor Day, and as Lazaros will highlight, we aim to drive it higher.
The same is true for EPS. And on capital, if we include the impact of the deal we closed with UniCredit last October, we have delivered in one year close to 60% of the 3-year target for capital generation. Top line growth has been coupled with the repositioning of our balance sheet to ensure that we can shield our profitability in a falling rate environment. We continue to expand our fee generation capacity through internal actions as well as by extending collaborations.
We reduced our cost base for yet another year, extracting further efficiencies from the business, and helped by a smaller resolution fund contribution. Our cost of risk has remained stable despite the challenging environment and whilst ensuring that we continue to deliver on the convergence of our asset quality with the European average. And last but not least, beyond organic capital generation, we have expanded our total capital MREL buffers on the back of a solid issuance plan to ensure that we are at the forefront of optimizing our capital stack....
Alpha Services and Holdings S.A. (ALBKY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript