Arion banki hf. (ARION_SDB) Q1 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and thank you all for joining us today for the presentation of our quarterly results. Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the absence of our CFO, Olof Huskulsson, who is currently away due to medical reasons. We of course wish him a swift recovery and look forward to his return. In his absence, I will try to provide a comprehensive overview of our performance this quarter, and our chief economist, Erna Björk Sværistóttir, will reflect on the external environment. But first, let's dive into the results. This was a solid start of the year with a return on equity of 12.8%. And the results are underpinned by good momentum in our core earnings. with a strong period in terms of feed generation, a solid net interest margin despite the complicated external rate environment, and in terms of insurance income, we also had one of the best first quarters for that business in what generally is a seasonally low period. Another highlight were key milestones reached in our land development projects. which supported a valuation increase in the quarter with a net impact to our shareholders of 1.1 billion. And in terms of capital, we continue to trend towards our optimized level and in Q2 have launched another 3 billion share buyback program following a 3 billion program concluded in the first quarter. Some key takeaways from the first quarter are The stable net interest margin of 3.1%, despite complicated external rate environment, as I mentioned. And this was also a very strong quarter in feed generation, driven by momentum in our CIB business, with an increase of 35% year over year. And finally, in terms of our funding and liquidity position, the bank continues to be in a very strong position, with funding activity in the fourth quarter and first quarter of this year, ...