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[Interpreted] Good morning. We shall begin with the presentation of results of the first quarter 2024. This is Clara Gomez Bermudez of financial risk management. And as in previous presentations, I'm here with Carlos Gonzalez, Chief Financial Officer; and Nawal Barange Director of Investor Relations, who as [indiscernible] will group together and combine all of the questions asked throughout this presentation, and we will proceed to answer them at the end. Thank you very much for being here during this session, which is remote and thank you for the interest you've always shown on the evolution of our businesses and the share price evolution. Before we start, I would like to remind you that the financial information that we collect in this presentation of results is done under the financial reporting information, IFRS 4. And as on previous occasions, in the half year, we will report under IFRS 17 and starting now with a summary of the year. I mean we have a very good assessment. We make a very good assessment of our 2 pillars, growth profitability and solvency and our 3 lines of activity, which, as you know, our traditional business, credit business and funeral business. At the top of the screen, you can see growth turnover grows by 1.1%. As you can see on screen, [ EUR 1863 million, EUR 1.863 billion ]. It is a group that we could consider moderate -- and isolating the effect of single savings premiums that as you know, we issued in the first quarter of last year and isolating this effect, it would take us to a consolidated growth of 3% at any rate better than the rest of the Spanish insurance sector as a whole. Satisfactory consolidated result, almost EUR 180 million, growing by 12%, as you can see on screen and with a positive growth on the 3 lines of business, EUR 100 million result in credit insurance. We will talk about this further similar to the year before, it was an excellent year in this area, but I would like to stress the favorable behavior of the traditional business as you can see on the screen with a combined ratio of 90.1%. And a decrease of [ 1 versus ] the first quarter of 2023 and a drop also as compared to year-end, 92.6%. And as a consequence, as we will see later, [ during the year the ] result of traditional business improved by 26.4%. And finally, in the last pillar, a good behavior of permanent resources at market value. You know this very well, and we will have a slide talking about them in greater detail later. And all of this takes place in an economic and political environment, which is complex worldwide by uncertainty. And beyond the 2 main conflicts at the moment that you know us better as we do. Financially speaking, there is a reduction of inflation the European level, 2.8%, 3.4% in Spain, but an inflation, which in the end continues to have a negative impact on company costs, increase of economic activities and moderate increase, you know that the global GDP, the estimated global GDP is growing in line with that of 2023 with this 3.2% that you can see on screen. There's an improvement in the estimations of the euro zone. We see this 0.8% estimated for 2024 and the performance in Spain with this 1.9% is will foreseeably be better than that of our European peers. And regarding markets, as we can see on this slide, nothing new that you don't know of central banks have not yet the reduced interest rates, have not taken these measures. We will probably see this in the second half year of this year. We already said in 2023, that we would start to see interest rate drops. And the truth is that in the short term, interest rates are still high in the long term. On the left-hand side at the top, you can see that they are around 3.2%, a bit higher. Now they are 3.4% and all of these able by reduction in the risk premium. And at the bottom, we can see a good evolution of the stock markets despite the uncertain political environment that we just mentioned, an increase of Ibex, still a bit below the other European and American indexes, but a good performance at any rate in the first quarter 2024. And as always, a few words on the performance of the insurance industry in Spain, just to give you some context. As usual, in this quarter, we do not have the combined ratio updated figures. Here, you can see the turnover figures which dropped by 3% as a whole in the insurance industry in Spain, this drop is very much conditioned by the drop in single premiums and savings. This 18% that we can see on the screen. And as you may remember, and has happened in the first half year [ 2023 ], there were significant issues of single savings premiums that have not materialized in this year yet. A good performance of general insurance, 1.7%. I would say, a very good performance, especially in motor, which is 9.4%, multi-risk, 8.2%. These are growth levels, which are unusual in the insurance market in Spain, which is very mature, especially in these 2 mass lines, which is motor and multi-risk, is the growth similar to that of GCO? In motor, yes, in multi-risk, the growth of the sector is above GCO? And I would say in the case of GCO, we are less subject to single savings premiums, as we've said on other occasions, we prefer the systematic savings that come with recurring premiums. And as usual, and now going on to the summary of this first quarter of the year, -- we are showing 2 summarized income statements on the one side income and the other one, profits or losses 9.1% increase in turnover of [ EUR 1.6 billion ] with a very favorable behavior of traditional business, 5.8% along the line of the evolution of the sector that we've seen before and with the caveats that we mentioned. And it is true that the greater income comes marked by the single premiums, [ minus 29% ].As you can see on screen, the first quarter of 2023, we issued single premiums -- savings premiums that have not yet happened in 2024. However, as you may have seen, because we published it, we have recently launched the capital savings product and probably this trend will slowly revert next year. A reduction in turnover in the credit insurance business, minus 2.9% mainly because in 2023, we've had a push due to the inflation effect, which had an impact on economic activities and as a consequence on the trade insurance premiums and less sales of our customers, lower sales of our customers due to the slowdown of economic activities that we saw before the general slide. And finally, you can see the contributions of the funeral business, EUR 72 million. It compares favorably with the previous year, but they are not too comparable years, technically speaking, in this year 2024, we have 3 months, 2 months in the previous year, you not be purchased was executed in February 2023. Carlos Gonzalez CFO, will give you more details, both in traditional credit and funeral business, and we'll give you more information about the results profit. An increase is favorable, very favorable results in consolidated profit growth by 12%, almost EUR 180 million in one quarter with an excellent behavior of the traditional business and a good behavior of credit insurance, credit insurance has the same result as in the year before. It was an extraordinary result, and we have also incorporated the funeral business into the results. So what we could say is the diversification of our business and all of the measures that we have taken have an impact in the favorable consolidated results of the group. In traditional business, we see a double-digit growth, 26.4%, almost EUR 70 million in one quarter. We see an improvement in the combined ratio, which is at 90% as we saw before. And you cannot see it here, the financial result, which rose by 26.5%. And from the technical point of view and without going into detail in all lines of business that the CFO will tell us in detail about, I would like to stress the behavior of multi-risk with the combined ratio in this quarter of 88.5%. And taking about the reasons for this better traditional business results, while summarizing all of the measures taken efficiency, streamlining, use of technology allow us to improve results also the gradual rate measures and tariff measures that you know have had an impact. We've had less adverse weather events than same period last year and there is a seasonal effect of Easter holidays, which was in March this 2024 with a lower claims ratio. We expect for these improvements to consolidate throughout the year, probably in multi-risk. The P&L will be impacted by weather events that have not taken place in this first quarter. And what we do expect is that the motor insurance, which was -- which has improved, you'll see this later. It's been a moderate improvement, and it will consolidate throughout the year. In credit, you can see on screen as well, a result of EUR 100 million, profit of EUR 100 million, very similar to last year. As we said, the credit insurance business is experiencing some decrease in turnover because of the lower economic activity and the reduction in sales of our customers, but we can confirm that we maintain a provision level a very conservative provision level that we have always maintained, but we increased it due to the pandemic. And we continue with a cautious underwriting policy where we -- [ so constantly ] improve our -- the quality of our underwritten portfolio. We have some reduction in the business volume, we see claims ratios are going back to pre-pandemic levels. And thanks to all of these that we expect to see satisfactory results in credit insurance in 2024, which also receives the positive impact of the good financial results. I would also like to stress the incorporation of the funeral business. You can see here a quarter with EUR 8.6 million. I've already mentioned it, it's difficult to compare this to the previous year because we are incorporating 3 months versus 2 months last year. But the truth is that we are seeing improvements in results. We will get into a bit more detail on this later. And I don't want to talk too much about non ordinary profit, EUR 1.4 million, barely any impact on the consolidated results of the group. And in the end, this leads us to this almost EUR 180 million which grew by 12%. And even if you know it in depth, this graph that we always show with the diversification of our business, [ I will -- talk ] about this a little bit because I think this is one of the key elements leading to the good results of the group throughout the years. A balanced [ weight ] of multi-risk, 15% and 12%, respectively, between multi-risk and motor and also 20% coming from life. This is, of course, one of the elements that has allowed us to mitigate the inflation crisis during 2023. We continue to have inflation that is impacting us and diversification not only amongst the different traditional business products, but also in geographical areas. It is true that the international scope is mainly focused on credit insurance, but we have international business. In funeral business, we are the top fuel business in the Iberian Peninsula, and we go for this diversification with the recent incorporation of the funeral business, which is 4% of the total business of the group. I will not stop to talk too much about [ the screens ]. This slide is just a continuation of year-end 2023. But I do believe that it is worthy to mention sustainability. You know that in sustainability, you have all of the information in the sustainability report in the nonfinancial information of reporting of 2023. It has been verified by our auditors. It is public information that we offer through our website. And I would stress the commitment of the group to the different principles and international associations. When it comes to sustainability, we are signers of [ PSI, PRI ] in investments, and we are absolutely committed to the decarbonization of the 2050 price agenda. At the bottom, you can see, well, we've recently published the [ 2024-2026 ] sustainability plan, the master plan. You can see the 4 pillars of the master plan and the bottom good government, sustainable business social commitment and environmental responsibility. So there are different initiatives here. I will not stop to talk about each of them. But as an insurance company that we are, I think the social commitment is in our very DNA, a social commitment that we channel through the foundation oxidant and where we subsequently and slowly but surely increase our commitment. And we've talked on other occasions about investments, we have adapted our investment offering to sustainability. Our are Article 8, the SFDR, we were working on mobility, cybersecurity, in general insurance. And in real estate investments, we also adapt to environmental responsibility commitments. We are installing solar panels and the acquisition of the [indiscernible] building, where we will group together will be employees who are now in the Madrid area. We have there obtained the top certification with platinum. I will not lead paste I will not stop to talk about all of the initiatives. It's all in the sustainability report, and it is all acknowledged by our rating agencies at the top, you can see that sustainability-rating agency has given us low risk, and we are amongst the top 30 companies out of the 300 that they assess. As to the share price evolution, share price performance, we've even better than we do. We have a positive evolution in this quarter, [ 14.72% ] better in reference indexes. You know that we always say that the share price should be assessed in the long term, this long term that we show in the compound rate and 2024, we have a very good performance, [ 10.71% ] and above reference indexes and as to the dividend payout policy, you know that we maintain a dividend payout policy that is very stable, foreseeable and growing over time, which shows a clear commitment to the remuneration of our shareholders. this year, February dividend increased by 7.5%, going back to EUR 73.1 million. You can see above EUR 21.5 million last year. And in the session, yes, the day of the AGM, the approved increase of 10% of the componentry dividend as compared to the previous year. So [ EUR 130 million ] more than EUR 134 million dividend charge to results 2023, which means an increase of 8.6%.Dividend per share, which in the end is [ EUR 1.12 ], which we have doubled in the past few years, and that proves the commitment of the group with shareholders. And I would even say a commitment that we are not only capable of maintaining in good years, but we've also been able to maintained this commitment in less favorable years during the financial crisis of [ 2008 ]. It is true that it is a bit further from us now, but also in the recent crisis of 2020. And I'll pass the floor over to Carlos Gonzalez now CFO, who you know very well, who will tell you a bit more about the evolution of the year, many indicators in all of it broken down by lines of business.
[Interpreted] Thank you very much, Clara. She very well said. We will go deeper into each of the businesses a bit more on the KPIs. As usual, we will start with the traditional business. And here, I always say that our customer retention in a market environment with -- where we were going back to turnover levels has allowed us to maintain a very good level of revenue over to in a 5.8% increase in recurring premiums, we should stress at any rate, the growth in motor almost 10%. It is [ due ] that this is in line with the sector in the industry. There is a generalized recovery of margins with an increase of the technical result of almost 30% in the general insurance business. The combined ratio goes back to around 90%, 90.1%, 1.6 points above last year, a generalized improvement in the main lines of business, which we will talk about in subsequent slides. We continue with the favorable evolution of the [ Life ] technical results with a growth of 35%. And -- now on to analyzing line by line. We will start with multi-risk, EUR 244 million in premiums, strong growth of 6.5%. And here, it is important to stress that the growth in the main lines you've taken us to rates of above 9%. This is as a consequence of good customer retention and an evolution of the average premium, which has a segmented impact on the increase of claims cost. And the combined ratio is 88.5% as a consequence of different combined effects, mainly adapting prices to the increased costs of claims due to inflation and improvement in [ productivity ], reduction of 1.1 points in the expense ratio. We've also talked about the calendar effect of the Easter holiday, where the number of claims declared during this period has moved slightly in the year last year. This happened in April and this year, it happened in March. And there were no -- adverse weather events or they were at least below 2023. So thanks to cost contention and an increase in turnover, the result has increased notably more than 55% up to EUR 23.6 million that you can see on screen. Motor almost 10% more turnover, [ EUR 125 million ], competitive environment, upwards moving prices and in our case, a good customer retention. The combined ratio is at 94.6%, 1.2% above 2023, although with a downward trend starting in the third quarter 2023, with a reduction of more than [ 3 percent points ] since then in the third quarter until this first quarter. This reduction is both in terms of claims ratio and efficiency. We've seen a 2 point reduction in the expense ratio. And when it comes to results, it is true that compared with last year, the profit has dropped by 12.9% to EUR 9.5 million, but the trend is clearly positive in this line. Now other in the line of other 9.2% increase in earned premiums. And in terms of profit, one more quarter, we see excellent levels of combined ratio, which in a sustained manner is around 85%. This quarter, 85.4%. In the end, this leads to stable technical result levels, which continues to increase up to EUR 14.4 million, 27% more than the same quarter in 2023. And this means that this line of business is a good stabilizer of general insurance. Now on to Life, it continues to grow in periodic premiums of around 2%, 3%. You know the periodic premiums are the ones that continue be the most value to the company, whereas single premiums as compared to the strong level of activity that we had both ourselves and the sector in the first quarter of last year, well, this has dropped in this case. Regarding results, the technical financial profit improved by almost 35% going up to EUR 41.7 million with an improvement of the technical result of 30%. And along with a good contribution of the financial margin, which increases by more than EUR 5 million. This is due to our current capacity to reinvest at higher rates that we are making good use of. As a summary for the traditional business, the increase in turnover, 5.8%, excluding single premiums and acquired premiums that are almost at 7%. The improvement in productivity with a reduction of more than 8% in expenses and an improvement of 1.4 points in the ratio and also the important improvement of the financial result in the new environment, interest rates allow us to improve the combined ratio and the profitability of the business. This finally leads to an ordinary result of almost EUR 68 million with a very relevant increase of 26.4%. There are no relevant impacts here from no ordinary results, so I will not mention them either. Now on to credit insurance, the acquired premiums reached a volume of EUR 573.4 million with the reduction of acquired -- or earned premiums by 4.5%. And as we said, we can see a deceleration of the economy together with inflation control reduces the good evolution of our customers' turnover and as a consequence [ our risk ] as well. On the other hand, there is still downward pressure in renewal prices with favorable [ falling inflow ], but this trend has corrected itself versus last year. Technical result is above EUR 110 million as a consequence of the normalization process in claims ratio. And here, for example, we could compare this EUR 110 million with the [ x- EUR 86 million ] that we obtained in the first quarter of 2019 as a comparator of the last quarter before COVID. And as you can see this comparison is very favorable. As to the geographical distribution, the reduction of income that we mentioned before takes place in all geographical areas, maybe a bit more intensely in Northern and Central Europe and a bit less in Spain, as you can see on screen. [ I think ] profitability, the gross combined ratio continues in a good situation, 7.2%, where the claims ratio is still below pre-COVID. The number of claims is, however, increasing.And I would like to say here that we continue with our conservative provisioning criteria since 2021. As to risk exposure, we see an increase of 1.3%. We are maintaining our strict selection criteria and mainly the excellent quality of our portfolio is of note. As a summary, I would like to go through the drivers of the quarter income drops, there is a slowdown in the turnover of our policyholders. The technical result before reinsurance dropped because of the normalization of the business, there is a moderate increase of the inflow of claims and we continue with our cautious provisioning policy as to reinsurance better result as a consequence of the increase by [ 2 points ] in our business retention up to 35% transfer. And the financial result also substantially improved by almost EUR 10 million basically as a consequence of the reinvestment of our short-term investments. The ordinary profit, as we said, is around EUR 100 million, very similar to the results obtained in 2023 around this time of year. And finally, we always give you a separate information on the funeral business, which after the incorporation of the Memora Group, we expect it to provide a stable improvement of the business with high margins. The technical result of this business is almost EUR 15 million, EUR 14.9 million, specifically with a margin over EBITDA of 28.5%. This is constantly above the historic percentage of around 25% that we can expect on this business. And this improvement is due to the seasonality of the business. There are more services being provided during the winter months. And finally, I'd like to remind you that in the information we are providing Memora only contributed to the results since February 2023. So in this year 2024, we are incorporating one more year, both in terms of turnover and results, income and profit. And I would like to pass the floor over to Clara Gomez again, while continuing with the exposure -- with the presentation.And as in previous presentations, we will now offer the capital evolution and the solvency of the group, this slide. Here, we can see the evolution of own resources at market value and always incorporating capital gains of property or real estate, [ EUR 572 ] million, which amounts to almost EUR 6 billion, specifically [ 5.992% ] with a favorable growth 4.4% as compared to year-end, and it is due to 2 reasons, mainly the positive evolution of the consolidated results of the group, as [ could ] be otherwise. And on the other hand, the positive evolution of stock markets that on the reason for these capital gains, EUR 94 million that you can see on screen. However, the truth is that will you know very well the evolution of permanent resources at market value. You can see it on the right-hand side, the graph speaks for itself. And while we've mentioned permanent resources at market value amounting to almost EUR 6 billion. And when it comes to solvency, you can see here that we closed with a solvency of 232% at the level of the group. It is a reduction as compared to last year, 15 points reduction, as you can see on screen, but you know about this. This is due to the acquisition of the Memora Group. Any acquisition that we take on normally is penalized in terms of solvency because as you know, the goodwill that comes out in acquisitions has 0 value in solvency, and this leads to a negative effect of [ 20 percentage points ], which has been partially offset with the good results of the group and in the end translates into this 15 points less solvency until 232%. Solvency that would stay around these figures in adverse scenarios, which gives us comfort for the future for any potential operations in the future and with high-quality owned funds with 97% of Tier 1, in our equity.And this is all confirmed by our rating agencies. You can see this on screen now. AM Best gives us an excellent for the operates on the credit business and for the traditional business, A1 by Moody's with a stable outlook for [ rate ] insurance business. And Moody's stresses the strong competitive position, strong capitalization, low financial leverage and conservative investment portfolio. And finally, you can see on screen our investments. Last but not least, we've investments that amount to almost EUR 16 billion, specifically, [ EUR 15.957 billion ] managed funds with an increase of almost 4% as compared to the previous year. And you can see here in the graph, what is the makeup of our investment portfolio and could be otherwise is quite stable through time. We continue to maintain a very cautious policy with a good asset and liability [ Matrix ] income is our main asset, 52.2% of our portfolio. You can also see that we increased our treasury position as compared to the previous year, mainly in credit insurance, also net in our variable income position, an increase that is not so much due to new investments in this section, but the positive evolution of stock markets. And generally speaking, is stable in properties, in real estate. And as I mentioned here, we include the acquisition of the building we bought [indiscernible], which will be the headquarters in Madrid for all employees in the Madrid area. And without further ado, the presentation ends here. As on previous occasions, we will now proceed to the Q&A. I would like to thank you again for your interest and interest that we can see also based on the volume of questions that we have received, we've tried to group them together, the Director of Investor Relations, [indiscernible] has grouped them together based on topic, we will try to answer all of them or most of them, but you know that if any of the questions is left unanswered, we -- you can talk to the Investor Relations department, and we will answer the questions by the regular channels.
[Interpreted] Thank you very much, Clara Gomez, Carlos Gonzalez for this presentation. I will start then with the Q&A grouped as Clara said. Regarding motor, we have received several questions I summarize. What is the reason for certain increase in income? Are you maintaining retention levels, combined ratio of 94.6% is significantly better than that of the industry? Do you think you can maintain it?
[Interpreted] Okay. I'll start. I think that regarding income as the entire industry, we've been very much focused on managing the impact of inflation that led to claims ratio increases. Amongst other measures, we have increased prices selectively with the aim of going back to the technical profitability levels. And it is also true that we have started somewhat late with these price updates. So it is true that as compared to the first few quarters of 2023, this increasing turnover becomes more obvious. At any rate, we have placed special care in pricing, so we can maintain our retention level, and we are very happy with these results. We have maintained our cancellation ratios at a minimum. As to the second question, on the combined ratios, we had already mentioned this during the annual presentation of results, we continue to expect a good evolution in the client ratio for motor [Technical Difficulty] due to the actions is carried out to improve profitability -- claims ratio, sorry, the improvement of cost or expenses efficiency. And also this is what we still need to see -- the increase of earned premiums due to the pricing activities basically starting in the second half year of 2023. You should know that the increase in turnover is basically 10%, whereas the increase in earned premiums is at 6%. So there is a part of acquired premiums, which still needs to show its impact on the P&L. And if we compare with the sector in terms of combined ratio, the figures we have here are fourth quarter 2023. You already know this, the industry closed above 100%, 11.9%, if I remember correctly. And we were 5 points below this ratio. And these 5 points were the historic average of the positive gap that we had with the industries, so what we were doing and what we continue to do is maintaining these positive gap. If we look at it in terms of second quarters, the peak of our combined ratio took place during the third quarter of 2023, we went up to [ 98.9% ]. And since then, we have red this ratio by almost 3 points. Taking into account that we continue to manage inflation and we continue to carry out the actions I mentioned before that we still need to see some earned premiums in the P&L. We expect to maintain this level of combined ratio.
[Interpreted] And for multi-risk, we have also received several questions. So Carlos, you can answer, a ratio of [ 88.5% ] is very low after the past few quarters, have you managed to get there. We also ask whether this ratio can be maintained at the end of 2024?
[Interpreted] Yes, I remember, I answered this question, but the other way around last time at year-end last year. They asked me back then whether the 92.8% was a ratio that was historically high. And now we are having to answer about a ratio of 88.5%, which is low, which is below this 90% which we have had more or less historically and this is [ so for ] several circumstance, due to several circumstances. Inflation management last year, we took special care with increase in the premiums, and it is starting to show some effects in earned premiums, and this is what we will be able to see in these ratios in future quarters. There is also a statistical -- seasonal effect due to the Easter holidays. And in this quarter, we have not had additional weather [ NIMS ] as compared to 2023 first quarter. And well, having said this, it is also true that in the past few years, multi-risk has been impacted by these weather events. Remember, for example, that in 2023, there were around EUR 60 million burden of claims in 2022 was almost EUR 50 million and this year 2024 and now it has not reached that amount. If we were to see weather events with amount similar to previous years, then the combined ratio would go up slightly.
[Interpreted] We will now continue then with a question on the life business -- the question is, this quarter turnover has dropped significantly. Do you think this can be a problem in the future for the life line of business?
[Interpreted] As you know, we give the name life to a group of lines that are a bit diverse. We make life risk. We also include health and funeral, each of them have very different profitability. And in the case of the first few lines, life risk, health, funeral, periodic life savings. This is where we place the focus of our growth. Regarding single life savings. I think we've already talked about this. Remember that due to the interest rates we have been seeing decreases in single premiums. They went up significantly last year, but these are single premiums in the end. So every year, we need to work on them again. And this year, if we compare the excellent year, the excellent performance in 2023, the comparison is somewhat less favorable. It is a trend that has also taken place in the market. Where we see this trend 2023 was an excellent year as to single premiums. And it would be difficult to overcome in this first quarter of 2024. At any rate, and as I wanted to mention, the rest of products, more systematic premiums, life risk, periodic savings has had a very favorable performance in terms of turnover and technical results, and this has led us to an increase of the technical result of more than 30%.
[Interpreted] And now on to credit insurance. The following questions have reached as compared to the end of 2023 in 3 months, it seems like credit insurance has deteriorated quite a bit. Can you give us a bit more information and shed some light about how you think the year will end and related to credit insurance as well? We get questions on the potential impacts on -- of the Middle East conflict.
[Interpreted] Well, this type of insurance has a lower result, low profit because of what we said before, a normalization on the inflow of claims and a drop in premiums as a consequence of different reasons that I think I've already mentioned mainly the slowdown of activities and the reduction of inflation this has an impact of our policyholders and ourselves in turn. And there has been a bit of a lower pricing at this year, but in line with the type of risks that we take on and with a downward trend that is becoming more moderate in this year. And basically, with an effect concentrated in this first quarter, there is a drop in premiums due to an accounting effect due to the readjustment of premiums, premiums 2023 need to be readjusted when we decide the final turnover -- we assign final turnover or income of our policyholders, and we need to analyze turnover based on this new information we have on that in previous years. And in 2023, this information led to premiums coming from previous years with high turnover and in this year 2024, this has been less relevant. Having said this, the profitability of the business, [ 77.2% ] combined, which is still very good. I think here, we're proving that by maintaining our provisioning levels. The claims ratio is well controlled, risks are well priced and the normalization of the credit insurance business goes step by step in a controlled manner and without additional volatility. So I think everything is quite under control. I've also mentioned the excellent quality of our portfolio. Additionally, there are 2 additional elements that will offset this normalization of the technical result. On the one hand, we retain more business, to more points in reinsurance 2 point less than last year, 35%. And on the other hand, we are receiving the help of a good financial results that in as much as the assets where we invest in the [ current ] business are relatively short term. It is very relevant. In this first few years of interest rate increases because it allows us to very quickly reinvest at very high rates. As to the Middle East conflict, I think the [indiscernible] has very small exposure, a very small direct exposure to Israel. And there is not much more to say, but is in our -- and the impact on us.
[Interpreted] There are more questions that are more for Clara. Regarding the final business, the results -- profit and income increased considerably. Should we expect this growth pace quarter-on-quarter?
[Interpreted] For relating the question, I will remind you, we've mentioned it already, but the profit is not strictly comparable between the 2 years '23, 2024 precisely because in 2023 this funeral business was not with us for the entire quarter, the ordinary results of the funeral business in this quarter are EUR 8.6 million as we said -- as we discussed at length during the presentation. And it is true, however, that this is a business with the relevant seasonal component. It is a business where the winter months -- there's normally a positive impact in profits. And in this sense, the seasonality has an impact on margin over EBITDA. In the presentation, we saw that this was around 28.5%. And what we believe is that it will normalize as we already saw last year a bit closer to 25%. The question, [ does ] not mentioned this, but I will remind you what we're working on in the Memora Group. On the one hand, we're working not only in the income line, but also on an expense analysis with the aim of adopting the streamlining simplicity, agility criteria that we use so that the Memora Group can benefit from the structure and technology that we offer as a group. We are very satisfied with the acquisition. Memora is a leader in mid industry. It has 188 funeral partners, and we make a very positive assessment of how complementary it is with the rest of our business. It's a stable business. It is a growing business, and it will allow us or we believe it will allow us to continue rowing in an inorganic manner.
[Interpreted] We have one question on the [indiscernible] issued a bond. Do you think that with the excess capital, it makes sense to look for funding in the market?
[Interpreted] Yes, we published relevant [ even ] communication recently. You've seen it in the different publications. And I would remind you before I stop, if Nawal is okay with that. Before I start answering the question, I would remind you that [indiscernible] had a subordinated bond to [ EUR 250 million ] that they issued in 2014. The first call was [ matured to ] September 2024. And given the situation, the current situation of the market, we thought it was a timely thing to make a tender offer on the total amount of this first bond, a tender offer that was very satisfactory. Almost all of the bondholders responded to it, and we issued an additional bond of EUR 300 million that I think was very satisfactory for the group because it was issued in better conditions for the group than the first bond. The first bond had an interest rate of 5.25%, and the current bond has an interest rate of 5%. [indiscernible] this is not [ news ]. What we've done in the end is to maintain the same capital position that we had -- we believe that it makes sense because [indiscernible] customers and rating agencies make a very positive assessment of [indiscernible] capacity to go to market. And this proves the financial flexibility of [indiscernible]. However, the truth is that it barely has an impact for the group. It barely has an impact before beyond what we said.
[Interpreted] Understood. We will close the Q&A section with one final question. Clara with a payout in 2023 of 25% accumulating capital and with the share price below EUR 35. The dividend increase is less in the result. Don't you think it would be adequate to implement specific actions in favor of the shareholders?
[Interpreted] Well, you know our policy, our dividend policy. It is a policy that we've been maintaining historically, and it is a growing policy. And it is true that a payout of 25% is what we have. But in the last years, GCO has multiplied almost [ x2 ] its dividend from well, I don't have the exact figures now, but from [ EUR 0.54 to EUR 1.12 ] and the commitment to our shareholders has always been that of a growing dividend, stable in its growth and that as we reminded you, it has stayed throughout – stable [ for the ] prices at favorable times but at not so favorable times, as we said during the 2009 crisis and the recent crisis in 2020. Additionally, the profitability for shareholders we believe it has to be measured long term. And in the long term [ that you see category ] has grown 23% above our reference indexes and also above other peers. The share value has improved in this last quarter. We already mentioned it, the EUR 35 years that Nawal mentioned. And the consensus of analysts continues to recommend buying, an average price above EUR 40. And in the end, what the market acknowledges is this long-term management of the group, the constant increase in results in the dividend and also these acquisitions policy that we have maintained that in the end. This capital would allow the group to carry out an acquisition, an important acquisition if the opportunity presents itself with adequate funding with own funds and external funding. Of course, we thank all of our investors for the trust placed in us, and we trust it will continue to be so in the future. Thank you very much.
[Interpreted] Okay. Thank you very much. With this answer we can close the presentation of results of the first quarter of 2024. Thank you, Clara Gomez, Carlos Gonzalez, for your presentation and for all the answers to the questions received. And as usual, any pending matters will be managed directly through the Investor Relations team in the coming days. And I would like to invite you the next presentation of results, which will take place on Thursday, 25th of July 2024 where the results of the first half year will be presented. You can visit our website -- [ you say com ] where you have all of the financial and sustainability information that can be of your interest. And as usual, we would like to thank you for your attention and your participation. Have a good weekend, and see you soon.[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]