Alpha Bank (ATHEX:ALPHA) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Jota, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Alpha Bank Conference Call to present and discuss the First Half twenty twenty six Financial Results. All participants will be in a listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session.

0:29 At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Alpha Bank management. Gentlemen, you may now proceed. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of our second quarter results. I am Iasson Kepapsoglou, Alpha Bank's Head of Our CEO, Vasilis Fasalidis, will lead the call with a usual summary and a few updates. Our CFO, Vasilis Kosmas, will then go through this quarter's numbers in some detail. Q and A will come up at the end of the call, and we should wrap up within the hour. Vasili, over to you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call. Let's start with an overview of our results for the first half of the year on Slide four, please.

1:07 The first half of the year saw us posting close to €05,000,000,000 in profits. On a normalized basis, this is up 6.5% versus last year. Our net interest income is up 7.3% versus last year, as we continue to benefit from growth in the loan book. Fees are up 34% on a headline basis, or 24% if one exclude dividends from our participation in Prodea, as we reap the benefits of investments in the business and our proactive M and A strategy. At 39%, our cost to income ratio has remained within guidance, showing the operating leverage of our business. Cost of risk continues to reflect the benign environment, up 42 basis points, and performing loans have grown at double digits.

1:52 We've reached 87% of this year's target for net credit expansion already in the first half of the year. Customer funds have jumped 7% in this quarter, with corporate deposit inflows, strong EM net sales and valuation tailwinds. And we continue to post good levels of organic capital generation in spite of the quarter specific headwinds. Overall, we have delivered more than half of our 2026 target for net profit, with the fundamental drivers of earnings growth and profitability performing better than expected. As a result, we are upgrading our guidance for EPS to $0.41 We've also accrued €273,000,000 for distribution so far this year, and we intend to distribute circa 124,000,000 as an interim cash dividend in the fourth quarter.

2:43 The numbers demonstrate continuous execution. What is perhaps more important is the transformation taking place underneath those numbers. And I would like to take this opportunity to showcase how we have fundamentally upgraded our wholesale franchise, starting with slide five. Historically, Alpha Bank's wholesale franchise was built around lending excellence. Today, we are evolving towards a universal business bank model. We have deliberately expanded our product capabilities, strengthened specialized coverage, and created a platform that allow us to capture a much greater share of our clients' wallet. The objective is simple. Every relationship should generate value beyond lending through transaction banking, investment banking, capital markets, trade finance, foreign exchange, advisory, and cross border solutions.

3:36 This is precisely the model we will discuss in more detail at Investor Day, and it sits at the center of our ambition to deliver faster growth in capital light fee income. Turning now to slide six, the first proof point is transaction banking. Over the last three years, we have invested significantly in building dedicated transaction banking capabilities. We established a specialized group, expanded product expertise, and broadened our offering in payments, cash management, foreign exchange, and trade finance. As a result, transaction banking is becoming increasingly embedded into our corporate relationships. Transaction banking specialists are now included in client teams, working alongside RMs with clearer incentives to deepen product penetration.

4:24 This is allowing us to capture a larger share of the operating flows of our corporate clients, and convert existing lending relationships into recurring capital light fee income. In trade finance, where data is available for the system, we've increased our share by circa 10 percentage points in import letters of credit and more than 11 percentage points in foreign guaranteed issues. The result is a staggering 38% increase in the revenue generated by transaction banking. Turning to slide seven. This is the second proof of point in investment banking, a concrete example of how our M and A strategy is already translating into tangible commercial outcomes. Akcea is a particularly good illustration of the type of platform we set out to acquire.

5:12 Our objective was to create a leading regional investment banking and capital markets franchise that would strengthen client coverage, deepen fee generation, and expand Alpha Bank's capabilities across the advisory and capital markets value chain, allowing us to complete the wholesale product shelf. The results we are seeing today validate this strategic rationale. During the first half of twenty twenty six, Akcea advised on 17 transactions across 10 different sectors, with a cumulative transaction value exceeding $10,000,000,000 Activity remained broad based across the market and demonstrates the strength of the franchise, its client relationships, and its ability to originate opportunities in multiple segments of the economy. Importantly, Akcea has been active across the full spectrum of investment banking services. It participated both as a trusted financial advisor and as a leading book runner in landmark equity and debt capital market transactions, serving Greek corporates, international issuers, and investors alike.

6:13 One of the most valuable capabilities that Akcea brings to the group is its ability to mobilize international institutional capital. Across multiple transactions, Akcea has broadened investor participation, attracted foreign demand, and contributed to stronger execution outcomes for clients. This directly supports our ambition to become the preferred financial partner for Greek corporates seeking access to international capital markets. We're also beginning to see the benefits of combining Akcea's expertise with UniCredit's international footprint. Together, through the Alpha Bank Group platform, we have already participated in cross border transactions such as Palwind's five fifty million senior secured notes and Zagona's 1,100,000,000 senior secured notes.

7:00 These transactions demonstrate how partnership how this partnership extends our reach beyond our traditional markets and creates opportunities that neither institution could capture as effectively on a standalone basis. Akcea has already strengthened our competitive position, accelerating the development of our investment banking platform and providing clear evidence that our disciplined approach to M and A is creating value for our shareholders. And then finally on slide eight, the third proof point, and this is the partnership with UniCredit. UniCredit extends the reach of everything that we have built. It gives our clients access to a Pan European network while giving ack Alpha Bank access to additional product capabilities, expertise, transaction opportunities from lending to trade finance to cash management, instant payments, markets, and investment bank.

7:53 The partnership has now moved decisively beyond its establishment phase and is delivering benefits across lending, transaction banking, trade finance, treasury products, cross border lending, investment banking, and client servicing. Servicing. A good example is the launch of European Gate. In practical terms, European Gate gives Alpha Bank clients with subsidiaries abroad a seamless transaction banking presence in key UniCredit markets, allowing them to more easily access cash management services and manage liquidity, mass payment execution, and cross border account visibility through a more integrated network. This is particularly relevant as instant payments become a more important part of corporate treasury and day to day liquidity management, and as a key challenge for treasury departments is the handling of multiple banking relationship for mass payment execution across different countries.

8:47 By combining Alpha's client relationship with UniCredit's infrastructure and local market presence, we are broadening the solutions available to Greek corporates with international operations and reinforcing our position as the banking partner of choice for companies with international ambitions. At the same time, trade finance activity continues to grow strongly with more than $100,000,000 of guarantees and letters of credit exchanged in the first half of the year, while joint financing opportunities are gaining momentum across both international and domestic clients. More importantly, we're now moving from product by product cooperation to jointly targeting client flows. Alpha and UniCredit teams are increasingly coordinating around specific client opportunities, including through roadshows in the countries where the two groups have a presence, so that we can originate more cross border business, capture a greater share of operating flows, and convert our combined network into tangible commercial outcomes.

9:46 These efforts have already included joint client engagements in Bulgaria, a strategically important market for Greek businesses with more than $5,000,000,000 in bilateral trade flows, and Greece ranking as the second largest source of foreign direct investment. Focus is on supporting our customers in one of their key markets, while capturing trade flows and increasing client access for both Alpha Bank and UniCredit through an enhanced cross border offering in transaction banking, financing, and investment banking. In the coming months, we will continue such joint initiatives supporting our clients' cross border ambitions and expanding our collaboration into other CE markets. We are now seeing increasing benefits from our collaboration in markets, treasury, and client risk management, where UniCredit has become one of our key counterparties across a range of products, including derivatives, foreign exchange, and fixed income activities.

10:40 These partnerships expand the solutions available to our clients while supporting the continued development of our own product capabilities. In investment banking, the corporation has accelerated materially following the integration of Akcea into our platform. We have jointly participated in prominent transactions, and we are building a growing pipeline of cross border advisory and financing opportunities. This collaboration enhances our ability to support quick corporates as they increasingly pursue international growth strategies. Finally, for individuals and wealth clients, UniCredit strengthens our investment proposition by expanding our product offering, including through their one market fund palette. Since the launch of our partnership, we have distributed circa 1,800,000,000 of these products, demonstrating the strong client appetite for our enhanced investment solutions.

11:31 Overall, the partnership with UniCredit continues to create a meaningful competitive advantage for Alpha Bank. It expands our product capabilities, deepens our transactional reach, strengthens our dialogue with clients, and reinforces our ability to generate sustainable growth. We remain confident that the commercial contribution of the partnership will continue to increase in the years ahead, creating further value for our customers, our shareholders, and all of our stakeholders. Taken together, these initiatives represent a fundamental transformation of our wholesale franchise. We have upgraded the product shelf. We have strengthened specialist capabilities. We have expanded our international reach. We are now evolving our coverage model to ensure clients are served holistically rather than product by product.

12:20 Under the new leadership structure, we are bringing together relationship management, specialized product expertise, and cross border capabilities around the single client view. The objective is straightforward, higher product density, greater share of wallet, stronger fee generation, and deeper client relationships. This is the next chapter in Alpha Bank's Wholesale Banking story, and one of the most important drivers of our future and its role. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Janis and Miris for leading our wholesale division, reestablishing it as the leading franchise in the country at a critical moment when the market returned to growth. Yoshif Kirocoglu, that has officially joined us as of yesterday from Bank of America, brings with him a wealth of international experience and has the right skill set to take this franchise up a level and lead the change in the coverage model.

13:12 Let's now turn to the outlook starting with slide nine. We have mentioned before that 2026 is a transitional year for us. We are laser focused on integrating the acquired entities, but quite reasonably, we will not see the full benefit of the expected synergies from year one. Commercial trends during the first half of the year have proven to be stronger than with what we originally expecting, strengthening the case for better core performance. But at the same time, we have been burdened by a number of extraordinary events. Vasilis will give you more detail on 2026 later on, but the bottom line is that we now expect to deliver 13% growth in normalized earnings. Credible recurring earnings growth is the natural outcome of our strategy and what we believe will continue to differentiate us going forward.

14:00 We will be sharing more with you at our upcoming Investor Day in November. For now, on Slide 10, we present the model that is driving this credible recurring earnings growth. We've gone through this with our first quarter results, but it's worth repeating the main points. The model rests on four mutually reinforcing pillars. First, Alpha Bank now combines deep client relationships with advisory, capital markets, and transaction banking capabilities in a way no domestic peer can replicate. Our advantage is that we capture a larger share of wallet. We are no longer just a lender. Through investment banking, transaction banking, trade finance, and Corpora solutions, we convert existing relationships into recurring capital light fee income. Second, we are moving retail banking beyond transactions and towards financial planning at scale.

14:50 We have built a single wealth platform serving all client segments, combining asset management structure products, discretionary mandates, pensions, banker surrounds, and international wealth capabilities. Third, the UniCredit partnership accelerates both growth engines and provides a permanent structural advantage. And finally, all of this is supported by a performance led operating model. Our investments are focused on delivering measurable commercial outcomes, while our people model directly links development and incentives performance. Taken together, these four engines create a self reinforcing system for earnings growth, deeper client coverage, capital light fee expansion, structural acceleration from unit credits, and disciplined execution.

15:36 This supports faster compounding of EPS, tangible book value and shareholder distributions, while delivering greater diversification to a larger distribution from fees and from our international, insurance and real estate businesses.

15:50 And lastly, on slide 11. We've been deliberate and consistent in how we think about capital allocation, and our framework and the hierarchy within remains very clear and unchanged. Our first priority is to fund profitable loan growth. Loan demand in Greece remains resilient, led by corporates and supported by a strong investment cycle. We continue to deploy capital where returns are attractive, while maintaining strict underwriting discipline and balance sheet optimization. At the same time, we're expanding transaction banking, trade finance, asset management advisory activities, increasing the quality and durability of earnings through more diversified revenue streams. Second, our capital generation supports growing shareholder distributions.

16:36 Strong earnings growth gives us confidence that payoffs can continue to rise over time, supported by sustainable capital generation. Generation. This is already reflected in our actions. We started dividends conservatively, increased them as confidence strengthened and have now embedded a higher payout in our capital planning. The interim dividend further underlines our commitment to predictable and growing shareholder returns, while buybacks remain an important complementary tool. Finally, our excess capital provides strategic flexibility. So far, this has been deployed through highly selective value accretive acquisitions. Going forward, we will continue to balance shareholder distributions with opportunities to deploy capital into earnings enhancing growth initiatives, ensuring we maximize long term value creation.

17:25 And with that, Vasily, over to you. Thank you, Vasily, and hello from my side. Let's first go through the P and L overview on Slide 13, please. Reported profits came in at EUR $316,000,000 this quarter, while on a normalized basis, profits stood at EUR $275,000,000. So let's start with an explanation of notable This quarter, we had an accounting recognition of circa €120,000,000 of additional deferred tax assets, the byproduct of liquidation of a subsidiary company. As you can appreciate, these DTAs are not accretive to capital, capital, but they have created additional room in our P and L. This, in essence, crystallizes the so called mitigating actions we have referenced in the preceding quarter, allowing us to offset a number of headwinds coming this year.

18:21 There's a series of events this quarter that have offset this. First, we had a partial recognition of a legacy cash flow hedge that has cost us circa €38,000,000 net. Second, we have another €17,500,000 provisions for a voluntary separation scheme in Cyprus, which is primarily the envisaged restructuring charge for the acquisition of Alpha Bank. And last, we had a negative effect from a number of legacy items, mainly relating to the Catelli law perimeter of mortgages with First Residence Protection and the government legislation on the back of the Supreme Court decision. The math are pretty straightforward and lead to a net benefit this quarter. I would like to remind you that we've had a couple of negative one offs in the previous quarter and are likely and we are likely to see more voluntary contributions to various government programs in Q3.

19:15 So net net, that shouldn't change much when it comes to the outcome for this year's bottom line. Speaking of which, this is probably a good time to mention that our full year guidance for EUR950 million in reported profits is reiterated. However, based on underlying drivers, we expect normalized profits to land a bit higher, as Vasilis mentioned, at €0.41 Clearly, there's two sides to that story. On one offs, I think it's pretty clear that this year has been more burdensome than originally expected, mainly on account of government legislation of the Kaseli law perimeter as well as the partial recognition of the legacy cash flow hedge.

20:02 On the other hand, underlying trends are undeniable, shaping up better than expected. Rates will, in all likelihood, land above our 1.9% assumption for Euribor. We've done circa 90% of this year's target for net current expansion and three quarters of the target for net sales of NUMs. In revenue terms, the latest consensus of EUR 2,450,000,000, 2,460,000,000 seems fair against our original guidance of EUR 2,400,000,000. On cost and provisions, there's not much to add. Once we account for the Q1 underperformance in associates, our pretax should land closer to EUR 1,330,000,000. So taking into account one off items, we should land at circa EUR $950,000,000 in reported profits, with underlying earnings performing better.

20:56 With that, let's move to the next slide and look at the underlying trends in more detail. Operating income was up 7% Q on Q, with growth in NII and fees. On costs, we had a more normal quarter, with a quarterly growth mainly attributable to higher bonus accrual this quarter, while cost to income ratio landed at 38%, materially better than our full year guidance. We had a slightly better quarter in terms of impairment losses, coming in at $44,000,000 or circa 39 basis points. And obviously, Q on Q growth in the bottom line is reflecting opposite forces on one offs each quarter, thus not that informative. What has more significance is that the net profit for the first half accounts for a bit more than half of this full year guidance, so we are firm on this guidance.

21:51 Let's now move to the next slide and the balance sheet. We had a spectacular quarter for performing loans, up 5% in the quarter with $1,600,000,000 in net credit expansion. We already hinted that the high single digit guidance for the year is likely to be outperformed.

22:13 More important, the contribution of the RF envelope to the disbursements has been low single digit in percentage terms. So two things to note. One, the demand for loan is here, real, present, is not contingent on subsidized RF funding. Two, the RF envelope has created a good pipeline of projects.

22:41 Have already been underwritten, and the net credit expansion in the coming quarters should be in excess of €1,000,000,000 For customer funds, headline picture on deposit is positively affected by large single ticket on the corporate side. But even on an underlying basis, we had good inflows on deposits at $600,000,000 in net sales.

23:01 Obviously, the June snapshot also reflected positive valuation effects, but more than the reverse, the Q1 underperformance. Tangible book value, a bit more than 2% in the quarter and almost 7.5 year on year when adjusting for distributions. Last on capital, our CET1 ratio stands at 14.3%, down versus Q1 on account of RWA growth,

23:33 16, we show the two main components of revenues. Net interest income was up for another quarter, continuing the upward trajectory. Rates have started to play a part, but the real driving force this quarter is volumes. We had a significant uptick in loans and now brought forward the security purchases, conducting more of the intended purchases for the year most of the intended purchases for the year. The same is true for the liability side, with incremental MREL issues affecting funding costs and corporate inflows affecting the deposit side. On the fee side, Vasilis has already commented on the performance of the Investment Banking side, so no need to expand there. Real estate income, as noted on this slide,

24:21 has seen the benefit from Prodea dividend and the fact for capital return, which is, however, offset by a negative revaluation of our participation with the trading line on account of a lower net asset value.

24:36 Positive contribution in the quarter. On an underlying basis, income from real estate was on an upward trajectory for yet another quarter. Better quarter for cards and payments on account of higher activity following the seasonally low first quarter, a bit weaker on asset management and business credit related fees.

25:00 Turning to Slide 17 to look at loans and customer funds. Performing loan balances are edging the €40,000,000,000 mark, up 5% in the quarter, 1,600,000,000 in net credit expansion. Better quarter for disbursements at €3,800,000,000 with repayments normalizing down to 2,200,000,000 On customer funds, deposit growth this quarter mainly coming from corporate deposits, as mentioned, and likely to see part of it flow out in the coming quarters as it will convert corporate CapEx to further support the net credit expansion. On AUMs, very strong quarter for net sales, 600,000,000.

25:46 And obviously, we have also reversed the valuation impact on the first quarter.

25:51 On Slide 18 and asset quality, the NPE ratio came in 10 basis lower at 3.6%. Coverage ratio still at 55%. Not much to say here. The underlying cost of risk is at 26 basis points this quarter, so the picture looks solid.

26:12 We do not expect any meaningful surprises in the coming quarters, so we feel comfortable with the 45 basis point guidance for the year. Let's turn to Slide 19 on capital to wrap it up. All in, the CET1 ratio stands at 14.3 on a transitional basis. 71 basis points on organic capital generation in the first half of the year. As you can understand, there are a number of elements that justify the big decline we've seen. Solid loan growth was translated into higher RWAs. From a P and L perspective, the DTA accrual is not capital generative. On top of that, we've seen also circa 45 basis points of negatives in the quarter.

27:00 Three main pieces of this: the Alpha Trust shares acquisition, roundabout 15 basis points a closure of synthetic securitization, roundabout 10 basis points to be resumed in Q3 P and L one offs of around about 12 basis points and the employee share buyback program accrual roughly 10 basis points.

27:23 And then also we have the payout accrual of 15% at reported profit, with DTC acceleration coming on top. This translates into EUR $272,000,000 accrued towards distribution so far this year. And as Vasilis mentioned, we intend to distribute circa EUR 124,000,000 as an interim cash dividend in Q4, all these subject to regulatory approval.

27:48 With that, let's now open the floor for questions. The first question comes from the line of Noemi Peruch with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Good morning and thank you for taking my question. I was wondering if you could share with us your updated thoughts on NII and fees given the strong volume that we're seeing in H1, the pipeline for H2 and also the rates evolution.

28:50 And then on Tax Loss carryforward, so you wrote up $120,000,000 this quarter. And I was wondering when do you expect to use them, so to turn them into capital?

29:07 And if you foresee some potential write ups also post business plan? Thank you very much.

29:17 I suspect both of those are for our CFO. So H2 for NII and fees, potential for further write ups of PPAs and usage. Good. Let me have the BPA. That's the most straightforward one. Mean, effectively, what happens with BPAs is that BPAs is written back into capital as we grow the capital base. So this €120,000,000 we've written up.

29:45 This quarter will slowly be converted into capital as the capital basis is going to be growing. I mean, you've seen how much of all this DTA we're converting it into capital from a quarter to quarter basis. So I would say around about every quarter, there is something in the tune of 30,000,000 maybe a bit more million coming up on that front. On the NII guidance, I think we have reiterated that we're going to be landing around about $40,000,000 higher for

30:32 the year. I think that's a matter of rates. On the one hand, I remind you that our rate sensitivity for 25 basis points is circa EUR20 million. And then an increase, as we see for the year, for the volumes, primarily on loans.

30:55 The rest, be it hedging or deposit costs, doesn't really move the needle. There is a bit of offset, if you like, on funding costs of the very fact that the balance sheet growing, but nothing to really make a difference on this front. Thank you. Finally, on fees, think we have explained a lot of the upside here is coming pretty much on all fronts, would say, be it transaction banking, investment banking with increased capital markets activity, but also mutual funds both the first quarter and the quarters to come.

31:44 Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Ben Cavan Roberts with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. Thanks very much for taking the questions. So just to drill in on the CET1 first. As you mentioned, there's a step down in Q2. How are you thinking about the CET1 building blocks through to the end of the year? And what landing point you'd like to be running the bank at? Is the convergence to a 13% CET1 still a mix of M and A, organic growth, DTC amortization and shareholder return? Or are there other particular headwinds you would call out similar to what you've had over the first half? And then secondly, just to drill in again on deposits.

32:30 Could you please elaborate on expectations for the deposit mix and spreads from here? Thank you. Again, I'm afraid of them for our CFO. On the CET1 evolution, I think it's very clear that the bank is very much accretive on an organic basis. We have generated around about 70 basis of capital for the first half, And there's no reason to believe that we're not going to be continuing doing that on the second half. Now the reason in the first half we haven't seen some of that into the mix is twofold. One is that the synthetic securitizations provide some volatility.

33:18 So as I mentioned, there was one transaction which we closed this half, and we will be opening this in the second half. So you would see some benefit out of that in the second half. And second, when it comes to RWA growth, growth has been pretty firm on account of two things. As I mentioned on one side, loans, but also a real estate investment. So you see RWA growth being somewhat elevated on that front. Our real estate portfolio is currently shy of €700,000,000 We aim to grow it to around about €1,000,000,000 So until that happens, you will see more RWA growth.

34:06 We're very comfortable with this portfolio. Just to give you a hint, the Prodea investment so far has yielded around about 40% return on CET1. And generally, total real estate book is yielding more than 25% on the capital that we employ. Before you go to the deposits, Vasily, I think we should need to reiterate a couple of points on capital. The first is that you should focus on the very strong organic capital generation. I think that's predominantly one of the key themes that we observed also this quarter. And you should strip out the noise in order to anticipate that. That's number one. Number two, you also asked about if our key choices in terms capital would continue into the medium term. And I think the reason why we put an extra slide today is exactly to reiterate that.

35:04 So our both our funneling in terms of priorities as well as the way that we do have thresholds for the inorganic, they definitely do hold. On the deposit pricing, if I remember correctly, the question is all around how we would expect the deposit pricing coming up in the second half of the year. Frankly, so far, both time deposit pass throughs and betas have been, one tick, better, I would say, pretty much, where where we would expect them to be. So it's hard for me to see that, something will materially change for the rest of the year.

35:56 We're running euro deposits, we're running a pass through of 60, six-zero, that's a good level to continue for the rest of the year. And then on total split between time deposit and core deposits, we see ourselves in the three quarters to one quarter ratio pretty stable for the rest. So we don't see, I would say, much of a pressure, if you like, on deposit spreads. The next question question comes from the line of Gabolke Mene with Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.

36:44 Hello. My question would be firstly on the reported profit guidance, which you left unchanged. And I think you flagged some potential contributions to the government's voluntary programs starting from Q3. Can you elaborate a bit on that and quantify the effects for the second half? Is there anything else besides the school development program? Then the other one would be from the notable items you listed for the quarter. Would any of these have any recurring earnings impact? Or should we just what are these as one offs all booked in Q2? And my final question will be a broader one. Actually, I wouldn't like to front run anything from the CMD. But, if you are able to give us a flavor on how this holistic approach to your clients can potentially drive P L benefits.

37:43 And what I'm talking about is how the cross selling and the increased revenue streams is benefiting your P and L. If you can help us find out how that drives any tangible benefit, it will be helpful. Gabriel, I'll take the first one. Vasilis Frisades will take the third one. But I'm afraid we're then going to ask you to repeat the second question because we really couldn't hear what you were saying, sorry. So on the first one in reported profit guidance, it is still EUR $950,000,000. I think Vasily was pretty clear on what has happened so far this year that we did not expect. It's the partial derecognition of the cash flow hedge and the Caceli law impact, we have been able to offset that through better organic performance.

38:37 So you end up having the same reported profit guidance, but better underlying performance, which is what's driving the business going forward, leading normalized profits higher and thus the EPS upgrade. Both of those surprises came in the first half, so there's no incremental information with regards to one offs for the second half. The main one is the Margheta Yanaco program, which should come through in Q3, but you all know that very well for quite some time now. Vasily, if you want to comment on the holistic approach and the potential benefits. Yes. Well, it's not just potential. They're already flowing in. Well, listen, Alpha Bank is a bank that always has been the relationship bank in Greece as far as business lending is concerned, constantly with market shares around 24%, 25%, 26%, depending if large tickets have been printed or not.

39:35 We constantly enjoy that space in the market. So we have been really looking forward to the further growth of the economy and what actually weak corporates are needed. Because as they were growing, they needed both low business, they needed alternative sources of funding, and they needed advice. That's why in need of further beefing up the presence that we already had, we have been very early on working on that. And that's why we timely concluded on the one hand the bolt on acquisitions that we did. And on the other hand, we have deepened the relationship with UniCredit. So this means that the thresholds that we've been having in terms of driving lending growth, in terms of return on risk adjusted capital, is constantly increasing. Why? Because the flow of transaction banking and trade finance and treasury business in terms of low capital market business in terms of alternative financing sources and M and A fees in terms of advisory, they are for the same amount of risk weighted assets bringing more in.

40:51 And that's the whole thing. But in order to do that, you need to further upgrade your relationship with the respective clients. You need to know them well, and, you know, we bank them for a number of years. Therefore, we are a natural partner partner to them. So now that we are feeling much more confident in the delivery of these products, all we need now is to streamline that under one unified coverage model. We've already started doing that. And the new head of wholesale is one that has been practicing that model at a much larger bank than we are, and he knows very well how to convert, this, holistic coverage model and how to deliver the whole bank in front of a client.

41:43 That is our ambition. We've already Hello, everyone. Apologies for the technical issue. I'm

47:21 not sure what happened there. Gabor, if you can repeat if you're still with us and you can repeat your second question, that would be very helpful. Otherwise, we can move to the next question. I think you answered the first two questions. The last one was really just if you could quantify how this holistic approach drives the NII benefit. I'll think for quantifications, obviously, we'll need to wait for the Investor Day. Let's move to the next question, please. The next question comes from the line of Andreas Suvieros with Eurobank Equities. Please go ahead. Hello. Congratulations for the results. I have one quick question regarding the costs, which increased about 14% year over year in the first half.

48:16 Should we expect the cost run rate to moderate in the second half? And do you remain comfortable with existing guidance for the full year? That's my question. Vasily, if you can No. Take Thank you for the question. Indeed, you're right to say that it increased 14% year on year. One should take into account the fact that in the prior year numbers, we didn't have Astrobank, we didn't have Akcea. If you were to put that into perspective, you would see a number closer to 8%, which is pretty much our peers. I think more importantly for us is the guidance. I think we've given the guidance of nine sixty million euros for the year, and we remain fully firm and committed to this number.

49:04 Okay. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to management for any closing comments. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for participating at our first half results call. I wish everyone some nice relaxing vacations. Hopefully, a lot of you are going to be visiting Greece. Otherwise, we'll make sure that we're gonna be meeting you, a lot of you, in September when we're gonna be in London. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling. You may now disconnect.