Chairman's review

Dear customers, collaborators and shareholders,

Once again, I am pleased to share with you the annual report for the year 2025, the first of our 2025-2027 Strategic Plan.

On 1 January 2025, we inaugurated this new chapter with the integration of NorteHispana de Seguros Reaseguros, S.A., (“NorteHispana Seguros”) into Occident GCO S.A, de Seguros y Reaseguros (“Occident”), thus completing the corporate simplification process initiated in 2022. After completing that milestone, the cornerstone of the previous strategic cycle, we have begun to move forward with our new roadmap for 2025-2027, designed to consolidate GCO's leading position in the insurance and funeral market, as well as respond to the new demands of a changing and increasingly competitive environment. To achieve this, the Plan sets three strategic priorities: growth, supported by commercial momentum; progress in the digitisation of the three companies that make up GCO (Occident, Atradius and Mémora); and the promotion of cross-functionality within the organisation when developing planned initiatives and projects.

Voluntary public takeover bid (OPA)

The past year has also been defined by another key moment for GCO. On 27 March, INOC, S.A., the controlling shareholder of GCO, announced a voluntary public takeover bid for all of GCO's shares. The process resulted in an acceptance rate of 94.27% and ended with the exclusion of GCO from the continuous market.

2025 milestones

This new chapter in GCO's more than 160-year history demands, as is customary within our organisation, an exercise in self-analysis and continuous evaluation.

Regarding growth, the first focus of the Plan, GCO has ended the year having achieved growth in all three of its lines of business. Within Occident, the development of a global customer vision is fundamental in this new strategic cycle. Starting with active listening, the purpose is to get to know our insured parties better in order to adapt our value proposition to their specific needs, providing excellent service and omnichannel support, to offer agile service through the customer's preferred channel. In this context, the mediator is a key figure in the relationship with the insured party, guaranteeing a tailored and high-quality service. And, precisely in this line, one of the highlights for Occident in 2025 has been the renewal of our agent recruitment and training programme, a pioneering initiative at the industry level that for more than 40 years has been a driving force for the growth of our mediation network. Now called the Entrepreneurs Programme (Driving Agents Towards Professional Success), after its renewal it is consolidated as one of the fundamental levers of Occident’s growth and its successful business model, while at the same time consolidating our commitment to talent and the professionalisation of the commercial network.

In the area of digitalisation and efficiency, the second strategic priority of the roadmap, GCO has continued to invest in new technologies, advancing, among others, in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the framework of our business. This allows us to achieve more efficient processes, greater agility, and a better customer experience.

Atradius, the world's second-largest credit insurance operator, has also demonstrated its strength and growth potential again in 2025, with a business model and risk management that has been proven year after year. Of particular note is that Atradius obtained Lloyd’s approval to underwrite through the Atradius Syndicate 1864, providing a unique and robust solution to new and existing clients in the European financial sector. In an increasingly volatile global context, Atradius continues to play a key role within GCO, contributing geographical diversification, knowledge of risk and proven management capabilities.

Furthermore, in the funeral business, Mémora has made significant progress in its territorial expansion in 2025, on the one hand with the integration of Servicios Funerarios Sever, which manages 11 facilities in the province of Zamora and, on the other hand, with the repurchase of 26 funeral parlours, which it already operated under a rental agreement, from a US fund. Both operations reflect the company's long-term vision, which has the firm purpose of continuing to grow in a sustainable way and always guaranteeing close and professional support to families in saying goodbye to their loved ones. With the closing of this fiscal year, Mémora also begins a new chapter in which we will continue to strive for excellence in service under the leadership of Xavier Fontanet, who takes over as the company's new delegate director. Likewise, I want to express my sincere gratitude to Augusto Huesca for his great contribution to the consolidation of Mémora as a leader in the Iberian funeral market.

On another note, GCO Ventures, which celebrated its second anniversary in 2025, has allowed us to advance in our purpose of promoting innovative projects that make a real difference in key sectors for the Group. Specifically, thanks to our corporate venturing vehicle, two new startups have been launched this year: Musky, which offers health and civil liability coverage for pets; and Aurela, which expands access to mental health with a digital and human approach.

The robust management has been endorsed by the main rating agencies

The excellent results achieved in our three business lines—Occident, Atradius and Mémora—have once again demonstrated that GCO is a solid group capable of adapting to a changing economic environment. As such, once again, the main rating agencies have endorsed our business model.

In the last year, GCO began to have a public credit rating for the first time. Subsequently, in a context of improvement in Spain's sovereign rating, Moody's revised the Group's rating up to A3 with a stable outlook. GCO's rating reflects the Group's strong financial position and the benefits derived from the diversification of its businesses. Specifically, the agency highlighted the strength of Occident's credit profile due to its solid capitalisation and resilience to potential sovereign stress, as well as its strong position in the Spanish market and its low business risk profile, focused on individuals and SMEs. As for Atradius, the agency valued its geographical diversification.

Similarly, AM Best reaffirmed the financial strength rating of "A" (excellent) and the long-term credit rating of "A+" (excellent), both with a stable outlook, for Occident and Atradius. In the case of Occident, AM Best highlighted the strength of its balance sheet, supported by its liquidity and low dependency on reinsurance, while in credit insurance, the rating agency emphasised Atradius's adequate risk management and positively assessed both its conservative investments portfolio and the geographical and sectoral diversification of its exposures.

Committed to sustainability

We are at the halfway point of our Sustainability Master Plan, which sets the course to follow in terms of sustainability up until 2026 under four main pillars: good governance, sustainable business, social commitment and environmental responsibility.

In the good governance pillar, GCO again linked a percentage of the variable remuneration of senior management to the compliance with ESG objectives in the 2025 financial year.

Regarding the sustainable business focus, the sustainable investment target has been improved, moving from a total of 10% to 12%. As part of our social commitment, we have launched a new sustainability training plan for Occident employees, as well as a training plan focused on AI. The group has also promoted the "Cleanup Day" initiative, focused on cleaning up waste in natural environments, in various countries where it operates. In Spain, this initiative has involved a total of 721 hours of corporate volunteering for the cleaning of beaches and marshes in Madrid, Barcelona and Getxo (Bizkaia), in collaboration with the ECOMAR Foundation, breaking its own record with the collection of more than 1.4 tonnes of waste.

In the area of environmental liability, one of the most significant milestones of the year just passed is having established various CO2 emission reduction targets for 2030. Specifically, with that year on the horizon, our commitment is to reduce operational emissions (scope 1 and 2) by 10%, mainly reducing emissions from electricity consumption by 46% and those from the consumption of the Group's vehicle fleet by 15%.

Fundación Occident, for its part, has continued its work in the areas of research, teaching, culture, sport and social action for another year. One of the new developments in 2025 was the launch of the first edition of the Jesús Serra Eco-Social Call for Proposals, which aims to identify and support two innovative projects capable of generating a positive and lasting impact in the areas of social action and the environment, respectively.

Likewise, we have continued to support the Jesús Serra Undergraduate Grants, one of our Foundation's most recent initiatives, through which we seek to promote access to university, facilitating access for students without university role models and for women in STEM fields. In the second edition, 10 girls and 2 boys from 9 autonomous communities were selected, in addition to the 12 from the first call. Fundación Occident will accompany them during their university years with academic, personal and professional support to boost their talent and employability.

2025 has also been marked by celebrations and recognitions. GCO has been recognised by the Spanish Association of Offices for its strong commitment to the modernisation and adaptation of its workspaces. This body awarded the Best Implementation prize to our new Madrid headquarters, located in the Méndez Álvaro area, recognising the efforts made to create modern and functional spaces that contribute to attracting talent, projecting corporate values, and boosting productivity.

Finally, I would like to thank our employees and collaborators once again, without whom it would not have been possible to achieve these results, which encourage us to continue growing and evolving. I would also like to thank our stakeholders for the trust they have placed in GCO, and for their support on this journey of continuous improvement and promising challenges.

José María Serra

GCO Chairman