A letter from the Chairman

2025 was a dense year. It was a useful one.

Capital is not scarce. Conviction is. It is on that imbalance that we are building Laystone Group.

Seven divisions, one balance sheet.

This year, we activated seven divisions: Advisory, Capital, Ventures, Technologies, Foundation, Research, Education. Seven disciplines. One balance sheet. One rule — never outsource conviction.

This structure is not an org chart. It is a thesis. The thesis that advisory, capital, and operations no longer stand in opposition. They reinforce each other.

Advisory supports institutional clients on their most critical decisions. Capital deploys long-duration capital into the themes we have chosen to hold. Ventures and Technologies build — they do not promise. Research, Foundation, and Education extend the firm's contribution beyond the balance sheet.

Each division runs on its own. None runs without the others.

An economy without horizon.

Technology cycles are shortening. Capital cycles are lengthening. Regulation runs behind the institutions it claims to shape.

In that misalignment, the edge belongs to those capable of holding an horizon. Structurally, it is our only competitive advantage.

The next ten years will reshape European capital. Technological sovereignty will stop being a slogan. It will become an allocation requirement.

Europe has the talent. Europe has the schools. It has long lacked integrated actors capable of aligning capital, technology, and strategy. We intend to be one of them.

AI is not a sector.

Artificial intelligence is not a sector. It is a layer — one that runs through every one of our divisions, from advisory to investment, from research to production.

We build our own systems. We use them internally before deploying them with clients. The discipline is simple: ship to others only what we have already proven on ourselves.

AI augments judgment. It does not replace it. The irreducible share of human discernment — on risk, on duration, on accountability — will remain, for a long time, the rarest input in the market. That scarcity is what we build on.

Independence.

We remain independent. Independence is not a posture. It is a working condition.

It is what allows us to turn down mandates that do not match our standard. It is what allows us to invest where conviction precedes consensus. We intend to preserve that condition through every cycle we face.

What we owe.

A firm of our kind operates within the institutions and markets it serves. We mentor students. We engage with the public ecosystem. We contribute to the debates that shape our environment.

We will do more. That is, in the end, what distinguishes a firm from a group.

The year ahead.

In 2026, we will publish more. We will communicate more clearly. We will remain accountable to the horizon we have set — not to the quarter just ended.

Compounding is the only form of scale that still belongs to the patient. We intend to remain patient.

Thank you for the trust you place in this group. It is the only metric that truly matters.