Welcome, and thank you for joining the Azimut Holding first half 2022 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gabriele Blei, CEO of Azimut Holding. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much, and good afternoon to everyone. We will walk you through the presentation as usual, and then leave you as much time as possible for Q&A. If we start on slide number four, some highlights on the first half result with a business that has proven to be resilient and still growing. Assets under management, total assets, sorry, EUR 81.2 billion, of which 44% stable, if not slightly growing, linked to our international operations. First half net inflows of EUR 3.5 billion, almost slightly more than 4% of the end of 2021 AUM, of which EUR 700 million went into private market products.
As far as the weighted average performance net of fees, we're still enjoying an outperformance vis-a-vis the index of more than 200 basis points. With the weighted average performance negative by 6.5%, nowadays. First half total revenues of EUR 666 million, up 18%, mainly driven by recurring fees, as we will see in a moment, which account for 83% of our total revenues. Operating profit stands at EUR 276 million, up 19%, thanks to the positive evolution of revenues and costs that grew slightly less than our revenues.
First half net profit of EUR 202 million despite a higher tax charge in the semester but it's still in line with our full year target of EUR 400 million. Turning to the next slide, number five. A snapshot of our assets evolution and flow environment. We're up year-over-year 7% in terms of total assets under management with a 2% increase in total managed assets. If we look at the average figures on the right-hand side, EUR 882.6 billion at the end of the first half 2022 with still an evolution of slightly more than EUR 4 billion in terms of assets under management. When it
When we look at the net inflow evolution, we clearly are posting positive net flows throughout our businesses across the world, with a significant impact thanks to the Italian network, as well as our U.S. presence in the private market segment, and benefiting the assets under management evolution. Turning to the next slide, we see the usual breakdown of inflows per product and region. As you can see, as far as Italy is concerned, we're still picturing the one-off impact that we had during the semester, which account for almost EUR 500 million . Most importantly, the bulk of the money is going where we are directing our network as far as the product suite that we have, and therefore, private market products.
When we look at the Americas, clearly Sanctuary Wealth is still benefiting from significant growth and flows, as well as within that context, we see EUR 240 million of private market products, thanks to some closing of Canada-U.S. funds, and a couple of other closing that we had in the U.S. Out of the Americas, Brazil and Mexico have enjoyed significant positive net inflows with more than EUR 300 million each in the first half. We're still seeing a positive evolution this month as far as Brazil is concerned. Asia-Pacific, Australia, almost EUR 200 million in the semester. Hong Kong and Singapore have collectively achieved EUR 50 million of net flows.
When we look at the Europe and Middle East, Middle East is seeing a positive evolution in terms of flows out of Turkey, which is offset partly by the Egypt evolution, whereby we are impacted by outflows due to some decision of Sovereign Wealth Fund to divest the region. This is then we have to consider a positive inflow environment of almost EUR 100 million in Dubai and the UAE in general. As far as July is concerned, we are still expecting a positive evolution driven by both Italy and most of the markets in which we operate internationally. Clearly, as we go into the summer holidays, August and September will tend to be weaker months.
Turning to slide seven. A quick snapshot of where we stand as far as the split between Italy and international assets. Internationally, EUR 36 billion flat quarter-over-quarter, where we stood in the first quarter 2022 at EUR 35.8 billion. Whereas in Italy, EUR 45.2 billion, which compares to EUR 47.7 billion in the end of Q1 2022, so down EUR 2.5 billion, linked to market effects. Whereas, as far as the split in terms of asset class, you see finally private market at the double digits, standing at 10.5%.
This clearly does not yet include the acquisition we have just announced this morning of RoundShield, which would bring that percentage, assuming the same level of assets under management of EUR 52 billion, closer to 11.5%. Moving to the next slide, we can just walk you through the revenue evolution and breakdown. We have reached EUR 666 million in the first half, up EUR 100 million vis-a-vis the same period last year. This is mainly driven by underlying solid growth in AUM, albeit lower performance fees that we have accounted for in the first half, 2022 versus 2021, to the tune of EUR 10 million.
If we look at the right-hand side of the slide, EUR 552 million of the management fees, 83%. You can virtually account for the growth vis-a-vis the previous year, one-third linked to the growth in assets of our Luxembourg, Italian business. One-third linked to the growth of our foreign operation, and one-third driven by the new distribution fee that has been introduced as of first of April, and we will see this in a minute.
If I look at the variable fees, EUR 40 million, this is composed of the EUR 34 million that have been crystallized in March this year due to the change of the methodology in the way we calculate performance fees, and then EUR 6 million in Q2, mainly linked to performance fees coming from our foreign businesses. I would point out Brazil and Turkey as the main contributors.
If we look at the insurance line, we have EUR 46 million that compares to EUR 64 million, and this is mainly driven by significantly lower performance fees, which have been not exactly offset by the growth in the recurrent business that we have benefited from, also thanks to the positive inflows that we still are able to enjoy in this revenue stream. Last but not least, other revenues, just to explain to you the increase from EUR 19 million-EUR 28 million. This is mainly linked to two major factors. First, we have had growth coming from Sanctuary.
The brokerage business is included in the other business line, whereas we are also starting to consolidate our acquisitions that have been performed last year in the FinTech lending environment, as well as in the investment banking activities. Moving to the next slide, as I was mentioning before, quarter-over-quarter management fees have gone up by EUR 38 million. This is virtually all explained by the new distribution fee that has been introduced in April. We have a good evolution of revenues coming from our foreign businesses that have been partly offsetting the negative market effect that we have been hit by as of mid-May 2022.
Q on Q, management fee margins are flat. Virtually, we have lost probably one, two basis points. This is despite the negative market environment, which have enabled us to maintain a good resiliency in the recurring fee line. Moving to the cost side, distribution costs, EUR 237 million, EUR 37 million increase versus the first half. This increase has been a consequence of the revenue growth, Sanctuary. I would say that this increase is explained by two-thirds of the Sanctuary evolution figures, and then network overhead costs that have been impacting this line, especially when it comes to marketing activities that have been resumed vis-à-vis the previous year, where we were still in a sort of lockdown scenario.
Personal and SG&A, plus EUR 18 million, first half 2022 versus first half 2021. Three main explanation behind this evolution. First, we have EUR 4 million of IT cost increase. This is due to the fact that we are changing, as we have announced, the front-end system for our Italian network, and we no longer capitalize the investment, and we are fully expensing this at the P&L level, given this situation of dual track with the investment in the new system and investment in the old system. Then we have the change in the perimeter that impacting EUR 7 million, and the rest is linked to our foreign operations. Moving to still the detail on the cost side, in the slide 11.
This is interesting to note how there is a good resiliency in our operating profit margin during first and second quarter 2022, which is basically in line with the quarters in 2021 and 2020 that are not impacted by performance fees, and this typically occurs in Q4. This is why you see the uplift to 51% and 61% accordingly. The explanation behind the trend in the distribution cost is also on a quarterly basis, is that the new distribution fee that we have introduced is not rebated to the network. Quarter-over-quarter, we are flat in terms of rebate of the management fee to the network.
On the other side, we are benefiting from the positive interest rate effect on the actualization of severance payment and we have some seasonality as far as Social Security charges recognized to the FAs, which tend to be higher in the first quarter and then normalize over the following quarters in the same year. As far as the increase in SG&A Q on Q, we have, as we have mentioned before, the IT costs that are impacting and mainly Sanctuary that is lifting our quarterly trends. Moving on to slide number 13. A quick snapshot of the weighted average performance. As I've already mentioned, we are benefiting still in a good over-performance vis-à-vis the benchmark, the Italian industry.
Still clients over the last three and a half years are net positive in terms of weighted average performance by almost 9%. We are currently running with an equity exposure ranging around 40%. Slide 14, a snapshot of where we stand in terms of private market. EUR 6 billion total AUM, 10 times what we had at the beginning of 2020. We have 36 products that have been already closed. Vis-a-vis Q1, we have closed 7 products, and we have launched 7 new ones. Good to mention here some initiatives in the new product. First and foremost, a product called Private Escalator.
It is basically an accumulation plan on private market products, so effectively a fund of funds. We are diversified across asset classes. We have then launched a second edition of our direct lending product that is instrumental for our new lending activities. We have also launched the infrastructure retail share class of our Italian fund. Some initiatives linked to our presence in the U.S. I would like to mention to you the Next Generation Fund, which is effectively a fund that does what we do with our prop money in terms of GP staking business, and seeding fund of the GPs. Two initiatives. One is with Kennedy Lewis with Fund III.
We have effectively a feeder fund, a Luxembourg vehicle that will feed into Fund III of Kennedy Lewis. BroadLight, that is one of the GPs that we have bought into that is a private equity, consumer private equity fund. 17% of our clients, so roughly speaking 31,000, 32,000 clients out of our 2,000 clients, active clients in Italy, have invested in private market products. Of the EUR 6 billion, EUR 3.3 billion are in Italy, EUR 2.2 billion are in the U.S., and including Brookfield nowadays, we have EUR 600 million in U.K. and Europe.
Today we are seeing or starting to see a broader diversification in terms of geographical presence as well as and I'm referring to the chart on the right-hand side of the top of the page, whereby the infrastructure and real assets is starting to be a material contributor towards the categories in which we invest with 17%, and the rest is 21% in private equity. Moving on to slide 15. I'm very pleased to describe you a bit RoundShield. I know he's on the call with his team, and I would like to welcome Chris, co-founder and managing partner of RoundShield to the Azimut House. 20% stake. They are a leading European real asset manager.
We have taken the stake together with Eversource Energy Retirement Plan. Eversource is an energy company listed in the U.S. with a market cap of $30 billion that is starting to recognize our strategy and the capabilities to select very competent managers and in the private market space across a number of different asset classes. RoundShield has been founded in 2013, has currently EUR 2.9 billion and operates out of a number of geographies, mainly in Europe, with total employees of 44 people. They invest in real assets, pan-European. They do things such as social housing and infrastructure, hospitality, offices, residential, logistics and so on, and in a very opportunistic manner.
Returns speak for themselves, and we have been very impressed by the capabilities to repeat those returns, and we will see this in a minute. 23% IRR gross, 1.6x multiple on invested capital and 128 exits and 0 losses on the 128 exits. The RoundShield has 4 flagship funds, and we expect to be able to launch with them new initiatives and to expand the LPs investor base. Turning to slide 16, you see where the investors are coming from.
Endowments and foundation are a core investor pool together with family offices and pension funds mainly based in U.S., U.K., and also the MENA region. Moving to slide 17, what I was referring to or the slide just a couple of minutes ago. The vintages are different, but the returns are extremely consistent in the top quartile on a gross as well as on a net return basis. We are extremely pleased to be able to see these numbers that compares with numbers achieved by Fortress, PW, BBZ, and Antin that are behind those figures.
Roundshield does not invest in Italy, and I don't think they are willing to come anytime soon. It is extremely complementary with our infrastructure ESG fund that we are already marketing to our client base. Moving on to slide 19, I leave the floor to Alessandro for the financials.
Thank you, Gabriele. As we always do, we go through the consolidated reclassified income statement. I would say that we spent more than a few slides to explain in detail what happened this half compared to last 2021, or the quarter-on-quarter evolution. Therefore, I will just remark some elements on the recurring fees. We can appreciate the significant growth comparing to the first half 2021 is thanks to our hub in Luxembourg, our foreign operation, but also the introduction of the new distribution fees. That is also the key elements for the evolution of the Q2 compared to the first quarter 2022.
The level of the variable fees, the total amount of EUR 40 million for the second quarter, the contribution is coming for the foreign operation. The other part is the quarter has been already crystallized in the first quarter. At the level of the insurance revenue, the EUR 18 million, negative comparing to last half 2021 is just impacted by the EUR 21 million of performance fee less. But on the other side, the positive element that it is that we have a positive contribution in terms of recurring fees for EUR 3 million. At the level of cost, again, this is almost in line with the evolution of the revenues.
Therefore, probably the main element to underline is the increase of the IT cost, as we already explained, but the same also for the project that we have in pipeline. Moving to the following slide, we go to, let's say, the non-operating part of the source of the business. At the level of the finance income, we have a slight positive impact of EUR 2.6 million. This includes fair value option and dividends from GP minority stake. The negative generalized impact of our own instrument, investment of the liquidity that we invest in our fund. At the level of the non-operating costs, we have a positive impact.
This is coming from the consolidation of Sanctuary that we benefit from, EUR 5.7 million positive, but it has been offset by the one-off transaction costs. At the level of taxes, meaning taxes, performance fees, and the fact that we cannot have the same, I mean, the evolution of the regulation at the level also of Luxembourg. Finally, just to look to the net profit, and comparing the first half 2022 with the first half 2021. If we take out the goodwill impact that we had last year, we can see that the evolution of the net profit is positive comparing the two years. Moving to the net financial position, we are positive.
At the end of June, we have EUR 286 million, more or less, comparing to December 2021, that was EUR 408 million, therefore the variation is negative by EUR 123 million. These negative variations can be reconciled taking the positive pre-tax profit, so EUR 274 million. Then if we take out the impact, so the negative effect of the dividend that is in total EUR 261 million, tax advance payment for the first half, that is around EUR 68 million, and the acquisition closed during the first half that counts EUR 107 million.
We are almost there with the valuation, taking also into consideration that with the consolidation of Sanctuary and the closing of the deal, we received back financing that we gave to the company of around $35 million. I'm gonna hand back to Gabriele for the last part.
Thank you, Alessandro. For slide 23, we wanted to just provide you some guidelines of how we will proceed as far as Sanctuary Wealth is concerned, given that we no longer have the full control of the business following the transaction that has been announced a couple of weeks ago. Going forward, only 53% of Sanctuary Wealth's inflows and financials, financial mix, we'll see what it means in a minute, will be consolidated. When it comes to assets under management, they stood at EUR 14.6 billion at the end of June. It will be adjusted at the end of the year.
We decided to go for this approach in order not to have to restate the figures in the first six months of 2022 and create some confusion. When it comes to net inflows year-to-date, EUR 2.1 billion that has been achieved, we will not be adjusting the figure retrospectively. From July 2022, we will only consolidate 53% of the net monthly flows coming from Sanctuary. Right-hand side of the page, we have provided you with the average quarterly contribution in 2022 of Sanctuary revenues, costs, net profit, clearly net of the non-recurring transaction costs and one-off items.
We see that Sanctuary has generated on average EUR 3 million of loss, of which EUR 1.6 million, so 53% accounted for Azimut and the rest to the minorities. Instead of going line by line of the Sanctuary financials from the first of July, we will only share the economic rights and which will be recorded. The 53%, apologies, and it will be recorded within the finance income, below the operating profit line. Moving to slide 24, we wanted to give you a quick overview of where we stand as far as private market development.
You see, our Italian project on the left-hand side, Azimut Libera Impresa and Azimut Investment, has been set up in 2019, even though effectively the first fund was created and launched in 2017. 100% ownership, we do this through greenfield and in-house teams, as well as through third-party agreements. We started with EUR 600 million. We are standing at EUR 3.3 billion with a variety of asset classes that we manage out of Milan and Luxembourg. The rest of the page is comprised of the five transactions completed by our spectacular Azimut Alternative Capital Partners team. We started with Kennedy Lewis in July 2020 with a 20% stake, mm-hmm, currently the business has EUR 10 billion.
It started from two, and it is an opportunity to take a private credit company. HighPost, the newborn entity that brought together the two family offices, Moross and Bezos, we now have a 12.5% stake. It has been a first time, first team that has collectively reached currently $440 million in the consumer private equity investment space. Pathlight, set up, transaction completed in July 2021, 20% GP stake, $1.4 billion in assets. Today, they stand at $2.4 billion, still are in the fundraising phase for their latest product investing in asset-based private lending out of Boston. BroadLight, April 2022, 10% stake.
They are now at EUR 200 million almost in terms of assets under management and fundraising. Together with them, we have our vehicle, Luxembourg vehicle, and they invest in consumer, media, and entertainment private equity space. Last but not least, RoundShield, on which I would not spend further. This concludes the fact that we are at EUR 6 billion in terms of AUM. When I look at the affiliates, they reach EUR 16 billion collectively as of July 2022. Just to summarize the last two slides. Private markets, nobody believed us. Nobody thought it was possible. We're now at EUR 6 billion, 10 times more than what we had in December 2020.
We are looking to further expand our competencies as well as reach as many clients as we can in Italy, and not just in Italy, to revisit the asset allocation to generate positive returns in the medium to long term. Italian presence, as I just mentioned, we want to leverage on our product capabilities, try to bring out as much efficiency as we can out of our network. We're probably one of the very few example in the world, and certainly the leader in Italy to offer private market products to retail customers through our own distribution channel. Just 30,000 out of the 200,000+ clients have invested in our private market solutions. Internationally, we're continuing to develop our strategic partnership.
We continue to work to integrate further our product offering with our distribution channel, leveraging on our positive history of what we have achieved in Italy and not just in Italy. We aim to achieve our long-term goals. Targets, we are here to confirm the EUR 6 billion-EUR 8 billion net inflow targets, as far as distribution activity is concerned, and the EUR 400 million net profit target is confirmed, on the assumption of clearly normal market conditions, but leveraging also on the EUR 202 million that we have achieved so far. In slide 26, you just see a snapshot graphically of where we stand in terms of results vis-a-vis the two targets, but I would say that it is self-explanatory.
Thank you very much, and we are happy to take any questions.
Excuse me, this is the Chorus Call conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and One on their touchscreen telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press Star and Two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press Star and One at this time. The first question is from Chetan Khulbe with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. First question is on the buyback. You announced EUR 75 million buyback. What's the timing of that? And also, what's the rationale behind it? Just wondering if it's an opportunistic buyback. When you do the buyback, do you plan on canceling the shares, or you plan on building up the shares as part of your treasury, and you keep it as treasury, what are you gonna do with it? That's the first question. Second question is on the fulcrum performance fees. Given your strong outperformance year to date, what would...
If the quarter ended today, what would be the performance fees you would be getting from these fulcrum performance fees, just to kind of get a sense of the magnitude we would expect from these fees going forward? Last question is on the cross-selling of your products into your growing distribution network. I'll just talk about your any progresses you've been seeing so far year to date, what are your targets, and how you plan on increasing your penetration in terms of the cross-sell there. Thank you.
Thank you, Hubert. So let me take the first one, the buyback. Well, it is not different from what we have always declared and done in the past. We have been looking at the evolution of our share price in the market environment. I remind you that in April, the AGM has given us the approval to buy back shares up to share price of EUR 35 per share. The rationale is to always try to create shareholders value to be looking carefully of the valuation of our company, the results that we are able to produce. If and when we can be adding value to shareholders, we will take this opportunity.
As in the past, we have canceled shares, we have built up treasury shares, and we have used them either to pay dividends or in M&A transactions. All the options are open, all the cards are on the table, and we will clearly update you as we execute the buyback. For the time being, it does not have any limitation in terms of timing, so we will monitor the market and eventually start buying shares on the market. Fulcrum. Unfortunately, the quarter doesn't end today, and therefore, I would not speculate on the performance fees that we could generate or the giveback that we might need to give back to clients. Certainly, it's a more volatile environment.
Certainly, some of our products are performing extremely well in this environment. Other products are in line with the benchmark. We don't expect, though, to have a material impact from the Fulcrum if the quarter would be ending today, just to give you a sense. I would leave it to this in order not to, you know, give too many speculation across this item. Cross-selling, we are working quite strongly on this. We are trying to discuss with our distribution entities. As you know, the Sanctuary transaction has, in a way, absorbed most of the management team's time, not just by growing the business and managing the day-to-day, but also on the transaction itself.
We had to, let me say, not distract them too much during these last months vis-à-vis the cross-selling. Having said that, the alignment with Kennedy Lewis, given that they're coming from the product side, is very strong. We think we'll be starting over the summer to talk to the main teams and distribution partners that we have in order to roll out a plan to further penetrate the distribution system with our product solutions. Needless to say that this applies to all the countries in which we operate, starting from those in which we are fully integrated, such as Turkey and other markets in which we are starting to be more penetrated, such as Singapore.
To just mention two markets or Brazil, where we are seeing a good evolution of the acceptance of our products within the Caixa Econômica Federal network, based on the agreements that we have completed last year.
Great. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
The next question is from Giovanni Razzoli with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. The first one is a question on the interest rate environment. There will be discussions out there about the sensitivity of the banks and the reps about it. Clearly, you are not running a banking business, so there's no direct impact. But I was wondering in terms of commercial performance and commercial strategy, how the change in the interest rates environment may impact this. I think it may give you more options to your advisor to offer new services, new advice. If you can clarify a little bit on this, that would be great, and whether my understanding is also correct, that you don't have any, you know, directional exposure to rates and to NII. The second question is on the decision to, you know, dilute your stake in Sanctuary.
This is the first opportunity we have to discuss about it. First of all, I'm just wondering whether you will keep a 53% stake or whether you will land to a lower stake. Secondly, a clarification whether the second quarter results, as your CFO was indicating already exclude the line by line consolidation of Sanctuary or not, because it seems to me that you mentioned that you will be consolidated from the first of July. Finally on this, what was the rationale for this strategic, you know, review, revision of your position in Sanctuary? Was it expected? What is the rationale behind this? Too clarification, allow me for this. Can you provide us with an update of the inflows in Italy month to date?
You can also give us a color on it. The very last question, I don't want to be provocative, but, you know, I've read somewhere that you have Assogestioni, the Association of Mutual Funds here in Italy. I was wondering why and what is your reason behind that, and whether this is correct or not? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Giovanni. Thank you very much. On the interest rate environment, clearly you're right. We're not a bank. We don't have a direct sensitivity as banks do to increase, decrease of interest rates. Clearly, working with investing our clients' money, we do have an indirect sensitivity in the sense that working in an environment with higher rates help us covering the cost of the products themselves and then try to generate additional performance. Clearly, if this increase in rates is generated not in line with expectations or at the speed in which the market is expecting, then it creates volatility and is impacting us and the macroeconomic environment. As far as the commercial activity is concerned, it is exact.
I mean, it's what we have been telling for many years. We need to revisit the asset allocation of clients, and we need to diversify even more. This is done through the diversification of products as well as the leverage on the colleagues that contribute to the global investment team and to the sharing of ideas and creation of new products. I know it does not have a material feeling for you guys, but working within Azimut is somehow different when you are a portfolio manager because you have to talk directly to your distribution channels.
You can be free to talk and share ideas as well as to bring to the table product innovation that may be useful for the clients and the distribution network at any point in time. In the past, during market uncertainties and volatility or changes in the macro pictures, we have taken the liberty to innovate and bring to our clients some product solutions contingent to the situation. We would not exclude the need if there is going to be some opportunities to do so again. When it comes to Sanctuary, there were a couple of questions here. 53% or lower.
53% is the stake today, and then effectively, if there is going to be the conversion of the convertible bond, the stake could be lower. We do not want to assume or make scenarios because there may be multiple scenarios that we cannot govern directly. We just stick to the 53%, and effectively on conversion, it can be lower. Let me answer you the rationale and the strategic decision, so because it's very tied into the percentage ownership that we might end up having. As we try to tell you, we are in a phase in which we need to extract value of our foreign business, not that we did not have this priority in the past.
After 10, 11 years of evolution investment, building up of production and distribution centers across the globe, we now need to demonstrate and show you that what we have been imagining could turn out into a profit contribution over the long run. This is done through the delivery of industrial projects that produce consistent, sustainable, growing profit contribution to the group. We have been actively managing in Brazil and in the U.S. through Sanctuary, our stakes, because we felt the need that there was an opportunity to accelerate the growth rate, and there was an opportunity to partner with somebody that could actually give us higher chances to achieve our long-term objectives.
This is the strategic rationale, the thinking within the management team, and the idea that it's better to have a smaller piece of a cake that is much larger than just by owning everything ourselves and fighting all the difficulties by ourselves. 2 Q, it's absolutely not. It does not take the profit or loss at the bottom, below the operating profit, but it's still on a line-by-line consolidation basis. It's not yet in the Q2 numbers, just the operating result of Sanctuary. Ali, you want to add something? Sorry.
No, just to clarify for the misunderstanding. The point is linked to the fact that we signed the agreement at the end of June. Therefore, the 30 of June.
Therefore, I mean, for the accounting principle, we consolidate the accounts line by line. Due to the fact that at the end of June, we lost the control, then we also performed the consolidation of Sanctuary. Taking into consideration the asset and liability elements linked to Sanctuary, then we book in the P&L EUR 5.7 million that I mentioned before of positive effect. This is the reason why it's a full line by line quarter, and then also the consolidation.
Thank you. Italy flows. We have been positive month after month as far as our retail network is concerned, of financial advisors. There has been some volatility within our institutional that we did not hide to you guys. We see up until June north of EUR 650 million as far as the retail network is concerned, and this figure is going to go up including the flows that so far we're seeing in the month of July and which will be published first week of August. Assogestioni. Yes, you have read correctly. We have decided to leave Assogestioni.
There is no battle behind, but just a simple consideration that we did not feel that we were represented as far as the numbers are concerned, correctly and appropriately, given the evolution that the group has had over the last 10 years. That's the simple answer.
Thank you.
My pleasure.
The next question is from Alberto Villa with Intermonte SIM. Please go ahead, sir.
Hi, Gabriele and Alessandro. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is on the private markets. Thanks for slide 24 that put everything into perspective. I was wondering if you can give us an idea of what is the amount you invested so far in the partnership you have been underwriting in the last couple of years. Secondly, I was wondering if you can help us understanding out of these EUR 6 billion of assets, how should we model the contribution going forward into your numbers? I understood that you have had some dividends from the general partnership going into the financial income.
My question is, should we expect in the future to have more direct, let's say, impact in other line of businesses? Is that related to the, I think the product you're distributing in Europe and so on, so would be double, one into the management fees and another one into the dividend. Is that correct, going forward? This is my first question. The second one is, on the reconciliation of the cash at the end of the first half. I probably missed what you have said during the presentation. So if you can just give me the reconciliation you mentioned before. Finally, on the inflows.
I understood you had more than EUR 600 million on the retail in the first half. It though looks a little bit lighter compared to some other networks in Italy. I was wondering if this is partially due maybe to the focus on private markets, the network has to transform clients asset into private markets, if that has been one of the reason maybe behind the net inflows we have seen so far. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Alberto. The amount invested in private markets is north of so far. It's north of EUR 100 million on the 5 transactions. Dividends from the GP stake and the way we account for, you have to consider that to split the private market initiatives into two, the Italian/Luxembourgish initiative and the GP staking business. The first one is in the revenue lines because it's 100% owned and it is for the time being just on the management fee side, so the recurring revenues. If and when we will have carried interest, there will be contribution to the performance fee line.
The GP staking business, given that it's minority stake, and so far it's going to remain minority stake, is going to be and is already below the operating line. Net financial position, Alex?
Yeah. The negative working capital variation that I mentioned is EUR 123 million. If we compare December 2021 with June 2022. Taking into consideration this variation, starting from the pre-tax profits, 274, I take out the dividends paid in the first half, EUR 261 million. Let's say, considering the dividend and the financial instruments, dividend paid. Then adding the tax advance payment, again, of the first half, EUR 68 million, and then acquisition of EUR 109 million in Italy and abroad. Adding a positive effect of EUR 35 million due to the fact that with the transaction of Sanctuary, they give back a portion of our financing that we bring to them at the beginning.
Therefore, normally the sum of the this amount is gonna give you the difference.
Lastly on flows. I think, you know, our retail numbers on a monthly basis do not reflect the full activity that the network is achieving on a month-over-month basis. Simply because, if you look at the private market initiative, there is a commitment that is given, and then the closing of certain of the funds happens a month later, when we reach a certain target or we close the share classes or the funds themselves. I think the comparison with the activities of our other networks is not exactly a full representation of the commercial activity.
On top of that, I always want to stress and remind that we are focused on managed products, and we do not have, and do not want to have banking products or current accounts where we get flows from our client base. We always try to, you know, distinguish ourselves by being the trusted advisor and the managers of our clients' savings.
Okay. Thank you very much, Gabriele.
My pleasure.
Ciao.
Ciao.
The next question is from Angeliki Bairaktari with Autonomous Research. Please go ahead, madam.
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. What is the amount of assets under management, if any, from your own clients who have placed money with your affiliates, in private markets in the U.S.? I'm trying to figure out of all of the AUM that, your U.S. affiliates have, how much of that, if any, could be coming from, distribution via Azimut channels at the moment? A bit more general, what is the process and how easy is it to actually seed a fund in your U.S. private market affiliates? Is it a question of setting up a feeder vehicle here in Europe?
If you can explain to us how easy or complicated it is for you to effectively channel, for example, Italian clients' money into Kennedy Lewis or the other US players. Last question with regards to Brazil. Can you give us an update on the operations there? Where do the assets under management stand today, and how have the net flows been in the first half of the year? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Angeliki. AUM brought to our affiliates from our client pool today stands probably north of EUR 200 million, and could be probably closing to EUR 250 million, based on the latest figures we have. Given that we are in fundraising on a number of different products that we'll be investing into products that are managed from our affiliates, this figure is expected to increase in the coming quarters. How it works, basically, especially for our Italian clients, is that we typically launch what is a European Long-Term Investment Fund, so the ELTIF vehicle. Or a RAIF product for some more professional and/or institutional investors, given the higher threshold of minimum investment.
We then fundraise during these on these products from our Italian slash international clients. The money is then channeled to what you can call as the master product. That is, the U.S. slash Cayman slash whatever it is product, and then everything is managed accordingly to the strategy exactly in the same way. Okay? Update on the Brazilian operations. Well, personally, I'm very surprised that during an election year in Brazil, there is clearly not the type of volatility that we've seen in the past.
This is probably partly due and offset by the fact that Brazil is a country that exports raw materials significantly and during this period it is clearly benefiting the country as far as the economic activity is concerned. What we have been seeing from a macro/interest rate environment perspective is interest rate has gone down to say 4.5%. Then in the last year they have reversed and went up again double digit and are now standing 12.5, 13%. Clearly this has had an impact in the asset allocation of Brazilian clients that have tended to prefer fixed income instruments vis-a-vis equity instrument.
The consequence of this has been a shift in terms of mix and a lower recurring management fees that we can generate out of our Brazilian operation. I have to say that over the last couple of months, there has been a significant activity in terms of flows into strategies different from fixed income and equities, favoring something like macro and long short strategies. This is going to clearly benefit the margin as I just mentioned before. As far as the flows and the assets, we now have EUR 4.6 billion up to June in terms of assets under management in Brazil.
They have collected more than EUR 300 million, and I suspect this figure could go up to EUR half a billion by the end of July.
Thank you. Are those amounts in euros or in dollars?
All in euros.
Okay. Thank you.
My pleasure.
The next question is from Elena Perini with Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon. Well, I've got only one question. It is related to your slide number nine. I was favorably impressed by the resiliency of your management fees because it is true that the EUR 295 million of the second quarter include EUR 35 million new distribution fee. But you were slightly up versus the first quarter. So I was wondering if you can elaborate a bit on this point, considering that I was not able to follow the first part of your call. Thank you very much.
Elena, no worries. I'll try to summarize what we have mentioned before during the presentation. In slide nine, we were showing how the management fee line has been growing EUR 38 million quarter-over-quarter. This is clearly more, the vast majority is explained by the increase coming from the new distribution fee that we have told you about that would have been accounting for EUR 35 million per quarter. Even excluding that, we have been impacted by the growing activity and management fees coming from our foreign operations, which have had to contain the negative market effect that has impacted us as anybody else, from mid-May.
All in all, excluding the new distribution fee, the Q-on-Q evolution of the management fee is basically flat to 179 basis points. As far as what we have been living in the first half, there has been a good commercial activity vis-à-vis clients, with limited mix impact on our margins and a focus on private markets that is not reducing the overall average fee line. All in all, we are kind of pleased with what the commercial activity has been delivering.
On the other side, there has been the positive performance or the overperformance vis-à-vis the benchmark that is clearly supporting the commercial activities as well as maintaining clients reasonably calm and invested in the product.
Okay. Thank you very much.
My pleasure.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Mr. Blei, there are no more questions registered at this time. Back to you for any closing remarks.
Not really. No closing remarks. Just, thank you very much. Myself and my colleagues remain available for any follow-ups, and we wish you a pleasant summer. Bye-bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephone. Thank you.