Good evening, and welcome to Unibail Rodamco Westfield's Alf Euroesus presentation. It is a pleasure to be here today at the Palais Des Congres, a venue that is a part of Vu Paris, our convention and exhibition network, to give you an update on the performance of our business during the 1st 6 months of 2021. As we shared at the start of the year, we expected operating conditions to be tough across all geographies, and unfortunately, they were. In the face of these ongoing challenges, URW has shown continued resilience, and I want to start by acknowledging the outstanding commitment and tenacity of our URW team during this period. Ongoing restrictions affected our ability to operate throughout the first half of the year, and we'll continue to do so during part of the second half.
Additionally, recent developments in France, the UK and elsewhere showed that we can take nothing for granted in terms of the pandemic. These developments also underline the value of our ability to adjust and adapt to new scenarios swiftly and decisively. As in 2020, we have seen a good return of both footfall and sales when restrictions eased. And throughout the first two quarters, we have maintained our focus on the delivery of our operational and financial priorities, which we will update you on this evening. Also important is our ongoing access to credit markets and ample liquidity, which improved during the period and allows us to drive our deliberating strategy in a controlled way by maximizing disposal proceeds as markets recover.
We have made good progress against the key operational and financial priorities that we set out at the full year. Operationally, we continue to concentrate our efforts and resources on our flagship destinations, which have shown resilience throughout the crisis and remain attractive to established and emerging brands. One major highlight from the first half was the successful opening of Westfield Mall of the Netherlands, 94% let and with high traffic numbers despite restrictions. This new addition to our portfolio demonstrates the strength of our flagship destination strategy. We have maintained our active approach to asset management, balancing a variety of factors, including tenant support and a pragmatic approach to short term lettings that has protected occupancy and will allow us to maintain commercial tension for our assets as conditions improve.
I'm also pleased to highlight the appointment of Caroline Frechette, who joins the management board as Chief Customer Officer and started 2 weeks ago. Her broad background in retail, hospitality and digital will help us better address evolving consumer preferences and drive future growth in advertising, data and omni channel retail. Financially, we have made solid progress on deleveraging. Fabrice will dive into more details on the 4 priorities areas. But in terms of headlines, to date, we have agreed or completed €1,700,000,000 of European disposals against our €4,000,000,000 target.
We are streamlining our U. S. Portfolio as part of our commitment to deliver a radical reduction in our exposure to the market, pursuing sales of non core assets and delivering a €346,000,000 reduction in headline net debt in the first half of the year via voluntary foreclosures. And we have maintained favorable access to credit markets as demonstrated by our new sustainability linked revolving credit facility and secured 36 months of liquidity, a 12 month improvement from where we were at year end. As we anticipated at the beginning of the year, we have faced tough operating conditions, which are reflected in our results.
For convention and exhibitions, the first half was just as tough as 2020 with all locations effectively closed. In recent weeks, we have been able to reopen and host some events, notably start up and innovation conference, Vivatec, which had to operate at approximately 20% of its usual in person attendance. Bookings have started to return, mainly beginning Q4 of this year. More positively, we are seeing a major improvement for the Q1 2022, with the team having achieved to date 70% of our usual level of advanced bookings. For offices, our net rental income was down 24%, reflecting the impact of the Schiffs and Les Vilesch buildings disposals.
I'm happy to announce that we have signed a promissory deal of sale and leaseback of our group headquarters in Paris at a net disposal price of 248 €600,000 a premium to the last unaffected book value. We completed as well the first leasing deals on the Trinity Tower in La Defense at rent labels that met our pre COVID expectations. The signings, notably with Technip, confirm the superior quality opportunity and give me confidence that we will lease the entire project according to plan. For shopping centers. At a high level, our NRI is down 25%, mainly due to disposals and rent relief granted to tenants during the COVID crisis, but we are seeing an encouraging return of footfall, sales and leasing activity.
It all starts with understanding the operating conditions for shopping centers in the first half of twenty twenty one, which were even more challenging than the same period last year. If you remember, the start of 2020 featured over 2 months of normal activity, approximately 70 days in total, before the first lockdowns in March. In contrast, we have had in the region of 40 days of operations under what we would consider limited or light restrictions in the first half of twenty twenty Europe, which represents 74% of our retail GMV, remained closed for almost a quarter in the first half, and we faced stringent capacity limits along with other severe restrictions at our reopened U. S. Centers.
While the number of closed days were broadly the same at a group level, behind the numbers, we experienced very tough conditions with market by market closings, restrictions and other impediments to operations. Against that backdrop, URW continued to work closely with its tenants to manage the impact of COVID-nineteen and protect occupancy levels and key relationships for the long term, granting €220,000,000 in rent relief. This is an average of 1.5 months of rent. This being said, our fair burden sharing approach to negotiation doesn't allow change to the lease structure. By which we go into the financials and accounting impact, but overall, Our approach has allowed us to clean up most of the backlog from 2020 and to reach a collection rate of 89% of the amount due.
We also continue to navigate different and fast evolving legislations impacting our business and that of our tenants. This is taking place on a country by country basis and in some markets on the federal as well as local level. As an example, in France, we await the outcome of legislation announced in February and government support for retailers, which has impacted our H1 collection rates as some tenants result payments until resolved. As another example, In the U. K, all restrictions have been lifted and business has resumed, but we face the extension of their COVID eviction moratorium to March of 2022.
In this changeable environment, the main driver of traffic as shown on this graph is unsurprisingly the full reopening of centers. The lower the restrictions, including stay at home orders, the higher the traffic on sales. Globally, we have been consistently trading at around 50% of sales and foot full in the 1st 4 months based on the U. S. Being fully open and mainly essential stores trading elsewhere.
Once we saw a drop in restrictions in May, we saw a jump in traffic and sales and a further improvement in June when all centers reopened and restrictions were further eased. High levels of vaccination, which we hope will be achieved in all geographies in the Q4, will bring further operational stability and the return of office populations. To give you a snapshot of performance recovery, reflecting here our footfall and sales in Europe compared to 2019 for the month of June, the 1st full month we were open with restrictions after several months of closures. Overall, after just 1 month, we are back to other 75% of 2019 footfall, though you can See, the UK is a little bit behind due to our assets connection to public transportation networks and proximity to office locations. As in 2020, we find a pattern where sales outperformed traffic by an average 10 points with sectors such as jewelry and sport already close to or above 2019 levels with health and beauty not far behind.
Some categories are lagging such as fashion and Food and Beverage, which is still subject to specific restrictions in some markets. It is interesting to look at the U. S. As an indicator of recovery trends as restrictions were lifted earlier than in Europe. Overall, U.
S. Footfall for June is at 75% versus 2019, primarily impacted by lower office traffic around our CBD centers, such as Westfield Century City in Los Angeles or Westfield San Francisco Center. As you can see on the left, sales have been improving significantly from 69% in January to 100% overall of 2019 levels in June and even 107% for both centers less impacted by the slow return to offices. If we look in detail, driving this growth is luxury, home and jewelry that are respectively at +45%, plus 27% and plus 23%. In June, Fashion and Food and Beverage figures approach 2019 levels far better than their year to date performance.
Overall, All sectors outperformed their year to date figures in June. These trends, paired with stable operating conditions in the U. S. And Europe, give us confidence that we will see a return to 2019 traffic and sales levels in the course of the Q4 given stable operating conditions with no new restrictions. While we are talking about the U.
S, I also want to highlight that the COVID rate crisis there has not been managed as one market with a uniform set of restrictions. While general guidance is provided by various federal agencies, states ultimately make their own determinations as to the restrictions or policies they implement, which can be more severe than the guidance. Counties based on individual state law could, in some instances, be even more restrictive. The map shows the fragency of U. S.
State restrictions using data from the University of Oxford. We can see that limitations where January most severe in the states where our assets are primarily located, meaning California, New York and New Jersey. As an example, in California, indoor dining was closed until March 11, 2021, so for almost the Q1 and was then only allowed to reopen at 25% capacity. Whereas in Texas, where we don't have any assets, Restaurants were opened from May of 2020, and all capacity limits were removed on March 10, 2021. This context illustrates that our U.
S. Business delivered solid performance in light of the broader macro environment. Now let's look at our leasing activity, where total volumes for the period were on par with H1 twenty nineteen levels. Conditions could not be described as landlord friendly with a variety of changes, including increased closures, tougher negotiating conditions, tenant bankruptcies and retailers streamlining their store portfolios. In this environment, we adapted our leasing strategy and since the second half of twenty twenty, I've been focused on mitigating the vacancy level and maintaining commercial appeal while ensuring the long term health of the portfolio.
To achieve this, there is a need to move very fast, particularly in the face of the trend of longer tenant negotiations that started before COVID. Thavris will go into the numbers in more detail, but we have prioritized shorter lease terms to protect our long term position, resulting in lower MGR expectations in concert with a higher turnover rate. These deals, which represent 56% of our leasing activity for this period, have an MGR impact of negative 13.8% and a rate duration of 23 months and are mostly renewals allowing us to move fast. And as you know, MGR figures do not take into account the variable part of the rent, which in light of the sales performance we are seeing as we emerge from the COVID crisis, should partially offset the gap in total leasing revenue. With long term leases, we see a slight MGR uplift of +1.3 percent and an average lease duration of 7.5 years.
This leasing activity is balanced with 51% of the NGR signed on new tenants. These long term tenants, which include world class brands like Apple and Nike, continue to invest significantly in physical retail as part of their omnichannel strategies. With the impact of the pandemic, they are even more focused on the right locations in the right markets and the need for long term leases to protect these investments. These brands continue to see UOW as their partner of choice, giving them access to the best catchment areas in the most important trade areas in our geographies. To highlight this point with a specific category, We were proud this first half to announce the signing of a flagship Hermes store at our Westfield Topanga extension project, which together with Yves Saint Laurent at Westfield Galleria at Roseville, extend and elevate our luxury offer in our U.
S. Flagship centers. And just today, I'm excited to share that we signed premier German fashion and lifestyle department store, Breuninger, to anchor our Westfield Hamburg project with the 14,000 square meter flagship. As communities have reopened in the last 6 months, the sense of gathering together socially has taken on greater importance. In this spirit, we have rolled out a series of experience based pop up activations such as Miz Moon, a rooftop restaurant and dayclub at Westfield Mall of Scandinavia and the roller skating rink at Westfield Century City, allowing us to capitalize on immediate demand for these social entertainment experiences.
We have also then secured deals with a number of exciting new long term tenants that will expand this offer, including Pinstripe in the U. S, a luxury dining and booning concept and Cars at Centro in Germany, a unique theme park. Consumers continue to embrace this concept, and we're excited to have made significant progress in establishing our Westfield centers as the place to find new leisure and experience concepts now and in the future. The projects we delivered the first half of the year are also illustrations of the experiential places we are creating across our portfolio. The Mall of the Netherlands opened in March and is a truly first of its kind destination in the country, exceeding retailer and customer expectations.
The property is 94% let with other 280 stores and restaurants, including Zara and 4 other NGITEX brands that are already within the top performing outpost for them locally. In March, we opened the 10,000 Queer made or fashion pavilion at Amekindista in Barcelona, which is 100% set, adding new restaurants and retail, including the 1st Dyson and on the Abercambien Fitch in Spain and the 2nd urban outfitters in the country. At La Pardieu in France, we inaugurated a dining entertainment called The Rooftop in June, featuring 25 new restaurants, the very first local food society food hall and a leisure complex composed of an indoor and outdoor climbing facility and a new 18 screen UGC cinema that will open in September. Before we move on, Let me show you a quick video to give you a flavor of the experience on offer at Westfield Mall of the Netherlands. I hope you enjoyed the tour.
Westfield Mall of the Netherlands is our biggest delivery in Europe since Mall of Scandinavia in 2015. Based on May June footfall, it is on track to reach 12,000,000 visits a year. We are immensely proud of this iconic destination and look forward to welcoming you there soon. Now back onto the U. S.
During the first half of twenty twenty one, we have been very active in streamlining our U. S. Portfolio, complaining the foreclosures of 4 assets that delivered a reduction of headline net debt of €346,000,000 We see some investment appetite for regional assets and have engaged in disposal negotiations for a number of centers, and we hope to be in a position to complete this transaction the coming months. Meanwhile, we are actively working to strengthen the quality and attractiveness of our U. S.
Flagship portfolio through accelerating leasing and big box conversions. We have also launched 2 RFP processes to team up with residential developers for our Westfield Garden State Plaza and Westfield Mangum Redundantrification projects. This will unlock land value and strengthen our assets for the future. As announced, we have set up a dedicated task force to implement our U. S.
Disposal program, which has made significant progress in assessing the best options to deliver a radical reduction of our exposure to the market. The U. S. Economy is rapidly recovering. We still have work to do, but we are well positioned to be able to execute when investment markets reopen.
Moving now to CSR. Our Better Places 2,030 strategy is core to everything we do. We have continued to work towards our objectives, which has been validated by ESG ratings such as Sustainalytics and Euronext. We have worked even harder to support the need for our of our communities in response to the pandemic, partnering locally with organizations and governments to bring vaccination hubs into our shopping centers and convention and exhibition venues with over 500,000 doses administered at our sites globally. Our better places strategy also supports our financing goals as demonstrated by the 5 year €3,100,000,000 sustainability linked revolving credit facility we recently signed, which Fabrice will cover in more details in his presentation.
Fabrice, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Jean Marie, and hello, everyone. As we expected, the group's H1 2021 performance was significantly impacted by pandemic related restrictions. As shown by Jean Marie, there were more days of closure than days of operation across Europe in the first half. And even when our shopping centers were able to operate, A number of restrictions still applied. This obviously had a negative impact on our H1 results, driven primarily by the rent relief granted to our retailers.
Despite these challenges, We saw a number of positive indicators during this half: strong tenant sales after reopening in June A recovery in leasing activity exceeding the pre COVID level of H1 twenty nineteen by volume, low vacancy levels in our core concentrator portfolio and significant progress in our disposal program. So how do these extreme conditions translate in the group's H1 2021 results? The adjusted recurring earnings for H1 2021 stands at €3.24 per share compared to €4.65 per share for H1 2020. This 30.4% decline reflect the significant impact of lockdowns, leading to a 22.4% reduction in net rental income on a like for like basis for the whole portfolio, primarily in the retail and the C and E sectors. It also includes the impact of disposals completed in 2020 and H1 2021 with an impact of minus 6.5%.
To give you now a better sense of the COVID-nineteen impact on our results, we have broken down the major drivers of our AREPS performance. The combined COVID-nineteen impact amounts to €1.10 per share. This represents 78% of the total €1.41 per share loss in AREPS between H1 2020 NH1 2021. This figure is made of €1.21 per share of rent relief signed and expected to be signed, partly compensated by lower doubtful debtor provisions. It also includes a decrease in convention exhibition net operating income and an increase in the cost of debt due to the high liquidity levels raised to support our wider deleveraging efforts.
In addition, the mechanical impact of 2020 and H1 twenty twenty one disposals was $0.30 per share. Moving on to like for like retail NRI on Slide 21. NRI for shopping centers on a like for like basis was down by 21.8%. 83% of this decrease is from rent relief. NRI like for like was also impacted by net closures, Renewals relating representing a decrease of 7%.
As in 2020, this performance varied between geographies. NII was down 31% in Continental Europe, primarily driven by rent relief and doubtful debtors. As Jean Marie mentioned earlier, the number of days closed versus last year was 60% higher at 91 days versus 57 days last year. UK NRI was down 10% as a result of rent relief granted, increased vacancy and the impact of CVAs. This was partly compensated by lower doubtful data provisions, thanks to better rent collection and a positive evolution in sales based rents and parking income as well as an insurance claim covering the loss of activity due to COVID, all these being captured in the other category.
And finally, U. S. NRI on a like for like basis was flat, thanks to reversal of doubtful debtor provisions, offsetting rent relief granted and the negative impact of vacancy and down lifts. Let's focus now on rent relief and expand on Jean Marie's earlier comments. In H1 2021, we granted €220,000,000 in rent relief compared with €33,000,000 in H1 2020 and €313,000,000 for the full year 2020.
This amount is significantly higher than in H1 2020 due to a number of factors. The accounting approach is the main one. Since full year 2020, we have booked both signed and expected to be signed rent relief based on the principle of a fair sharing of the lockdown burden, while we only accounted for effectively signed reliefs in H1 2020. Negotiations and agreements with tenants have progressed significantly and now stand at 80% for rent relief relating to 2020. The accounting impact of €183,000,000 is lower than the cash impact due to the application of IFRS 16, requiring the straight lining of the rent relief for which we received a concession from the tenant.
In total, the majority of rent relief, around 83% was taken in H1 2021 P and L. Rent collection was another major area of focus for the group during the half. On the basis of the rents due after excluding the rent discounts we discussed earlier, H1 2021 rent collection stands at 89% for the group. It was 87% for Continental Europe, 94% for the UK and 92% for the U. S.
Based on all rents invoiced, rent collection stands at 73% for the group. The level of collection was impacted by the lockdown and other restrictive measures taken by governments, including moratoria in the UK and the U. S. In Continental Europe, the collection rate stood at 69% with lower collection in the 2nd quarter, driven by France, where retailers delayed rent payments in expectation of the government support package. Rent collection was high in the U.
S, reaching 80%, but was still impacted by the moratorium and forced deferrals in certain counties. In the U. K, rent collections stood at 77% with a marked increase as soon as retailers were allowed to trade again. This is a positive sign for the second half following the lifting of all restrictions in this market. It is also consistent with the positive evolution we saw last year when centers were allowed to reopen.
For the rest of these amounts, effectively due, the group maintained a conservative approach to bad debt provisions. Bad debt provisions amounted to €65,000,000 for shopping centers, representing 6.5% of gross rental income. Let's talk now about bankruptcies on Slide 24, where we saw a positive evolution. H1 2021 saw lower bankruptcies than 2020 with 2 10 stores impacted, I. E, 46% less than in H1 last year.
These 210 stores represent 1.8% of total stores. The level of bankruptcies is in particular less pronounced in the U. S. With 1.2% of stores impacted, thanks to an overall improvement in the environment and in sales performance. Thanks to the quality of our assets, tenants remain in place or were replaced in the majority of the cases, representing 83% of the units affected.
The annualized leasing exposure of these bankrupt tenants remaining in ERW's centers corresponds to 1.1% of the gross rental income. Bankruptcies in 2020 and in H1 2021 as well as tenants that did not reopen after the H1 lockdowns had an impact on vacancy levels. At the group level, vacancy rose from 8.3% in December 2020 to 8.8% in Q1 2021 and then stabilized in Q2 at 8.9%. There were once again clear differences between regions. For Continental Europe, Q2 vacancies were down on Q1 2021 and broadly in line with full year levels at 5%.
The U. K. Saw an increase in Q1 due to the lockdowns followed by a slight improvement in Q2. Vacancy, nevertheless, remains impacted by tough market conditions and the relative size of Westfield London. The U.
S. Saw a slight increase in vacancy from 13% to 14% between December 2020 June 2021, particularly at our central business district assets that are most impacted by home working. The number of leases signed significantly increased in H1 2021, exceeding even the pre COVID level of H1 2019. As highlighted by Jean Marie, the group signed new leases or renewals with a number of premium brands who continue to invest in flagship space and concepts at URW Centers. In total, URW signed 12 18 deals, up 84% compared to H1 2020 and up 3% versus H1 2019.
Leasing activity was particularly strong in the U. S, 77% above 2020 levels and 30% above 2019. This included a higher proportion of renewals on short term deals. Europe as a whole saw 6 63 leases, up 91% compared to H1 2020. As Jean Marie indicated, our current leasing strategy balances short term deals of between 12 30 months to reduce vacancy, while ensuring we continue to generate uplift on longer leases to preserve the long term value of our assets.
In H1 2021, short term deals represented 56 Percent of total leases signed. This was 72% in the U. S, reflecting local vacancy levels and 45% in Continental Europe. This 56% represents an increase versus 2020 when short term leases represented around 44% of leasing activity. The uplift on these short term deals was minus 13.8% for the group, including minus 6.8% in Continental Europe, minus 12.8% in the U.
K. And minus 19% in the U. S, reflecting tougher bargaining conditions. The uplift for deals above 3 years was 1.3%, plus 1.3%, made of plus 2.2% in Continental Europe, minus 1.3% in the UK and positive 2.9% in the U. S.
This demonstrates the long term appeal of our assets and retailers' increased confidence in the outlook. Moving now to the office segment on Slide 28. NRI is down 24% due to the disposals of Shift and Les Village Buildings and the Lyon Conference Hotel with a total impact of €11,000,000 On a like for like basis, NRI is positive in France and down slightly on H1 2020 on a group basis. Trinity Tower in La Defense, which was delivered at the end of 2020, is now 21% let with 2 leases signed in H1 2021. Convention exhibition activity remained on hold in H1 with restriction on events for the majority of the period.
Until May 19, no events were authorized. And since then, activity resumed, but with significant capacity restrictions, which were only removed on June 30. As a consequence, NRE was down 97%, while net operating income was negative. With restrictions lifted at the end of June, there's positive news from Q4 2021 and Q1 2022 bookings and pre bookings reaching levels of around 70% of normal years. Activity is expected to return to normal in 2023, where we also expect to benefit from the Paris Olympics from H2023 onwards.
Moving now to portfolio valuation. The main drivers for H1 2021 were the disposals achieved and like for like revaluation. Our portfolio values stand at €55,000,000,000 a 2.4% reduction versus year end 2020. This is due to minus €1,400,000,000 of disposals and foreclosures, a decrease in like for like value of €1,100,000,000 many attributable to retail and I will come back on this. And this decline was partly offset by CapEx of 0.6 €1,000,000,000 and a positive ForEx exchange impact of €600,000,000 with the strengthening of the U.
S. Dollar and sterling against the euro between December 2020 June 2021. The like for like value of the retail portfolio decreased by €1,100,000,000 or 2.5%, as I mentioned earlier. As you can see, there are significant differences across regions. Shopping centers in Continental Europe, which represent 68% of the gross market value of the retail portfolio, well down 1.7% with valuations supported by transactions completed by URW during H1 2021.
UK valuations, which represent 6% of the retail portfolio were hardest hit, down 9%, reflecting market uncertainties. The total decrease in valuation over the past 3 years is now around 40% for the UK. U. S. Assets were down 3% with U.
S. Flagship broadly in line with Europe, while regional assets were more impacted. Overall, for the whole portfolio, appraisers increased both the exit cap rate and the discount rate by around 10 basis points. In addition, they reviewed the cash flow projections and in particular, the exit year NRI, which have decreased compared with year end 2020. It was minus 7% in the UK after minus 8% in 2020 due to the challenges in the UK retail market, Minus 2% in the U.
S. After minus 10% in 2020, reflecting a stabilizing market and flat in concentr relop in a market where vacancy remained stable and rental uplift was almost flat. Looking now at how this translates in terms of NAV on Slide 32. The EPRA net reinstatement value stands at €162.4 per share at June 30, 2021. The 2.6% decrease results mainly from the like for like revaluation of assets and is partly offset by retained profit, Positive FX impact and positive non like for like valuations driven by gains on disposals, the revaluation of operating assets as well as the revaluation of Mall of the Netherlands after its successful delivery.
Moving now to financial ratios. The loan to value was positively impacted by the decrease in net debt resulting from our deleveraging progress. IFRS net financial debt stands at €23,500,000,000 at the end of H1, down from €24,200,000,000 at year end 2020 despite a negative FX impact. This figure is €23,000,000,000 on a pro form a basis for the disposals agreed but not completed at the end of June, namely the disposal of the 7 Adenauer office building expected to close in Q3 and the sale of a 45% stake in Shopping City Sud completed and cashed in on July 21. Thanks to this debt reduction and despite the decrease in value mentioned, DLTV decreased slightly from 44.7% at the end of 2020 to 44.4% at the end of H1 2021.
This holds further to 43.7% if you factor in the signed disposals. On a proportionate basis, the LTV stands at 46% 45.4% pro form a for the same disposals versus 46.3% last year. Lower EBITDA, down 25% compared to last year as a result of the significant rent relief booked in H1 obviously had an impact on cash flow related credit metrics. Interest coverage ratio decreased from 3.5 times to 2.9 times. Funds from operations over net debt dropped from 4.8% to 4.3%.
While this is above our debt covenant, the group has obtained a waiver from its lending bank should this covenant be breached temporarily in 2021. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio, which is not part of the group's debt covenant package, It stands at 16.6 times versus 14.6 times last year. But as our debt continues to decrease And our EBITDA recovers going forward, we expect to see significant improvement in these ratios. As mentioned in February and reiterated by Jean Marie earlier, deleveraging remains the key financial priority for the group. We set 4 actions to achieve this objective and have made significant progress on each of these in the course of H1 2021.
This includes progress on our European disposal program, evaluating all options to deliver a radical reduction in our U. S. Exposure, including the ongoing streamlining of our U. S. Regional portfolio, reducing our pipelines through deliveries, reducing our CapEx spending versus previous years and of course, suspending the dividend.
We are committed to delivering this process in the most orderly and efficient way. And we can make this commitment thanks to our strong liquidity position and undrawn credit facilities. They were extended in H1 2021, thanks to the financing activity during the period. Disposals are a key component of our deleveraging strategy. As a reminder, we committed to dispose of €4,000,000,000 of European assets by the end of 2022.
As mentioned previously, we have agreed or completed €1,700,000,000 of disposals from both our office and retail portfolios over 42% of our disposal target in Europe. These disposals were achieved at a 7% premium to last appraisals, including plus 13.5% for offices and minus 1.6 percent for retail. We have identified the remaining assets for disposals and are confident that the quality of these assets will support this process. In addition, Voluntary foreclosures were completed on 4 U. S.
Regional assets. These assets were operating significantly below the average quality of of our U. S. Portfolio in terms of occupancy and sales intensity. As a result of this process, These assets and EUR 346,000,000 of non recourse debt attached to them are no longer on our balance sheet.
Moving now to the development pipeline on Slide 37. This has been further reduced to €3,800,000,000 in June 2021 from €4,400,000,000 in December 2020. This is primarily due to the successful delivery of Mall of the Netherlands, the Fashion Pavilion extension in La Macquista and 2 department store conversions in the U. S. Of our €3,800,000,000 pipeline, €2,300,000,000 is for committed projects divided between €1,300,000,000 invested to date and €1,000,000,000 that remains to be spent.
No major projects were added to the pipeline in H1 2021, and the group will only consider launching control projects after completing its deleveraging program or with partners that would allow the group to reduce its capital allocation on these projects while generating development or management fees. H1 2021 CapEx amounted to €600,000,000 in line with the group's intention to limit its CapEx to a maximum of €2,000,000,000 for 2021 2022. And as we said in February, the group will continue to raise funds on an opportunistic basis. During H1, we raised €1,250,000,000 of bonds at attractive rates with an average coupon of 1.05 percent and a 10 year average maturity. The group also worked on the extension of its existing credit facilities.
€3,350,000,000 of credit facilities were signed, including the €3,100,000,000 sustainability green revolving credit facility, the largest green RCF in the sector in Europe. This facility included €700,000,000 of new money. Thanks to these signings, the group now has €9,800,000,000 of crate facilities and extended its average maturity to 2.7 years at the end of June, up from 1.9 years at the end of 2020. In total, the amount of cash plus the crate facilities stand at €12,500,000,000 This covers the group's funding needs for the next 36 months before any additional debt is raised our disposal completed, I. E, 12 months longer than our position as of December 31, 2020.
This puts the group in a position to execute its disposal and deleveraging program in the best possible conditions. That's all from me, and I will now hand back to Jean Marie for some concluding remarks.
Thank you, Fabrice. We are cautiously optimistic given the progressive recovery of footfall and tenant sales as restrictions are eased and given our solid leasing activity that demonstrate the commercial appeal of our assets. We remain fully focused on our operational priorities and totally committed to progressing our deleveraging plan in the second half of the year. Due to the ongoing COVID impact and the ongoing risk of further restrictions, we are not in a position to offer guidance for the second half. We expect conditions to stabilize in Q4, and 2022 will be the year of recovery built on our portfolio of flagship destinations in the best locations and the increasing strength of the Westfield brand.
Thank you for your attention. And now let's open the floor for questions.
Congres. The first question comes from Sandler Berg from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening, team. Thanks very much. A couple of questions from me. Firstly is on guidance, and I appreciate it's a bit too difficult to say something on FY 'twenty one. But Since you mentioned a couple of times that 2022 would be the year of recovery, I was just wondering if you could give any sense based On the disposals that you've done currently, kind of 100% the ZYN collection rates, etcetera, what kind of RFs you would potentially be looking at?
The second one is on the U. S. And I think you mentioned that you have a couple of options under consideration, and I was Just wondering if you could give a bit more detail in terms of how you're looking to materially decrease your exposure there. And lastly, it was on the Financial cost of debt that I think is now at the moment back towards 2015 levels.
Just if you could give
a bit more sense there about what you expect that to happen going And what the drivers are of that number.
Okay. Maybe I will leave the question on the guidance for I will start with the U. S. Disposals. The I was referring to during the presentation about regional malls for which we received unsolicited offers, and particularly on 1 Assets, where we decided then to organize a tender as we received 3 different offers from 3 different investors, 3 different types of investors.
So and looking at the price that we're offered, we consider that it would be maybe wise organize this tender. We have other direct off market discussions as well on regional malls that are part of this strategy to really streamline our portfolio as we for the foreclosures of assets that we gave back to the lenders of the services in Florida. So we are really working on that, while in the meantime, we see our flagship assets getting back on track in terms of sales as we have reached 100% in volume of the sales of 2019 in June, even if the traffic is back at 75% due to this Still you know, home working policy that is applying in the U. S. We expect the market to reopen in terms of investment more in 2022.
We see some first financing mortgage financing on some very qualitative assets that give us confidence that in 2022, we should face a more favorable market, even if not everything would be fully reopened. So the focus for this year was streamlining our portfolio and working on the options. As we said, we set up a task force to really work on it, look at all and every options, such as we would be ready when the markets will reopen. So this is where we are on the U. S.
Disposal program.
So regarding your question on the guidance. In at the end of the quarter and more precisely, The semester, we saw a number of positive evolutions in terms of sales retailer sales in terms of footfall Upon reopening in June, we saw also as well in the semester a good leasing activity recovering, limited vacancy. But despite this, we still have a number of uncertainties and in particular with the development of new variant and the uncertainty that this raises in terms of Actions by governments that could be put in place to fight against this variant. And I guess one of the example is the law that was passed in France and of course, which we are discussing with the need to have other vaccination certificate of sanitary pass or a proof of absence of infection to enter shopping centers. And so at the end of the day, This relates to a number of uncertainties or this creates a number of uncertainties, not to mention as well the uncertainty around the support of the French government, which as you've seen has had a negative impact in terms of rent collection in the Q2.
So all these And uncertainties lead us to a decision or make us consider that it's not appropriate to give guidance at this stage. And of course, As soon as we have better visibility, as the situation stabilizes, in particular with the rollout of the vaccine, we'll be able to communicate to you. But At this stage, we felt it was not appropriate. One point to mention is that effectively, as you've seen, the COVID-nineteen had a significant impact against through the lockdowns in terms of rent relief. That is the main explanation.
83% of the like for like annual performance, which gives you a sense for the impact of this COVID related and this extraordinary situation that we have suffered from in H1 2021. Sorry, Sander, what was your first question on financial covenants?
Yes. So that was not on
top of it. It was on the cost of debt.
Cost of debt.
That has continued to increase,
yes. So I think one of the impact of the crisis, in particular, the wider plan to deleverage the company is that In order to do that in the most orderly and efficient way, we have gathered additional liquidity, and We have today in our balance sheet €2,700,000,000 of cash. And of course, this has a significant impact on our cost of debt, in particular in Europe. As a reminder, usually, we used to have around €500,000,000 to maybe €600,000,000 of cash position, which by the way, at that time was still positive in terms of conditions of placement. And here, you see that in order again to deliver this deleveraging program in the best conditions.
We wanted to have a high level of Equity, euros 2,800,000,000 is or euros 2,700,000,000 is really massive and you have a negative cost of carry on these Alliance, which of course on this cash, which of course explains part of the increasing the cost of debt, which by the way is also connected to the COVID-nineteen. So this is purely connected to the COVID-nineteen. And going forward, this should, of course, subside. But this stage, we feel it's the best approach to maintain this level of liquidity.
Okay. And sorry, just quickly following on that part a bit. The 3.9%, that is not necessarily related to excess liquidity in Europe, right? Or is it?
No, the 3.9% is connected to the U. S, and this includes as well the cost in connection with foreclosures and in particular, the cost on the day that is foreclosed.
Okay, fine. And just very lucky, just on the progress on the U. S. Assets and out of interest, you mentioned you had been approached and did a tender offer for some of those assets. Is there anything you can say in terms of pricing where that was kind of coming out?
No, not yet. We are working on it, and we have ongoing discussions. So far, I think it It wouldn't be wise for our negotiation to share that.
Yes, I know. Thanks very much.
Thank you. Next question from Stuart MacLean from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Just a couple of questions on the U. S. For me. Just in regards to firstly on Vacancy 2022 is the year of recovery.
Where do you expect vacancy to fall to in the U. S. To help aid those Discussions around disposals. Question 2 is very much linked to that. Just in regards to Underlying income there looks like a minus 12.9% in the half and kind of connected to vacancies.
Where do you see that going and when do we start to get growth? And thirdly, in the U. S, the net initial yield Came in 5.1%. And how is that justified? And is there an expectation that the cap rates and more yields expand on that U.
S. Portfolio in the next 12 months. Thank you.
Yes. So to start with the vacancy, so I think that the vacancy of our assets has been deeply impacted by very specific bankruptcies, the first one being ArcLight, the cinema operator, so where we are 2 cinemas. These 2 cinemas closing during the first half of the year increased our vacancy by 0.4%. We have already ongoing negotiations and discussions to replace this cinema operator in these two assets. So we should see the vacancy in that respect going down.
We see 2 assets that are also impacted by the mainly, I would say, the direct environment linked to this home working policy that has been followed for now more than 18 months in the U. S. At our Watford Center and San Francisco Center, where we see the Vacancy level really increasing a lot, linked to closure of stores. If we were to exclude these two assets, the level of vacancy in our portfolio would be closer to the 12.4%, and we expect that with the effort that we are putting now on this Short term leasing strategy and as well the ongoing negotiations that we have that we should see stabilization and a potential decrease of the vacancy level in the course of the second half of the year. So this is to answer your question on the vacancy.
On the disposal, I'm not sure to get exactly what was your question. So What was exactly the detail that you wanted?
Yes. So I didn't ask on disposal. My next question was in regards to kind of NGRs in the U. S. When would you expect to achieve positive growth there?
And my third question was in regards to the net initial yields in the U. S. Reducing by 0.1%.
Yes. So on the MGR levels, you see that when we go for long term leases, we have been able to achieve uplift on the MGR level of 2.9% on the long term leases, which demonstrates, I think, the appeal of our centers. And so you know their strength seen from the retailers. The strategy that we have put in place in terms of leasing is really to maintain the occupancy and recreate, As mentioned, the commercial tension, so we need to get out of this pandemic crisis or pandemic period, maintain the commercial appeal of our assets, their attractiveness by having the right offer. In the meantime, working on having the new experiences like we did with Pinstripes that we opened 2 restaurants with us, large restaurants with the bowling concepts associated to it.
And that's where we think that in the course of 2022, 2023, we'd be able to by this commercial tension, recapture part of the MGR that we lost in the last 2 years for this short term leases. On the net initial yield. I will leave the question to Fabrice.
Yes. In fact, when you look at the net initial yield or more precisely, Tassell's net potential yield, it's effectively from 4.9% to 4.8%. This being said, the 4.9% It was in particular inflated or increased because of the 4 assets that exited the portfolio this semester. And therefore, If you exclude those ones, we had a net potential yield of 4.8%, so meaning that the assets were more or less The net potential yield was stable in the U. S, with again a marked difference between regional assets for which the value on a like for like basis went down by 10.6% and minus 1.6% for our U.
S. Flagship assets, which corresponds to a trend that is more or less similar with our flagship assets in Europe.
Thank you. If I could just ask 2 follow ups there. Firstly, in regards to the shorter term Deals, do you think that the retailers are going to be accustomed to this going forward and therefore the cash flow Certainty of the assets is therefore reducing with shorter leases? And secondly, should that be reflected in terms of Asset valuations, and do you think a 4.8% yield or cap rate is realistic in the market?
No, we are not expecting the retailers to get used to it, at least on the short term basis. Why that? Because obviously, when you sign a short term lease, you don't reinvest it to the store. And then if you want to reinvest it to the store, which the retailers need to do. If they want to remain attractive and performing, they need to go for these long term leases.
What we are trying to solve here It's a very specific situation linked to these unstabilized operating conditions in which we are. These restrictions that are limiting the capacity of some of our retailers to get their business back on track at 100% and that we because we talk about mainly renewals, so that are people that wants to stay, but doing negotiations now, which when it is the worst moment ever, it's not the wise things to do for them as well as for us. They wonder what will be the recovery. They want to see where we are going and where the sales are going. And then I think that's in 2 years from now, which is somehow the average duration of this short term leases.
We'll be in a better position to negotiate. We'll have a better view on what is the sales level for the retailers, What does it bring to their network and what is the contribution of these stores on their network and their bottom line? And for us, we'll have been able to strengthen these assets and then to be more demanding on the MGR level. What we did in this negotiation as well, again, and this important to get it is that we lowered the NGR, but we didn't know negotiated only the lowering of the NGR. We lowered the thresholds to trigger the turnover rent such as we expect that once the sales will be back with the traffic at the 100% level and even potentially above for same categories that the leasing revenues that will generate these leases will be somehow close to where they were pre COVID.
And just on the follow-up in regards to the Net initial yield, do you think that that's realistic pricing in the market in the U. S?
I think these valuations are based on appraisers. They are reviewed by the auditors. And At the end of the day, what will make the value is the price at which we'll be able to sell those assets.
At book values. Sorry, Joe, are those yields what you'd expect to transact at in the market?
I think that's again, In the U. S, the market is not reopened for main assets, and we'll see where the market is once we'd be ready to go onto the market. I think that, again, today, the focus is on operations. As I said, we have, even continue to strengthen these assets like we do on Westfield Montgomery or Westfield Garden State Plaza with these standards that we organized for the densification project on Garden State Plaza. We have more than 14 developers that replied to the first round of this tender to be the partner and to be the developer of this densification project, which will strengthen our assets, not only for the traffic that would generate these resi buildings around us or on top of us, but also by the land value that we have been able externalize that was not part of the by the way, of the GMV of our appraisers as they were not taking it into account.
So we have been externalizing additional value, and we've strengthened our assets. We'll see what are the values when we go on the market. So far, 3rd party appraisers are giving us their opinion on the value of these assets. These valuations are as well audited by our financial auditors that have no comments to this valuation, so that's what we take into account at that stage.
Okay. Appreciate your time. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question from Betsch Wichford from Societe Generale. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Just a couple of Additional questions, please. It looks like quite a shallow capital value decline in the half, and I just wondered Whether you foresee that as being essentially coming out of the trough and do you anticipate Capital value growth level off from here, first question.
I mean, it's hard to anticipate values, obviously. I think one of the Supporting or the comforting element that we saw in H1 2021 was, a, The access to funding for these assets and the two transactions that we have completed on retail That was supported by bank financing, mortgage bank financing, which was available at attractive conditions. Just to give you An idea on the 7 year loan that we have put in place on shopping Citi Sud, the cost was 1.39%, which is obviously very attractive. So the debt market is there for prime quality asset, and we are using that in the context of the disposals. And the second point is that effectively, when we sell these assets, We tend to sell them at book value.
So they give us a strong reference in terms of valuation, and we will see as we Proceed with further disposals, how this evolves. That's already the case, by the way, on offices, where you saw that the premium achieved was significant, 13.5%, and we'll see how this develops on the retail side. But as I said, we have already identified the assets that we intend to sell, and We'll test the appetite on those assets.
Okay. A question on the U. S. The Fort Worth, the 34 closed on presumably then they had a negative net book value at the end of December In order for you to realize a gain in the first half, are there other I would tell you, instead of more sort of negative book value?
Sorry. Is there any negative Values again on other assets, I don't think so at that stage.
I think the point on these assets was that effectively, at the end of the day, The value of the asset was lower than the value of the debt that we had in front of this, and therefore, we could get rid of we could have both the asset and the debt exiting our balance sheet, which created these capital gains. And this is, I would say specific to these assets, and this is something that effectively usually applies to on regional assets, the weakest ones, but these were the 4 ones for which we have this type of situation.
Okay. Thanks. And one final question. Just wondering about the delayed government Support in France and how much you might expect to realize from that if it goes through and gets approved?
Are you talking about the support that they or the last disposition?
Yes, The delayed government support for tenants in France. Yes.
It's linked to our Also, the delay is linked to I think that the French government has several times said that they would bring support to the Retailers to be able to for them to pay their rent and the service charges for the period where they were closed. The delay is linked to our negotiation in between the European community and the French government, where it seems to be the case that these negotiations are almost now done and that the French government is working on the application decrease. So we are waiting for this decree in the coming weeks. I don't know. This has been something that we The retailers and us have been discussing with the French government now for a while as they announced very quickly in February that they will give support to the retailers.
So that's something that should happen soon, but I cannot tell you when. But I know that they are working on it.
And how much would you expect to get if there is if that gets passed?
That depends on what they will what the government will finalize finally put onto the decrease, so which I don't know yet, so I know what's the philosophy, which is to bring support to be able to pay the rent and the service charges, but I need to see what is the final outcome of the negotiation with Brussels as well as the way they will draft the decree, which is something that we are still waiting for.
Okay. That's all my questions. Thank you very
much. Thank you. Next question from Florent Laurin Joubert from ODDO. Please go ahead.
Hi. So thank you very much for your presentation. I may have maybe three questions. So first question about on the H2. So would it be possible maybe to have any more colors on collection rates in July?
So can we say that now the situation can be considered as normal due to the fact that all Shopping centers are now open. That would be my first question. Maybe my second question. So you have disposed significant European centers in Ashwaan. So do you think that we could Expect any other major disposal in Astor or maybe shall we expect them to occur In 2022.
And maybe my third question would be on the disposal plan for U. S. Flagships. So I understand that you had some initial marks of interest. So have you any Updated discussions with some investors in the U.
S. Thank you very much.
Maybe I will start with the U. S. Flagships because What I said is that we have discussion on the regional assets. So we that is part of our effort to streamline our portfolio. We have not entered into discussions any discussion today on the flagship assets.
And we are, Again, as I said, working on the different options and what are the best options for us to leverage the company. So that's what we are doing so far. So no particular our discussions with investors on the flagship set, streamlining of the regional portfolio. On the European Center. So we are working on preparing all the potential disposals.
We have several options that we are looking at. I cannot tell you that this would be achieved in the course of the second half. We may move on some of these disposals during the second half, but it could be that it will be executed in 2022. What we said we will achieve is €4,000,000,000 of disposals in Europe before the end or at year end 2022.
And coming back to your first question on RIN collection for July, It stands at 72%, including 75% in the U. S, 65% in the U. K. And 71% in Continental Europe, where effectively France continues to like Bien and in particular, as Jean Marie mentioned, in the context of these Expectations and the wait and see approach of a number of retailers waiting for the degree and the support that they could get from the French government. So that's where we stand.
So we are not yet in a fully normalized situation. Nevertheless, one of the positive features that we saw is that When shopping centers again were able to trade again, we saw an improvement of the rent collection. And if I take the U. K. Example, It was 70% in Q1 and increased to 74% in Q2 at a Time when they were able to operate and even the Q1 collection rate increased over time from 56% in at the end of March to a level of 69% 2 months later and 70% in as of now.
So there's an improvement going forward, but it takes longer to get to the usual levels of rent collection.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next Question from Bart Keesens from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you very much. Good evening. I had a question regarding your shorter lease strategy. When did you decide to do this? Were those 56% of leases signed spread over the first half or is that recently accelerated?
And can you give us a bit of guidance of The leases you've signed in July so far, of what percentage of those have actually been shorter as well? Should we now expect 70%, 80%, 19% of all leases that are shorter or is kind of 50%, 60% the new norm?
So last year we started this last year again, and it's mainly when you look at the breakdown of the activity. So you see that this is really mainly in the you see that this is mainly in the U. S. Globally, last year, we were at 44% of the leasing activity being on short term leases. So we started last year during the H2 looking at What was the situation, the distributions with the retailers?
So this is when we decided to maybe accelerate on this such as we can as well focus more on the long term leases and having our teams being split in between what can be renewed very fast and get out of this very difficult situation in which we are regarding the operations and the crisis and just moving the discussion after the end of the crisis. And so we are at 56%. So obviously, as operations are stabilizing, we are expecting that The short term leases will be a smaller proportion of what we achieved. It as well would be linked to the level of vacancy and what are the deals that we'll be able to achieve, such as we see the start of the reduction of the vacancy. And as you will see, the reduction of the vacancy, you will see the proportion of long term leases coming higher and back to where they were before.
Thank you. And can I just confirm, when you said it's mainly in the U? S, but it's still 45 In Continental Europe as well, right?
Yes, yes. But when you look at the breakdown, this is why you see that the proportion is really higher and that you see an evolution as well in Europe, but this is the big proportion today is in Europe is in the U. S, sorry.
And my last or my follow-up question on this, I think you or Fabrice, forgive me if it wasn't you, but made the comment that For a lot of retailers, this is a very difficult time to renew. They don't have much visibility on the future trajectory, and therefore, they renew without actually that much negotiation. Is that What's happening, are retailers not using the very difficult environment to cut cost and push their landlord Tire or are they just expressing the difficult environment they're in by maybe holding back rent for a bit and they're actually willing to sign new leases? Some color on kind of how the negotiation with retailers is going, that would be interested. Thank you.
Again, if you look at the so globally, we are at 44% of our leasing activity that is on long term leases with 7.5 years of rate duration, uplift at 1.3% globally on our portfolio. So you have a lot of retailers that are still signing long term leases here in the current environment in which we are when you start and this is also us pushing for that. It's also for the matter of for the sake of speed is that when you have a renewal and when you You have a retailer that is coming and telling you that he lost 50% of his sales. You can always argue that this is going to COVID. Still, they say they tell you this is This is this.
So what we offer them is, okay, you know what, let's talk about this situation. Let's go through the recovery. Let's lower the NGR. Let's lower at the same time the thresholds that would which would define when you would trigger the sales base rent. Let's see where the recovery is and let's have the description of your renewal in 2 years.
This goes a little bit like the some of the negotiations that we have on some retailers where We do developments. And while you don't know where the sales will be, so you start at a lower MGR, you go for a higher turnover rent or higher variable part of your rent that you will crystallize after year 3 or year 4 into your MGR. This is exactly the same discussion. Our vision is that our retailers in our assets, in our flagship assets, will see the traffic coming back to 2019 levels, and I think it would be in Q4, and they would see the sales level being at 2019 levels, if not above 2019 levels, starting from Q4 and going forward. Obviously, taking into account that the vaccination rates We'll be high enough such as we see the stabilization of the operating conditions, that we see the easing of the restrictions that we are still suffering from on certain categories of activities and that we have the people coming back to the offices.
So that's our plan. So we think that, As I said during the presentation, that part of the turnover rent or the valuable part of the rent would be higher in the coming 2 years in proportion, linked to the fact that our sales level would be higher and that will trigger more turnover rent. But leasing revenue wise, we should see less GAAP than what's the MGR down lift that you see on the short term list, minus 13.8% Globally, let's imagine it could be.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. And last question from Pierre Kering from Kempen. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. Yes, a few more from my side. I think a lot of questions already on U. S. Valuations and disposals.
So I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit on the structure of the U. S. Debt, specifically on the cost guarantees Between U. S. Debt and European assets, also what you would quantify if you would sell, for example, next year Somewhere as hedge breaking costs because of your very high hedging positions overall.
If we could start there, please.
Yes. So in the U. S, we have a combination of corporate debt, which is mainly bond debt, And you have the details. And so we have issued a bond, which effectively for which effectively a cross guarantee between Europe and the U. S.
So that we have one single credit for all the bonds that have issued that have been issued by the group as a whole. And so You have this part, which is really corporate debt. And in addition to that, on a number of assets, Usually, by the way, the smallest ones, the regional ones, and we don't we just have one asset, the flagship assets, which is subject to mortgage financing. So for those ones, it's more nonrecourse financing and effectively in those types of situations and of course, depending on the cases, we could consider these situations of Foreclosures, voluntary foreclosures as we have done it in H1 2021. For the rest, the majority of the debt is corporate debt.
And so when it comes to the unwinding of these ones, first, In terms of hedging, for you to know, both the mark to market of the debt And of the derivatives is included in our NAV computation. So basically, the NAV computation gives you The full impact of the unwinding of these bonds. And secondly, of course, There would be ways to try to structure that and potentially to keep part of this corporate debt at URW level by doing a cross currency swaps, switching from USD to euro, in particular for the longer dated bonds, which, of course, are the most expensive, but as well which are the ones that allow to increase the overall maturity. So on these ones, of course, it will all depend on the Deal structure that we will implement in the U. S, but there are ways to mitigate obviously this impact.
And in any case, The full impact of the mark to market of the debt and the financial instruments in the U. S. Is in our books and in the NAV computation.
All right. And in terms of the co owners In the JV assets in U. S, can you maybe elaborate on their positions?
Well, It's when you look at, for example, Westfield Montgomery or Westfield Gas and Set Plaza, we are working together on the tender. It's Nuveen on 1 and MNG on the other one. And for them, they just to wait to know what are the options that we want to exercise and see what would be the impact. So but it's part of this task force that I was talking about to work on the different options and to see also what is the thing that we can do with our JV partners as well.
But would you say that generally your interests are aligned in kind of disposing the assets
on some assets, yes. We have some of our JV partners, in particular, on the regional ones that are interested in selling these assets as well. So and that's the work that we are doing these days and that we started now almost 6 months ago to engage this discussion with the different partners, look at where we are somehow invest and continue to invest and to develop these assets. When I say to develop, it's to lease these assets like we do on Topanga with the Sears Box extension that we are developing currently developing with our partner CPP and where we have been able to sign in the course of the first half of the year, a flagship store with Hermes and that we signed as well with AMC that will move its Cinema there. So that's what we are doing today and having ongoing discussions and permanent discussion with our GP partners, asset by asset.
Right. 2 more if I may. First, could you disclose the yield Only after delivering Malta Netherlands.
I will leave the question to Boris. I'm not sure that we
We have not showed that on a asset based basis. But just for you to know, and that's an important element. As I've mentioned, as part of the non like for like revaluation, There was obviously a revaluation of this asset. And so The mark to market of the asset upon delivery generated again in URW's books in terms of with a positive impact in terms of revaluation. And so this is as well a testimony of, again, the pre letting or level of letting at 94% of the center and as well the strong start that we have seen.
All right. Okay. That's interesting. So positive Move on the yield then. All right.
And then my last question, because I guess you mentioned The mark to market of debt is in the net, but I can see in the presentation you focus on an RV, which is, in my view, an inflated number. Why? Because also with the disposal of shopping city seat, you've actually proven that some of the first half of the deferred tax is actually liability. So Why don't you focus on the NTA?
Our intention is obviously to continue the operations and therefore to be a growing concern. And so that's Why these metrics is, in our view, the most representative of the way we want to manage the business. And this being said, of course, you have all the details and you have this in varied details, including as well the NTA NAV. So you have all the details of For the different components of each NAV computation in the document, so We disclose all of them and the way they are computed, including, again, on an item by item basis, the retreatment that are made to reach the each NAV computation.
Yes. Just from my personal perspective, including an expected write down on the U. S. I think it would be more prudent to use the NCI approach, but that is probably my personal opinion. But thanks, all those, very helpful.
Thank you.
Thank you. That was the last question. So back to you for the conclusion.
Thank you, Orest. Thank you for your questions. And again, happy to see you or to welcome you on the Mall of the Netherlands as soon as we can travel back to the Netherlands, which is the case for some of our European countries. So don't hesitate. You should do the tour.
Thank you.
Thank you.