Hello everyone, thank you for joining us today on our earnings call for the presentation of our results for the first half-year of 2021. On the Corestate Investor Relations website, you can find our earnings presentation, our press release, and the H1 report, which you can follow. As usual, I'd like to direct your attention to the forward-looking statement and disclaimer wording on page two of our presentation. This safe harbor language applies to the presentation and all comments we will be making today. I would also like to mention that everything is being recorded. You can replay the call and view the transcript on our Investor Relations website after the call. On the call with me are our CEO, René Parmantier, our new CFO, Udo Giegerich, who will guide you through the presentation, followed by the usual Q&A session.
The timeframe for today's call is about 30 minutes. Now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to René. René, the floor is yours.
Many thanks, Kai, and welcome from my side. Let me start by giving you an overview on the highlights and key messages of the second quarter of 2021. In general, our market and our own performance in this environment showed dynamic growth both in revenues and earnings. This includes catch-up effects, but also a somewhat normal upward development, shaped by sustainable drivers. We benefit from this also because of the strategic transformation we initiated back in Q1 with a new and strong focus on our clients and the setup as a full-service firm for the entire life cycle of a real estate investment. We see impressive growth and a booming market in real estate debt. Not only in Q2 with the financial structuring of one of the biggest single asset deals in 2021 at Corestate Bank, but also in the upcoming months based on a very well-filled pipeline.
Our real estate equity business is in line with our budgets and phasing, and typical for this sort of operations will show an upswing with a little time gap in the second half of the year. We already feel the transaction market becoming more vibrant. Our other segments reach stability in asset valuations, also driven by growing momentum in real estate transaction market against the backdrop of notable progress in vaccination campaigns worldwide. Speaking about what's on the menu for the upcoming months, we are fully on track to deliver on our financial outlook for the full year 2021, and we will also deliver on our net debt reduction ambition with a leverage target of below 3x . Last but not least, our new fully aligned management team is on board.
With the exception of a COO, will complete us hopefully soon, and the team is fully committed to our common goals. As you can see from the fact that the entire management board owns nearly 10% of the outstanding shares in Corestate. We strongly believe in this company and ask you to flip to page four. You see an overview on our assets under management on this chart. Our core business real estate assets under management went slightly down to EUR 24.3 billion at the end of June. Driven mainly by the termination of micro-living developments, but also the sale of some assets and typical seasonality in our investment management business. In parallel, the non-real estate AUMs also decreased as planned to EUR 3.1 billion. When we step a bit closer to the various sectors, we realize the ongoing gradual shift of our clients to more basic risk-return profiles.
You see this mirrored in the increase in residential and city quarters and in logistics, and the slight decrease in office and retail. Our real estate assets under management consists of 47% real estate equity and roughly one quarter each in debt and third-party property management. When I dare look into the upcoming months, we expect further growth in all business lines, supported by a strong financing pipeline of around EUR 0.5 Billion of mezzanine business and a solid pipeline in advanced contractual status of around EUR 1.5 billion for our real estate equity operations. I ask you to flip to page five. Let's now take a deeper dive into our newest family member, the Corestate Bank. The acquisition was signed in January and already closed in May, very efficient deal execution, including regulatory consent. Those days, the entity was called AFS.
Rebranding and integration into our operations and client management is done, yet. This acquisition came at a perfect timing as the market is really booming out there in this segment. Backed by prosperous economic environment, ever more restrictive lending policies at traditional banks, and a sharpened housing scarcity, especially in bigger cities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The Corestate Bank hit the ground running. Our new colleagues structured and closed in May and June with a financing volume of more than EUR 1 billion, the largest-ever single property project, the so-called FÜRST on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. This has correspondingly generated a positive impact on our real estate debt segment performance. In parallel, we're currently dealing with a pipeline of around EUR 1 billion of already mandated financings or projects which are in preparation. In brief, the growth story will go on.
This is not the only reason why we've acquired this business. The strong client relations and the early-stage involvement in large real estate developments give us clear advantage also for our real estate equity segment when it comes to follow-up deals and especially cross-selling opportunities. All in all, we are on a very good path here as well. Ask you to flip to page number six. This chart, you know it from our previous calls, gives you an intel on the usage of our debt funds at HFS. The total commitment fund volume was unchanged at around EUR 1.3 billion. At the end of June, we financed 45 projects with an average financing size of around EUR 28 million. The focus has not shifted since years and is with around 70% on residential and city quarters in Germany's largest cities.
Currently, we gave funding to 26 different borrowers, the largest of which is not taking an exposure of more than 20%. We are absolutely convinced that the strategy was the basis for our remarkable performance during the crisis and will be the foundation for a very profitable future in this business. With this, I would like to hand over to our new CFO, Udo Giegerich. Let me add that I'm very pleased that you, Udo, are on board with your longstanding track record in various finance and IR roles. Please flip to page seven now. Udo, the floor is yours.
Many thanks, René. A very warm welcome to all of you from my side. Please allow me some introductory words before I'd like to give you some information on our financials. Before I joined Corestate, I was Executive Vice President, Group Finance and Investor Relations at Uniper and CFO at 50Hertz. I bring in vast transformation experience in very institutionalized environments, but I also had various touch points to the real estate and financial services industry with, for example, being responsible for building one of the most outstanding corporate headquarters in Berlin, the 50Hertz Netzquartier, and also investing a substantial part of Uniper's pension assets in real estate. Just one week ago, I took over the responsibility for IR, accounting, tax, controlling treasury, and risk management at Corestate.
My key tasks in the upcoming quarters are clearly the development and implementation of a funding and refinancing strategy on the back of an increased efficiency through integration and digitalization of the processes. The basis for all of this is an improved transparency and investor awareness for the transformation story of Corestate, subsequently leading to an increase in market cap. I'm looking forward to speak to all of you, our dear investors and analysts, personally in the upcoming weeks, starting already this afternoon. Please be also aware, I share the belief in the bright future of Corestate Group with my board colleagues, thus, will, already starting today and in the next days, also invest in the stock myself. Please turn to page eight. Please allow me to give you some information on our income lines.
In very brief, we saw a strong recovery, especially in the second quarter from the pandemic. Our real estate equity segment delivered EUR 7 million of acquisition and sales fees and EUR 35 million of assets and property management fees, thus showing a steadiness in core and core plus products. Also a slightly reduced income stream from micro living development. We expect this segment to pick up momentum in the second half of 2021, and we already realize tangible signs for this in the market. Real estate debt with underwriting and structuring fees of EUR 28 million, asset management fees including CPF of EUR 31 million, and income from bridge loan of EUR 10 million, simply bringing in very good results on the back of the new business at Corestate Bank and increasing CPF in Q2.
As part of our approach to reduce balance sheet exposure, we expect bridge lending and corresponding income to go down in the upcoming months, for we will still also opportunistically take advantage of this high profitable business in the future. We reported some COVID-driven negative valuation effects in Q1 impacting our income from other segments, but we saw a stabilization in asset values in the second quarter, leading to income from the other segments of EUR 3 million, down from EUR 7 million in the first half of last year. This all adds up to EUR 113 million of aggregated revenues and gains, up from EUR 96 million in the comparable period of 2020. Please turn to page nine.
With this chart, I would like to show you our key P&L figures. Our OpEx ratio of more than 50%, clearly higher than usual and higher than we want to see in the medium term, was driven by some seasonality effects, the inelasticity of our fixed cost base, but also some extraordinary transformation costs for the above-mentioned business enhancement initiatives in our real estate equity segment. Main focus of the upcoming years will be to keep the overall cost stable through taking out complexity and usage of modern technology and digitalization while increasing the revenues and thus reduce the OpEx ratio. The G&A expenses of nearly EUR 24 million, up from EUR 16.5 million in H1 last year, includes one-off expenses from M&A and also set up costs for the strategic repositioning.
Our EBITDA stood at nearly EUR 35 million with a clear improvement of margin to 35%, up from 27% in the first six months of 2020. G&A, roughly EUR 17 million, include the first-time consolidation effects from AFS, now Corestate Bank. This leads to an EBIT of EUR 17.5 million after EUR 9.6 million in the comparable period of last year. Our financial results was kept nearly unchanged at EUR 9.7 million, and our income tax expenses, driven by limited usage of international tax loss carry-forward within the group, was EUR -7.4 million. Our net profit for the first half of 2021 stood at EUR 0.5 million, corrected by M&A related expenses of EUR 4.8 million, depreciations of around EUR 13 million on PPA related intangibles, and DTAs of EUR -3.3 million, the corresponding adjusted net profit shows more than EUR 15 million.
All these figures and the visible upswing in Q2 compared to Q1 are in line with our budget and phasing during the year. We are on track to deliver on our financial outlook. Please turn to page 10. One of my first and foremost tasks as CFO of Corestate will be the reduction of our net debt to reach the leverage target of below three until end of the year. Let me be very clear, we are steering the right course to reach this. You see on the chart that at the end of June, we had EUR 620 million of total debt adjusted by EUR 28 million for leasing liabilities. With our cash pile of more than EUR 60 million, our net debt stood at EUR 557 million.
Crucial steps on this will be a net debt reduction of more than EUR 50 million in Q3, stemming out of bridge loan lending repayments and cash conversions from assets in our balance sheet. This will be followed by the deconsolidation of the Giessen premise currently in our inventories, further placements of our balance sheet, and repayments of more than EUR 180 million in total in Q4 2021. Another EUR 60 million or more are designated as proceeds from placements of our co-investments in 2020. To stress this again, debt reduction and financial de-risking is key for us, and we all in the management board will clearly focus on the delivery. We will focus on a more efficient management of our liquidity and define a de-risk funding strategy for the remaining debt. With this, I would like to thank you for your attention, and please flip to page 11.
René, turn to you.
Many thanks, Udo. I'm proud and grateful to have you in our newly established management team. We together will now clearly focus on stability and governance and costs and growth and revenues. Let me speak about what's ahead of us. In brief, a very bright future, and we will deliver on guidance in 2021. We already realized that the transaction market, including several catch-up effects, is coming back remarkably, and we will definitely participate here, especially supported by our advanced product range, tangible pipeline, and the enhanced sales setup. Last but not least, our debt segment with its unique financing platform will continue to contribute with strong performances.
Our leading market presence in the debt business, and thus our direct access to developments on a very early stage, also significantly supports our real estate equity segments with new clients, additional investment opportunities, and through a front position for assets and property management contracts. For the full year 2021, we expect acquisition and sales fees in our real estate equity business of between EUR 15 million and EUR 30 million, and asset and property management fees of between EUR 80 million and EUR 90 million. Our debt segment will show on the midpoint EUR 40 million of underwriting and structuring fees and EUR 85 million of asset management and coupon participation fees. The other segments will deliver between EUR 5 million and EUR 20 million.
Based on this, I can once again confirm our financial outlook with aggregated revenues and gains of between EUR 235 million and EUR 260 million, adjusted EBITDA of EUR 90 million and EUR 150 million and adjusted net profit of between EUR 50 million and EUR 75 million. In brief, a booming debt business, an equity business that is picking up momentum, and all of this on the backdrop of long-term supportive market drivers. We look very optimistic into the upcoming quarters. With this very positive outlook and a very profitable second half of 2021, I would like to hand back to the operator, and we're now happy to answer your questions. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. If you are using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. First question comes from the line of Kai Klose from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Good morning. I've got two questions, if I may. The first one is on page 23 of the first half report. Could you give us a bit more details on the accounting of AFS into Corestate's balance sheet? I saw there was a EUR 65 million in goodwill and EUR 80 million accounted in the other intangible assets. Could you give a bit more details on how you came to these two numbers? The second question would be on page 10 of the presentation. I just looked up the Q1 presentation where you say on page nine that you have an ambition to bring it down to below three, now you say year-end ambition of 3x , so not below 3x anymore.
Maybe you could indicate if this is just a change in wording or if your ambition has changed, that you don't target any more reduction to below 3x. Thank you.
Okay, Kai. Thank you very much for the questions and looking forward to speak to you personally. May I answer the second question first. Then we answer the first question on the AFS. We clearly speak about a leverage below 3x. However, this is still an ambitious way to go on. We have a plan to bring this down below a three until end of the year. We see already inflows from the repayment of the bridge loans and from the deconsolidation of some assets.
Kai, it's Kai here. Maybe, can you elaborate a little bit more what you want to understand based on our goodwill or PPA for Corestate Bank?
Exactly. You mentioned, in page 23, we see that we saw quite a strong increase in the other intangible assets, which I assume is coming from AFS. Maybe you could elaborate more on how that number came up.
Of course, it's part of the PPA and the goodwill allocation, which we have done together with our auditor, and based on the underlying working capital, which was allocated between Corestate Bank and us, and the other assets which we have consolidated.
Okay. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask any question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone telephone. Next question is from the line of Anthony Duyck from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Can you clarify what you mean by deconsolidating assets such as Giessen? Is that an outright sale, or what do you mean exactly by that? Thank you.
It's René. Anthony. Yes, exactly. It's an asset which is in Giessen, and it is on the balance sheet with debt of around EUR 55 million and equity around EUR 30 something. It's on for sale. It's refurbishment. It was renovated in parts of the center, repositioned, and we have a very stable income on that, but we want to sell it. That's definitely the target, to deconsolidate it and to sell it. Definitely. We're working on that, but we're very relaxed on that. It's a good, well-placed shopping center in a good area, and it has good traffic, so it's not the typical high street stuff. It has nearly EUR 5 million of rents on an annual basis at the moment, with a target at EUR 6.2 million at the moment, but we're working on renting it out. We've good progress on that.
Understood. Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Charles Watford from PIMCO. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I've got a follow-up on the Giessen one. If you deconsolidate Giessen, you lose a certain amount of debt automatically. What's the debt which is assigned to Giessen?
Yeah. What I said, it's around EUR 60 million, something like that.
EUR 60 million.
Yeah. Something.
The second question is on the.
On the current target for this year, Charles.
EUR 60 million if you de-consolidate Giessen.
Yeah.
You would lose automatically. Okay. The second question is on the bridge lending repayments. I can see from the slides on page 10 that you're expecting EUR 50 million in Q3. Do you have an amount that you've already received, or are you able to disclose that? Or is it all coming in in September?
No, we have already received something in July, and there will be repayments in the coming weeks then, because the client also has sold some assets and therefore there is free liquidity at the client side.
Can I assume that sort of EUR 25 million of the EUR 50 have come in already?
Less.
Less.
Yeah. Less than that.
Okay. In terms of the Q4, obviously there's a large number. I can understand EUR 60 million from the Giessen, the other EUR 120 in that Q4 number of EUR 180 million of net debt reduction, can you give us some more detail on that? Some of that is the bridge loans, which presumably is another EUR 70 million out of the EUR 120.
Yeah. It's basically a third out of the bridge loans. We have cash conversion placements from our fund business around another third, and the remainder is then free cash flow.
Okay. In Q4, you're expecting somewhere in the region of what, EUR 60 million of free cash flow?
No, EUR 20 million-EUR 30 million free cash flow.
EUR 20 million-EUR 30 million. Okay. Sorry, it's the balance is the third. Okay, good. Thanks very much.
Next question is from the line of Manuel Martin from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Hello, gentlemen. One question from my side regarding the real estate equity business. The real estate debt business sounds quite promising, but on the equity business, so you assume a picking up in activity in H2 this year, also more clients to come. Do you have a view on your AUM growth when it comes to real estate equity business? Any targets or a growth path there in mind?
Yeah. Thank you, Manuel. This is René. You have already seen in July, August progress on that, which is obviously not part of the first half of the year. We had announced Augsburg, a smaller one yesterday. We acquired about EUR 160 million of equity in our French business. We want to raise minimum EUR 1 billion at least. EUR 1 billion at least to answer the question. We have a strong pipeline there, and we will close a couple of deals now in the next couple of weeks. I repositioned the whole sales team and everything there at the beginning of the year. That took some time as well, but the team is now up and running. People can meet. We have our London sales people.
We have them in yesterday and today, so we're making good progress, and we will sign and seal couple of deals in the next couple of weeks. In September, a larger one. Maybe it's EUR 1 billion, maybe it's more. Yeah. We have a clear target, a clear guideline, and the second half of the year is obviously much, much stronger than the first half, historically, and especially at Corestate.
Mm-hmm. I see. Okay. The EUR 1 billion is a target for 2021, or is it a one-year target, more or less?
It's for this year, second half.
Oh, okay.
That's what I want. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone telephone. Next question is from the line of Philipp Hässler from Pareto. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hello. Philipp Hässler from Pareto. I have two questions, please. Firstly, on the shopping center in Giessen, you sound very confident that you will be able to sell Giessen in H2. Do I interpret this correctly that you're already in discussions with a potential buyer? Secondly, on your EBITDA guidance for the full year, EUR 90 million- EUR 150 million. If I take the H1, you have reached EUR 40 million, Q2, EUR 37 million. If I take Q2 times two, I end up at EUR 115 million or EUR 114 million. You sound very bullish regarding the pipeline for debt and real estate equity. Why haven't you raised the guidance or at least have said you are confident to reach the upper end of the guidance? Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you very much, Philipp. This is René. Let me answer on Giessen. Yes, we are in discussions on this asset since a couple of weeks already. I'm very confident there. On the other topic, I would like to hand over to Udo now to answer the question. I would like to say, Corestate should not be in a position, especially after last year, to raise guidance. There's still a lot to do, and we're working very hard, and you've seen the second quarter now. It looks much better, and we're very confident. Udo, as our new CFO, please answer the rest.
Thank you, René. Yeah, you're clearly right with your calculation. However, you also have to see that in Q2, we had a very large deal with the FÜRST in Berlin. We now have a good pipeline in place, but not again these large deals anymore. Therefore, we clearly do not want to raise any outlook so far. We are optimistic to be, as we said, reach the outlook and hopefully more on the higher half of the outlook range than on the lower half.
Okay. Thank you. Very clear.
There are no further questions at this time, and I would like to hand back to Dr. Kai Gregor Klinger for closing comments. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for listening. We appreciate your interest and your questions. We will be on the road, unfortunately, mostly online after the summer break. Please be reminded that our Q3 figures are out on the 10th November, and our Capital Markets Day will be held virtually again on the 8th December. We look forward to speaking to you, stay healthy and goodbye.