Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Stuart, your Chorus Call Operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining DWS First Half 2021 Analyst and Investor Conference Call. Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session.
If you'd like to ask a question, you may press star followed by one on your touch-tone telephone. Please press the star key followed by zero for operator assistance. Would now like to turn the conference over to Oliver Flade. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you very much. Good morning, everybody from Frankfurt. This is Oliver from Investor Relations, and I would like to welcome everybody to our earnings call for the second quarter of 2021. I hope everybody is still keeping healthy and safe wherever you are. Before we start, I would again like to remind you that the upcoming Deutsche Bank Analyst Call will outline the Asset Management segment result, which has a different parameter basis to the DWS result that we're presenting today.
No change here. I'm joined also, as always, by our CEO, Dr. Asoka Wöhrmann, and Claire Peel, our CFO, and Asoka will start with some opening remarks, and Claire will then take you through the presentation. For the Q&A afterwards, also as always, please could you limit yourself to the two most important questions so that we can give as many people a chance to participate as possible.
I would also like to remind you that the presentation may contain forward-looking statements which may not develop as we currently expect, and I therefore ask you to take note of the disclaimer and the precautionary warning on the forward-looking statements at the end of our materials. With that, I would like to pass over to Asoka.
Thank you, Oliver. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for dialing in today. I hope you are able to enjoy the summer where you are and while staying healthy and safe. Today, I am pleased to report a very strong second quarter for DWS, making a successful end to the first half of the year and the start of Phase 2 of our corporate journey, which we kick off at the beginning of 2021.
As we had said during Phase 2, we will continue to transform our organization and invest into growth, especially into our targeted areas of ESG, Passive, and High Margin Strategies in order to become a truly leading asset manager in the competitive global market. Our results during the second quarter and the first half of 2021 emphasize our commitment to making Phase 2 as successful as the first Phase following the IPO.
They are also a testament to the organizational changes we made one year ago to ensure we remain client-centric, flexible, efficient, effective for the future. Quarterly net inflows reach a record high of EUR 19.7 billion and EUR 20.7 billion for the half year. Excluding cash, inflows totaled almost EUR 24 billion in the first six months of 2021.
These net new assets were driven by positive inflows across all regions and all three pillars of our business: Active, Passive, Alternatives. Inflows also supported our assets under management, which grew at record EUR 859 billion in the second quarter. At the same time, we have continued to invest into transformation and growth without compromising our adjusted cost income ratio, which we now expect to stay well below the level originally planned for this full year, given our strong flow momentum and benign market environment.
As we work towards growing in areas where we believe we can take a leading position in the market, the second quarter has been a superb example of how we capable of executing our strategy. Reinforcing our ability to meet growing client demand for sustainable investments, DWS ESG Solutions attracted EUR 4 billion of net inflows in the second quarter and EUR 8 billion in the first six months, representing more than a third of our total inflows.
Product innovations such as DWS Concept Blue Economy Fund, which we built together with the WWF and DWS Invest Low Carbon Bonds Fund, were both well received in the market and underpinned our ESG credentials. In addition, we successfully launched two DWS Xtrackers green corporate bond ETFs in response to greater client interest for such offerings. Our position in the passive market remains very strong. The flow momentum in all our three global regions enabled us to exceed EUR 200 billion in AuM for the first time.
In our home market, Europe, we ranked second in net ETP flows according to ETFGI, with the flow share of 13% in the second quarter. At the same time, to support our top-line revenue growth, we kept our focus on high-margin strategies, responding in the first half of 2021 to growing institutional demand for infrastructure offerings. This is evident in our third Pan-European Infrastructure Fund, which achieved a final closing during the second quarter, totaling over EUR 3 billion, exceeding its EUR 2.5 billion fund target.
We also launched a first ESG Infrastructure Debt Fund in quarter two, further demonstrating our commitment to provide state-of-the-art ESG solutions in the alternatives space. As demand for investment solutions continuously becomes more complex, we have intensified our collaboration with strategic partners to ensure we meet our clients' changing needs. In the first quarter, we launched an artificial intelligence fund with Arabesque AI, which has gained a lot of interest from a broad set of clients.
In the second quarter, we launched a new secured income fund in conjunction with Tikehau Capital. This private and structured credit solution offers defined benefit pension plans, enhanced security of income with diverse private credit assets combined into a single, easy-to-access pooled fund. Allow me to summarize. The first half of 2021 has been very successful for DWS.
As we launched Phase 2 of our corporate journey to transform our organization, invest into targeted growth, and aspire for leadership in the industry, we were able to execute on our strategy well. Combined with supportive markets, our firm has delivered a record quarter and half year to its shareholders. Record net flows, record AuM, and the cost-income ratio at very low levels. With that, let me hand over to our CFO, Claire Peel, to present our quarter two results in detail before we both give you our view on the road ahead. Claire, please.
Thank you, Asoka and w elcome everyone. I hope you're all keeping well. Today, I'll present the results and activities for the second quarter of 2021. Starting with the key financial highlights. Adjusted profit before tax was EUR 247 million in Q2, reflecting strong AuM growth over the quarter. Adjusted cost-income ratio remains below 65% as committed, supported by strong half-year revenue development and disciplined cost management.
Quarterly net inflows reached a record high of EUR 19.7 billion and EUR 14.2 billion excluding cash, with sustained inflows into our ESG products. This keeps us firmly on track to achieve our net flow target of greater than 4% on average in the medium term. Moving on to our financial performance snapshot in Q2. Starting at the top left, AuM increased to EUR 859 billion in Q2, up 5% quarter-on-quarter, driven by stronger net inflows and market performance.
On the top right, adjusted revenues were EUR 625 million, driven by higher management fees and recurring revenues in the second quarter. On the bottom left, adjusted costs reduced to EUR 379 million as a result of lower compensation and benefits costs in the quarter. Together with strong revenues, this supported an adjusted cost income ratio of 60.6% in Q2. Adjusted profit before tax was EUR 247 million in the second quarter and EUR 496 million in the first half of 2021, up 35% from the first half of 2020.
Net income also increased significantly, totaling EUR 340 million in the first half of the year, representing a 40% increase year-on-year. Let's recap on the market environment. All major equity indices continued to rally strongly in the second quarter, reflecting further progress made in vaccination campaigns worldwide. As a result, market volatility levels are lower compared to Q1, although market concerns remain over the Delta variant of COVID-19.
In currencies, the US dollar depreciated slightly against the euro in the second quarter, which had a minor impact on our AuM growth in Q2. Overall market momentum remained positive amid reduced concerns over inflation and interest rates. Moving on to AuM development. Assets under Management continued to grow in the second quarter, reaching a record EUR 859 billion, up 5% from Q1 and up 15% year-on-year.
Quarterly asset growth was driven by positive market performance and strong net inflows, which more than offset unfavorable FX movements in Q2. Looking more closely at net flows. In Q2 2021, we reported EUR 19.7 billion of net inflows and EUR 14.2 billion excluding cash, our highest quarterly inflows on record. This includes positive flows across all regions, retail and institutional, as well as all three pillars of Active, Passive, and Alternatives.
EMEA was a key driver of Q2 performance, attracting EUR 14 billion of net inflows amid improved retail investor sentiment in the region. This is also testament to our strong three and five-year investment outperformance at 76% and 83% respectively. Overall, we saw stronger net inflows across most asset classes in the second quarter. Passive continues to prove its strategic importance, delivering EUR 7.9 billion of net inflows in Q2, including sustained demand for ESG ETFs.
European-listed ETPs continue to account for the majority of our quarterly passive total, helping us to win greater market share in the region. In the first half of the year, DWS accounted for 13.1% of total European ETP market inflows, higher than our AuM market share of 11.2%. In addition, we have attracted stronger flow momentum in Asia-Pacific and the Americas, with both regions recording passive inflows in the quarter and in the year to date, and helping to grow our passive AuM beyond EUR 200 billion.
Cash shifted into positive territory, reporting EUR 5.4 billion of net inflows in Q2, driven by stronger institutional inflows in both EMEA and the Americas. Active multi-asset attracted EUR 2 billion of net inflows in Q2, marking a reversal from Q1 outflows. Quarterly multi-asset inflows were driven in part by flagship Concept Kaldemorgen, together with institutional inflows in the asset class. Alternative inflows improved to EUR 1.8 billion in Q2, up from EUR 1 billion of inflows in the first quarter.
The DWS RREEF Real Assets Fund was a key contributor of our quarterly performance, more than doubling its inflows from Q1 amid stronger client interest in the product. In addition, we continued to see strong demand for our infrastructure offerings, including flagship PEIF III, which reached a final close of EUR 3 billion in the second quarter. Active fixed income inflows increased to EUR 1.7 billion in Q2, driven by a significant institutional mandate win in the Americas.
Active SQI recorded EUR 1.1 billion of net inflows in Q2, sustaining positive performance from Q1 amid continued growing European retail demand for such offerings. Altogether, these inflows more than compensated for active equity outflows, which primarily reflects a single institutional investor reallocation out of flagship Top Dividende and into a multi-asset strategy. This masks the continued demand we see for our active ESG equity strategies in the second quarter.
Overall, ESG products contributed EUR 3.8 billion of total net inflows in Q2 and EUR 8.1 billion in the year to date, representing more than a third of our EUR 20.7 billion of net inflows in the first half of 2021. ESG products also account for more than a third of cumulative net inflows into our new product launches, which I'll now explain in more detail. Since Q2 2018, new product launches have attracted EUR 33.1 billion of cumulative net inflows and reported an overall management fee margin of 41 basis points.
This includes EUR 6.8 billion contribution to our Q2 2021 net inflows, bringing the year to date total to EUR 11.4 billion of net inflows. This represents more than half of our total EUR 20.7 billion of net inflows in the first half of the year. Strong flow momentum into our new fund launches is a testament to the organizational changes we made last summer to ensure that DWS is developing and delivering investment solutions in line with client demand and market trends.
In Q2, we launched the DWS Invest Low Carbon Bonds, strengthening our ESG portfolio with a fixed income strategy that meets growing client demand for investments that align with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. This fund complements the launch of the DWS Concept ESG Blue Economy, which we pioneered as part of an ongoing commitment to proactively address water risks in our investment portfolio. Looking ahead, ESG will remain a key feature of our new product launches in the third quarter.
We are planning to launch the DWS Invest ESG Healthy Living Fund, which was designed in accordance with Article 8 of the EU SFDR regulation, and the Xtrackers Emerging Markets Carbon Reduction and Climate Improvers ETF, which has been developed in response to growing investor interest in ESG ETFs. In addition, we are continuing to expand our range of liquid investments to help strengthen the breadth of our diversified business model and target high margin growth.
As committed, we already launched a junior private debt fund and a European Real Estate Debt Fund in the second quarter. In Q3, we are planning to launch a German Retail Outlet Fund and a European property fund, which we expect to attract strong client interest. Moving on to revenues. Adjusted revenues totaled EUR 625 million in the second quarter and EUR 1.3 billion in the first half of the year, up 17% from the first half of 2020.
Management fees and other recurring revenues in Q2 increased by 7% from Q1, driven by higher average AuM of EUR 835 billion, with stronger net inflows and positive market performance in the second quarter. This supported a stable management fee margin of 28.1 basis points in Q2, including a positive effect from the final close of our infrastructure fund. Performance and transaction fees were down quarter-on-quarter as Q1 benefited from a non-recurring real estate performance fee.
Other revenues were also lower compared to Q1 due to an unfavorable change in the fair value of guarantees, but supported by a strong EUR 22 million contribution from our Chinese investment Harvest and positive investment income. Moving on to costs. In the second quarter, we continued to invest in growth while sustaining our operational efficiency. This is reflected in our adjusted cost income ratio of 60.6% in Q2, which was supported by strong revenues and a 2% decline in our total adjusted costs quarter-on-quarter.
Adjusted compensation and benefits costs were down 5% from Q1, mainly due to lower variable compensation and other seasonal effects in the first quarter. This more than offset the slight increase in adjusted general and admin expenses in Q2 due to the ongoing investments into growth projects, as well as higher service costs as a result of increasing AuM. As a reminder, the adjusted cost base excludes EUR 7 million of investments into our infrastructure platform transformation in Q2 and EUR 13 million in the first half of the year.
To conclude, DWS sustained its positive performance in Q2, building on from a strong Q1 and concluding a successful end to the first half of the year. We saw the adjusted profit before tax increase to EUR 496 million in the first half of 2021, up 35% year-on-year. This was supported by our highest quarterly net inflows on record in Q2, demonstrating our ability to meet the diverse needs of our global client base.
This is evident in our three and five-year investment outperformance of 76% and 83% respectively, and in our diversified product portfolio, especially ESG, passive and high margin strategies, which continue to attract strong client demand. This keeps us firmly on track to generate net flows of greater than 4% in 2021. As committed, we are continuing to invest in growth and transformation projects without compromising our cost income ratio. This will remain a key focus for the second half of the year.
Assuming benign markets, we expect adjusted cost income ratio to remain in the low 60% level, supported by full-year 2021 adjusted revenues, which are expected to be higher year on year, driven by stronger net inflows and the current market environment. Thank you. I will now hand over to Asoka for closing comments.
Thank you, Claire. Without doubt, DWS has advanced its strategy significantly in the first half of the year. The launch of Phase 2 of our corporate journey was successful. This Phase 2 sees delivering shareholder value while transforming our organization and investing into both organic and inorganic growth wherever it adds value to our company. The management of DWS is committed more than ever to deliver on its aspiration set for this second phase, even if some targets might have a nonlinear trajectory.
We are pleased with our results in the first six months of 2021. We also know that we have a long road ahead of us to require full attention and energy of the management team and the entire organization. We will keep pushing to transform our firm into a truly standalone asset manager.
We will invest more in order to grow in the markets and businesses where we believe we can lead our industry. We will do so while focusing on achieving the financial targets we defined for this second phase. We look forward to this journey. Thank you for your attention. I will pass now over to Oliver for Q&A. Oliver, please.
Thank you very much, Asoka. Operator, we're ready for Q&A now. Again, I would like to remind everybody in the queue to limit yourself to two questions please, that would be fantastic. 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 touch-tone telephone. To withdraw your question, you may press star followed by two. If you're 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. One moment. First question is from the line of Nicholas Herman from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Hopefully you can hear me all right. Two questions from my side, please. One on M&A. That's the first one. I know that you've spoken, you are open to potential deals. Just curious, would you theoretically be interested in deals that also involved significant cost restructuring, or is that not something that would interest you? Are you more interested in higher growth product areas?
Just interested in your thoughts on some of the qualitative criteria for deals beyond quantitative criteria. The second question is just a clarification, please, on margin. Were there any notable moves on product margins in the quarter? I know you referenced in the past an improved alternatives margin helped by fund closures, but were there any others maybe in fixed income or multi-asset or otherwise? That'd be helpful. Thank you.
Nicholas, thank you very much for your questions. I will take the M&A question, and Claire will go to the product margin questions. Again, look, we can't, and we never comment on M&A topics. One thing is very clear.
We want to be part of the consolidation, what is going to happen in Europe, and very clear for us, it must pay out along our Phase 2 strategy, and it must pay to our narrative what we have placed out very clearly, and it must also pay out to our kind of culture, what we have in our organization, as you asked in your last part of the M&A.
What kind of non-financial targets we are looking for, because I think culture piece, we always highlighted many times, we have to check this box beside the three other criteria, what we said the first criteria was always it must enrich our platform. That means some complementary approach to the existing capabilities, local footprint, and new customer base, and I think culture topic was important.
End of the day, we said everything also in the second Phase, as I highlighted, the shareholder value is one important topic, and that also have to pay out into the shareholder value, and that is how we looking. Might be boring, my answer, always, but always it will be the same, and I think therefore, there's a very clear guidance to you all. Thank you, Nicholas, and I will hand over to Claire.
Hi, Nicholas. Thank you for your questions. On the fee margin, yes, in Q2, we stand at 28.1 basis points. That compared to 27.9 basis points in Q1. It looks reasonably stable. As I said, in Q2, we had one effect from the final closing of our Pan-European Infrastructure Fund, which did give a one-off effect in the second quarter, and we'd expect that to normalize in the third quarter.
In terms of the overall guidance, we still maintain the annual shift of approximately one basis point of margin fee deterioration each year. That's still the overall guidance for the full year, and across the quarters, we will see some of this volatility.
That's helpful. Thank you. If I could just follow up on the same question. Can I read from that apart from the alternatives point, which again, you reiterated, there were no other notable movements in that case? Is that a fair read of what you just said?
Yes, that's right. The only one-off effect, if you like, in the second quarter is around the alternatives fund.
Mr. Herman, are you finished with your questions?
I am, yes. Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Hubert Lam from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Good morning. Very good results. A couple of questions. On costs. Your G&A costs averaged around about EUR 180 million per quarter in the first half. Should we expect this run rate to continue for the rest of the year? Any reason why it should go up in H2? Perhaps first half benefited from cost savings from the COVID environment, and maybe increased investments in the second half.
Second question is on flows. Flows are very good in the second quarter, coming pretty much across the board. Just wondering how the momentum is shaping so far in July, and then the coming quarter, and any notable changes you've seen so far. Thank you.
Good morning, Hubert. Thank you for the questions. I'll start with those. On the cost expectation for the second half of the year, we see that the run rate for the first half of the year has no exceptional one-off events. We think that's a reasonable run rate. Obviously, there's always some volatility on the specific events that we've mentioned around the DWS share price, for example. We're maintaining that similar kind of run rate and a guidance on the cost-income ratio for year 2021 to remain in the low 60%.
On the second question of flows, we are guiding that we do expect to meet our guidance of greater than 4% of net flows for the year of 2021, in line with what we've guided to on average over the period up to 2024. The pipeline that we see for the second half of the year does remain positive. We had an exceptionally strong Q2 across all of our asset classes, and ESG, of course, is featuring strongly in that as well. We expect that we will continue to see a strong pipeline of flows in the second half.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Arnaud Giblat from Exane BNP. Please go ahead.
Good morning. I've got two questions, please. Firstly, on Harvest. First a comment. I was wondering if, going forward, if you could give a bit more disclosure given that 11% of 2020 profits, quite a big contributor, it would be nice to have a bit more detail. My question is pertaining to that.
Could you discuss a bit what's happening at Harvest in terms of flows, in terms of profitability, just a bit more color? Is EUR 22 million a good level of run rate quarterly profitability from here? Secondly, since we are talking about M&A, could you give us an update on surplus capital, please?
Arnaud, thank you for the both questions. Claire will go into the financial details. One thing is also clear, Harvest is always, we are not showing fully as many other peers. We are bringing only to the dividend approach into our numbers, therefore, I think, unfortunately, what you guys not seeing is really the top performance of Harvest in flows and so on. I will hand over to Claire. Claire, please.
Hi, thank you for the questions. Yes on Harvest, we've certainly seen a strong first half return in terms of the 30% share that we have. We've seen EUR 22 million of profits in Q2, and for the first half of the year, that's EUR 49 million. That compares to what we had in full year 2020 of EUR 65 million. Certainly, we see a strong performance from Harvest overall.
Within the Harvest composition, as you know, we don't include their AuM or flows in our numbers, but they have seen a strong growth and strong performance in their respective AuM levels, which are up 25% year-on-year, and also in their net flows. The participation from our partnership there with Harvest is performing very strongly. In the second half of the year, we wouldn't expect it to be quite at the level that we've seen in the first half of the year.
We would see some normalization effects, but still strong and significantly higher than what we saw in 2020. On the question of excess capital, as you know, we don't disclose a specific number there, but we have grown and developed the levels of excess capital that we carry. At the point of IPO, we announced that we had EUR 0.2 billion of excess capital, and we've continued to grow on that position from accumulated profits after our dividend payments that we've made. Retained earnings have developed through to our excess capital position.
Thank you. That's very clear.
Next question is from the line of Hayley Tam from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Morning, everyone. Can I ask a couple of questions as well, please? The first one on ESG fund flows. On slide seven, you set out EUR 12.9 billion of flows into new ESG products since IPO. I just wondered if you could also tell us what the figures are including existing funds rather than just new fund launches in ESG. That'd be great. The EUR 4 billion per quarter level of ESG flows that you've seen in the first half, should we consider that that's now a sort of sustainable level, or is there still scope for that to get bigger from here?
The second question, if I can just quickly follow up on the, well, two- half questions and all of you shout at me. Management fee margin. You've said there was a benefit from the PEIF III final close that's one-off. Could you quantify that for us, please? In terms of the cost-income ratio outlook, can you clarify you should think about that simply referring to the revenue and market dynamics rather than any anticipated increase in the rate of cost investments. Thank you.
Hi, Hayley. Thank you for the questions. I'll take those starting with the ESG flows. So to clarify, the first half ESG inflows that we've seen across all of our funds are EUR 8 billion. That's not just on new product launches, that's on all of our funds. That also spans all asset classes. A strong first half that we have seen on ESG inflows.
We would expect to maintain a similar momentum in the second half year without giving very precise guidance on a number, certainly the momentum level that we would expect on ESG flows in the second half would continue. On the question on fee margin, we have, as I say, 28.1 basis points in the second quarter, approximately 0.3 basis points would be attributed to the one-off effect that I referred to in the infrastructure fund closing. We would expect that to normalize in the third quarter.
On the cost income ratio and the cost guidance, yes, we are investing into growth in the second half of the year, as we have indeed done in the first half. We do see growth expenses in the first half, but we will continue to develop on that. We'll see that in this year and going forward into the following year in 2022.
We're still considering for this year, given that the strong market momentum, but also the strong revenue generation that we see from the strong net inflow position that we would expect for this year, the cost income ratio to remain in the low 60%s.
Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Jacques-Henri Gaulard from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, everybody. I have one question left, which is on the fair value of guarantee. If I remember well, Claire, last quarter, you seemed to be saying that the impact would be slightly less yo-yo, I would say, than it was in the past. Is it what happened this quarter, or are you a little bit disappointed about the evolution? Any way we can have a view about to which extent it's going to pollute the overall other income line. Thank you.
Hi. Thanks for the question. Yes. I think in the first quarter, we saw the most material shift in the long-term interest rate, which had an impact on the positive effect that we saw in our other revenues from the fair value of guarantee.
That was all baked into the first quarter. In the second quarter, that's more normalized, and there's other features, of course, that are reflected in the movement that we see in the fair value of guarantee, in addition to just the long-term interest rate, which is many other modeled effects, and we've seen a small effect from that in the second quarter. Nothing material and nothing that we would make specific in our forward guidance. I think, we saw a slight effect compared to Q1, which we wanted to point out.
Okay. That's great. Thank you, Claire.
Next question is from the line of Angeliki Bairaktari from Autonomous. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. First question. That has not really been the case in the first half, at least not material ones. I hear your point about the specific institutional clients shifting into multi-asset, nevertheless, could you give us some color on what are your expectations for active equity flows in the rest of the year and also in 2022 and 2023?
Second question on Harvest. Would you consider increasing your stake? Do you think there would be any appetite from the local owners down the line to sell part of their stake to you? Thank you.
Angeliki, thank you very much for the two questions. First of all, even again, too boring, I can't comment on any M&A activities. We are glad to have a 30% stake with Harvest. It's important market, and as Claire outlined, and delivering great results to our bottom line. That is to note there. You're right. I think the first half of the year, flow-wise, I think the first quarter was great quarter, and ex cash number was one of the strongest quarters what we had. Over EUR 9 billion inflows to non-cash.
We have suffered in the US money market funds to outflows, and that has diminished our overall flow number in the first quarter. As I outlined also in my part and Claire, we had in total in this first half of the year, EUR 24 billion ex cash. That's a very, very strong number. This is a record number. That is interesting in my opinion. We have seen all the client segments has contributed. Institutional, retail, and also insurance type clients.
We are glad to see it. In the same time, we have to say all our targeted areas as we outlined, ESG, is delivered 1/3 over and constantly over the both quarters. Also the passive flows are going well. Active equity, ESG. We have seen over EUR 1.5 billion inflows in the first half of the year, and I think it's important. In the active equity space, we are seeing that people are crowding out from the traditional type of funds into ESG active equity funds. That's exactly we experienced in the first half of the year and nicely contributed.
That means also our Traditional Equity Funds have seen outflows, at the same time, we have seen exactly these inflows going into our ESG solutions in an active equity space, and that is really great to see. This is exactly the transformation what we are seeing also in the industry. Yes. Thank you.
Thank you. That's very clear. Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Bruce Hamilton from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Morning, and congratulations on the results. Two questions from me. One, just on this pipeline for alternatives. You obviously had the good infra close in the quarter. There's a lot of demand out there for private market assets. Can you give us a sense of any significant products that could offer into next year? Secondly, just going back to the point on sort of M&A. I guess obviously, the market often worries about scale deals where there isn't a compelling kind of story around top-line growth.
I guess, how do you think about that in the context of larger deals and the impact that can have on the organic growth profile of the group? Perhaps more specifically, the market also seems to often take the view that insurance assets are sort of low margin, vanilla, rather unexciting. Obviously, you run quite a lot of insurance money. Would you take a different view or highlight anything that perhaps people often miss? Thank you.
Hi, Bruce. Good morning. Thank you for the questions. I'll take the first question on the pipeline for flows in the second half, and particularly around alternatives. We are quite confident with our greater than 4% net flow rate for the full year, and that does include active, passive, and alternatives, and alternatives continues to contribute very strongly to that.
I would say that in terms of what we see in pipeline across our real estate assets, across our liquid real assets, we'll continue to see a pipeline in those areas for the second half of the year. We've done the final close on the PEIF III fund in Q2. Infrastructure more broadly continues to attract attention. For the second half, we would expect real estate and liquid real assets to be the key focus. A solid pipeline, I would say, across the board in the second half.
Bruce, thank you for the both questions. I will take the M&A question. Again, you are right. Overall, all these transactions have to deliver, as we also mentioned, shareholder value creation. If that not the case, I do think it make no sense, top or bottom line, through the cost efficiencies or about revenue synergies, doesn't matter.
I think end of the day that have to pay out. I think it's important that we also have to look with the lens of ESG and how high margin strategies can be a part of this M&A views. This is very important, but I think, again, I am fully with you. Pure size is not, as we always said, is the only, let me say, view what we are putting for M&A.
Great. Very helpful. Thank you.
Next question is from Mike Werner of UBS. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Just one question from me. With regards to the strong passive inflows that you reported over the past couple of quarters. In particular, I was just wondering where the demand from an asset class perspective within those passives is coming from, and maybe how that's shifted, say, over the past one or two years. Thank you.
Good morning, Mike. Thank you for the question. Yes, on passive flows, we've certainly seen the flow rate continue to increase quite strongly. Indeed, for the first half of the year, market share is increasing. Our share of net flows is greater than our absolute market share. In terms of where we see the interest, equity ETFs continue to be predominant in the net flow rate that we see and also ESG funds.
Those would be the two areas that I would point out. I think on the ESG flows, they contribute in the first half of the year of the EUR 8 billion, a good portion of that's coming from passive, but all other asset classes as well. Equity ETFs, and thematic ESG funds are supporting the passive flows.
Thank you.
Next question is from Gurjit Kambo from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Just two quick questions. Firstly, on the flow side, it looks like in Asia Pacific you saw a slight slowdown there in terms of flows around EUR 0.2 billion. I think you were running at about EUR 1.3 billion the quarter earlier. Just anything around the Asian flows. Secondly, on the performance within the active retail equity, I think you saw a drop from sort of 70% outperformance to about 41%. Is there any sort of specific funds that drove that weaker one-year performance?
Hi, thank you for the question. On the flow performance in Asia Pacific for the second quarter, the overall result of flows across Asia Pacific is positive. We have net inflows of EUR 0.2 billion. We do have, in the Asia region, a specific institutional outflow on the fixed income side, which has contributed to a slightly lower result than we saw in Q1. We do tend to see some of those larger institutional movements taking place in Asia, and that's the point that we see there.
Thanks. Then just on the performance on the one-year retail equity performance?
Thank you also for the both questions. I do think our four and five-star performance, as well as benchmark outperformance, are still very strong also during the COVID-19 period, one year, three year, and five year in equity. One year, the figures are 41%, and recently we have seen a drop because of the very strong bull markets. I think three and five years are very solid in equity area, over 70% and 86%.
Therefore, let me say that on our three and five years is a very constant number, and the 2% change is a little bit due to the market environment, as we said. The very strong bull markets let us drop the outperformance ratio in the last four months. That is the frame for equity. Overall, and we have to say five year and three year overall asset classes, we have five year 83% outperformance ratio, three year 76%, and overall, 67% in one year.
Great. Thank you very much.
There are no further questions at this time, and I would like to hand back to Oliver Flade for closing comments. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you very much, and thanks for the great questions as always. For any follow-up topics, please refer to the IR department as always. Have a good time and good day. Bye-bye.
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