Hello, and welcome to the earnings call for the first nine months of this year. My name is Matthias Täubl. I'm CEO of AURELIUS Equity Opportunities, and I'm here with our new CFO, Richard Schulze-Muth, as well as Florian Winkel, Vice President Finance. We will talk today about our numbers for the first nine months, the latest transactions, as well as the current status of the portfolio and also strategic measures to increase the shareholder value, which we did put in place. Before we do so, let me start with the highlights of the first nine months on page four, especially on the third quarter. This quarter, the third quarter was a very strong one again, and the positive trends remained.
With an operating EBITDA of EUR 100 million after nine months, we have surpassed the EBITDA, the operating EBITDA of the full year 2020 already right now. As a result, also the net asset value went up to the north of EUR 1.2 billion, which is an increase of 20% compared to end of 2020. We have seen more transactions in all three pillars of our investment focus. We have implemented additional measures to support our transparency initiatives and especially focused on measures to increase the shareholder value. Let me name two of them here. The first one is the additional report for the third quarter.
The first time in our history, we have published a report for the third quarter or for the first nine months as well, which we will now do in the future as well. Also, in the first quarter, then the third quarter, you will have a very detailed view on our balance sheet and P&L, in addition with some comments. You can find this report on our webpage already. Of course, to mention here as well is given the strong numbers here, given the share, the net asset value per share rose in the north of EUR 40. We have initiated a buyback program, a share buyback, where we will buy back up to 1 million shares in the upcoming 12 months. Let me now hand over to Richard, who will lead us through the numbers.
Yeah. Welcome also from my side. My name is Richard Schulze-Muth. Since 1st of October, I'm the CFO of AURELIUS, leading the group finance organization and responsible for accounting, auditing, controlling, corporate finance, tax, and special financing of portfolio companies. I've joined Aurelius over six and a half years ago as Head of Corporate Finance. In this role, I was responsible for all financing and capital market topics in the AURELIUS Group, including the acquisition financings, refinancing of portfolio companies, and supporting of our portfolio companies in that respect. Therefore, I know the AURELIUS organization very well. We came out with our Q3 figures this morning.
As already communicated, these are included in our first Q3 report, including full set of balance sheet P&L figures, the NAV calculation, a reconciliation of our operating EBITDA, and additional insights what happened in the first nine months of 2021. Another step in connection with our transparency initiative, as Matthias just mentioned. Let's have a look at the numbers beginning on page five. Our total consolidated revenues came in with almost EUR 2 billion, i.e. an increase of roughly 29% compared to Q3 2020, where it was EUR 1.5 billion.
On an annualized basis, the revenues from continued operations end up at EUR 2.8 billion compared to EUR 2.2 billion in 2020, and this increase is mainly driven by the acquisitions we made within the first nine months of 2020, and which are now included with full- year effect and our newly acquired portfolio companies within the first nine months of the current year. In this context, I would like to point out that the revenues do not include our portfolio company, Office Depot Europe, anymore because Office Depot was already regrouped into discontinued operations as of 30th June 2021. As a result, the annualized revenues from continued operations for both 2020 and 2021 are now lower than what was stated in our Q1 press release.
The EBITDA of the combined group is EUR 176 million, after EUR 302 million in 2020, almost exclusively based on the lower bargain purchase in the last nine months. As always, we have three different sources of earnings. A bargain purchase is shown in our P&L when the purchase price that we paid for a company is lower than the net assets we have acquired. With regard to our acquisitions in the first nine months, just a small bargain purchase of EUR 13.1 million has been booked so far. However, almost all purchase price allocations under IFRS 3 are not audited yet, but most of the acquisitions in the current financial year will end up with a goodwill.
As of 30th September last year, bargain purchase was EUR 181 million, and this is also the main reason for the decrease in total EBITDA. Maybe one comment in this context, the closing of the German-based UNILUX deal is planned for the next week and is not yet included in the numbers. The restructuring expenses went down from EUR 60 million to EUR 57 million and reflect, once again, the good operational performance of our portfolio in the first nine months. Gains on exits went down from EUR 81 million to EUR 38 million last year, especially the Ghotel sale was included here. With regard to the sale of the remaining Office Depot activities, we are expecting an additional lower mid-double-digit million EUR amount in this quarter. We finally end up with an outstanding operational performance/EBITDA of EUR 181.4 million.
That means an increase of 81% compared to the last Q3 operational results. Hence, we now already reached a higher operational EBITDA compared to the full year 2019 and 2020. This result once again underlines the statement we made back in May and August already, when we had our conference call for the Q1, respectively H1 figures. Our portfolio has come through the pandemic very well. The cash compared to last year is lower due to a number of reasons. Firstly, we paid the dividend of roughly EUR 29 million in May. Secondly, we acquired new companies, two new platform deals, three add-on acquisitions, two co-investments in the first nine months of 2021. Additionally, if you look at our balance sheet, you see that the group significantly reduced its financial liabilities.
These debt repayments also have a big impact, so that we end up with EUR 238 million cash as of 30th September. There are roughly 30%, so EUR 65 million is free holding cash. Meanwhile, further cash came in during the last weeks. E.g., we issued and tapped our Nordic bond and the ODE exit, as just mentioned. The current holding cash is more in the region of EUR 138 million compared to the EUR 65 million as of September 30th. The group cash is over EUR 300 million. Nevertheless, we are working on additional dividend upstreams and refinancings to increase the cash holdings further by year-end. Finally, the equity ratio went up to 22.9% from 21.3% at year-end 2020, despite the dividend payment we made back in May.
On page six, you see a split of our portfolio in terms of total consolidated revenues and operating EBITDA by three categories, segment, portfolio status, and vintage. The key messages here are by segment, the operating EBITDA margin of our segment services and solutions and industrial production almost reached 10% each, while retail and consumer products achieved 6%. We still have a sizable quarter in retail and consumer, but with interesting winners of the COVID-19 pandemic, e.g., Silvan, our Danish DIY group, and European Imaging Group. The key message by portfolio status and vintage, 44% of revenues, but 32% of operating EBITDA are coming from the companies in the improvement stage, while companies with 30% of revenues, 36% of operating EBITDA in the growth segment.
Generally, over 50% of revenues and operating EBITDA coming from companies with a holding period of more than three years, respectively. This is an evidence that the AURELIUS business model works. However, it is worth mentioning that our recent acquisitions, so companies in the improvement segment and or with a holding period of less than 18 months, have already a good contribution to our operating EBITDA. On the M&A side, we've acquired the right companies in the COVID-19 pandemic. Now I'd like to move on to page seven, the net asset value calculation of our portfolio compared to year-end 2020. The total NAV went up to EUR 1.204 billion, a significant increase of 20% compared to year-end 2020. This increase comes generally from all operating sectors, while the segment other shows a decrease.
The valuation leads to an NAV per share of EUR 40.43 after EUR 33.67 at year-end. In this context, I would like to point out that we still have more than 1 million treasury shares, as stated below in the table. On page eight, you find a detailed analysis regarding the different sectors of the NAV. This page was shown in the conference call for our Q1 numbers in May for the first time and is also another step of our transparency initiative. In industrial production, we had a material increase of 47% from roughly EUR 343 million up to EUR 506 million. This is mainly related to the fair value valuation we did for moveero, formerly GKN Wheels & Structures, our manufacturer of off-highway wheels.
Until Q1 2021, moveero was included with the purchase price we paid, but meanwhile, we performed a DCF valuation for this portfolio company. Besides the valuation of moveero, we have a very good operational performance over our last year acquisition, Zentia, with its divisions of mineral fiber ceilings and grid systems. In addition to Zentia, we continuously have a positive development of VAG, our supplier of water valves. Finally, Hüppe and Remi Claeys, our new platform acquisitions, are both together included for the first time. Despite the very good development here in this sector, there is still room for improvement because the valuation of the aircraft seating or manufacturer of aircraft seats is still very low after they went through an administration last year.
In the sector retail and consumer products, we also have a 9% increase from EUR 345 up to EUR 375. This is due, once again, very strong operational performance of Nedis and Distrelec continuing in the third quarter 2021. Both companies were acquired from the Swiss-listed Dätwyler Group in Q1 2020 and in 2017, our DIY chain in the Nordics. Furthermore, the new add-on acquisition, Movement Group for the Danish Conaxess Trade Group, is included with the respective purchase price. Finally, the sector services and solutions. Here we had an increase from EUR 82 million up to EUR 137 million, so +68%.
This is coming from a strong operational performance of Rivus Fleet Solutions, our fleet operator and managed services provider in the U.K., and AKAD, our distance learning university. As well as two of our 2021 add-on acquisitions, namely GSB Gerüstbau, an add-on for BPG Building Partners Group located in Berlin, and AutoRestore, an add-on of the previously mentioned Rivus Fleet. For the segment other, you see a decrease of roughly EUR 50 million compared to year-end 2020. This number includes the dividend payment of EUR 29 million in May, as well as the purchase prices we paid for our seven acquisitions in the first nine months of 2021. The valuation of the sector other consists of the cash of the listed AURELIUS Equity Opportunities and the non-operating holding companies.
Additionally, the treasury shares of AURELIUS Equity Opportunities are included, our brand company Blaupunkt, and finally, the nominal amount of our Nordic bond is deducted in this segment. In this context, please keep in mind that the tap of our Nordic bond amounting to EUR 45 million is not yet included, but will have no impact on the NAV at year-end, and this is due to the financial liabilities which must be balanced as the counterpart of the cash position. Lastly, we have our co-investments together with the newly launched AURELIUS European Opportunities IV fund. We co-invest in the European mid-market, so the number of EUR 3.3 million listed in the table on page seven shows our co-equity funding only. Please note that the co-investments included here will be shown at fair value at this year-end for the first time.
Now let's move on to page nine. This table presents the NAV by vintage and shows that the largest bulk of the NAV is resulting from the oldest part of our portfolio, so companies that have been acquired more than three years ago. This part reflects approximately 41% of the total NAV. Furthermore, you can see here the consistent information about the NAV calculations. I assume that all of them are well known to you. Our NAVs are based on a DCF model, and we used actual as of 30th September, including the budgets, respectively, forecast of the portfolio companies until year-end 2023. We still assume the conservative growth rate of 0.5% and have a WACC of 9.94% on average. This WACC is lower than for year-end 2020.
At this point, it was 10.88%, but still includes a risk premium for a lot of our portfolio companies. Moreover, compared to year-end 2019, we still have an increase of almost 2% in the WACC. Therefore, there is still a lot of potential on NAV just from a WACC perspective. Now I would like to hand over back to Matthias again.
Thank you, Richard. Let's talk about our recent transactions, then. Just starting with reminding you again of our increased investment focus. You're well aware that we have our first pillar, the platform investments, where it's about companies with an equity ticket of up to EUR 10 million. We do have our add-on pillar, where we invest in companies to strengthen our existing portfolio companies in building on additional companies to accelerate the transformation and to grow. Since a couple of months up and running is the co-investment structure, where we invest together with a fund in companies with an equity ticket of up to EUR 100 million in total.
The bracket here and all the three pillars have all this in common, the special situation and the corporate carve-outs, so a lot of operational involvement needed, and this is the bracket for all of the three pillars. On page 11, we can see our latest transactions and the transactions to date. The first one, Hüppe and Remi Claeys , shower trays and enclosures, as well as bathroom accessories, based in Bad Zwischenahn in the north of Germany, with a second manufacturing site in Turkey. The second one is Remi Claeys Aluminium, precision tubing businesses with products for different industrial usages based in Belgium. The third one, just recently signed, not closed yet, closing to be expected in the upcoming days and weeks, is UNILUX. It's a producer of high- quality windows and door solutions. I will touch base on in a couple of minutes in more detail.
All the three platform investments has in common, again, it's a carve-out from a bigger corporate. They are quite decent in size with a lot of operational improvement potential attached to it, but also all three of them, nice platforms in a very fragmented market, in a growing fragmented market, which always gives us opportunities for doing add-on activities. Key words add-on activities. This is where you can see on the bottom of the slide here, four of them executed already this year. We have added Movement to our existing portfolio company, Conaxess Trade, GSB Gerüstbau to Building Partners Group based in Berlin and AutoRestore, an additional fleet business, which we have added to our existing former BT, British Telecom fleet management business, now called Rivus. Just announced some 10 days ago was the acquisition of Nordic Lift.
It's based in Norway for our existing automotive aftermarket supplier, NDS. I will talk about this one in a minute as well. On page 12, we can see the investments to date we have done together with the fund in the third pillar, which is the co-investment pillar. All three of them are very decent in size, close to EUR 6 billion in revenue. Again, carve-out from bigger corporates. Operational engagement needed. As you can see for the first two of them, the rebranding, which took place already after a couple of weeks already, where Panasonic consumer batteries business in Europe has been rebranded to Advanced Power Solutions, APS, and the SSE Contracting business in the U.K. to Enerveo. All of the businesses shown here are very profitable already.
Nevertheless, operational improvement potential, therefore, substantial purchase prices are attached to it, which is again, for us, evidence that this increased and enhanced investment focus, with the third pillar of co-investment, is really an additional playground we have attached to our strategy here. We have seen on page 13 mentioned here one exit, which is Office Depot Europe. Richard has spoken about how this has played into our numbers. The closing took place just a couple of days ago, so therefore the deconsolidation will be seen in the fourth quarter of this year. Let me talk about three of our recent acquisitions a little bit more in detail. The first one is UNILUX platform investment, a standalone deal for AURELIUS Equity Opportunities. It's a producer, as I've mentioned before already, of high- quality window and door solutions for private households.
It's not focusing on the mass market. It's really more bespoke solutions for private households. It's headquartered in Salmtal in western Germany, close to the Luxembourg border. It's around about 300 employees, EUR 45 million of revenue, and it's profitable from day one already on, but by far below market average. It's a carve-out from WERU. WERU was acquired by DOVISTA, a Danish conglomerate, some months ago. DOVISTA made it quite clear from the beginning onwards that when they will acquire WERU, that UNILUX, as they are not focused on the mass market, is not part of their overall strategy, and therefore they would like to hand it on to somebody else as part of the overall transaction. This is where we, as AURELIUS, with our proven track record with carve-out specialists, come into play.
For DOVISTA, it was very important that the transaction will have a lot of certainty, first of all, but also that, once the deal with DOVISTA and WERU has been closed, that, immediately we will take over UNILUX and that they do not have to spend too much time with UNILUX anymore, as they have to focus on the integration of WERU. The business itself has a lot of potential. It's quite profitable, as I've mentioned before already, but below market average. It's about scaling. It's about gaining additional size. Therefore, we will implement different measures to increase also the geographical focus. At the moment, the main focus is on the DACH region and also quite a decent chunk is exported to the U.S.
For example, Middle East, Eastern Europe has a lot of potential for this kind of bespoke solutions, which has not been in the focus of UNILUX in the past. As I've mentioned before, it's a heterogeneous market, it's a growing, healthy underlying market, and therefore, this has a lot of potential for doing add-on acquisitions in this field as well. On page 15, one of our add-on acquisitions, Nordic Lift, for our existing portfolio company, NDS. NDS is our automotive aftermarket business, which interests us since some years already. Nordic Lift is a leading distributor of workshop and car washing equipment based in Norway as well. It's not huge in size. It's around about NOK 40 million, which translates around about to EUR 4 million.
It's highly synergistic as pretty much the same business or in the same segment, and one of the divisions of NDS called AutoMaterial, so they are also providing workshop equipment and car washing equipment to different garages, but therefore it's highly synergistic. In addition, Nordic Lift has introduced back in 2016 a very advanced webshop, and therefore this gives a lot of possibility to NDS overall for doing cross-selling to new customer segments with the existing product portfolio of NDS. Then last but not least, to mention here on page 16 is the biggest deal in the history of the AURELIUS Group, McKesson U.K. We are talking here about more than GBP 5 billion in sales or sorry, British pounds in sales.
An enterprise value of GBP 477 million and more than 18,000 employees. McKesson is, as I've mentioned before, a carve-out from the U.S.-based conglomerate McKesson, where they've said they would like to focus on different other geographical areas, less on Europe and especially less on the U.K., and therefore we're looking for a new home, a good new home for McKesson in the U.K. McKesson U.K. has four different segments. The first one is retail, where they are focusing on providing prescription and over-the-counter medicine to other healthcare services, with more than 1,300 retail pharmacies spread over all the U.K. The second business pillar is digital.
This is the fastest- growing digital pharmacy in the U.K., so quite an important segment for McKesson when it comes to where the value of the future is attached to. The third pillar is home care, which provides health products and services from delivery of medication to specialist nursing, for example, for cancer therapies in patients' own homes. The fourth pillar is the wholesale, where McKesson U.K. distributes drugs, over-the-counter products and health and beauty products to NHS hospitals, and NHS is the National Health Service in the U.K., pharmacy groups and independent pharmacies. As you can see, quite some complexity attached to it.
It's quite easy in size, all the four segments I've just mentioned, which means, for McKesson, it was quite important to have somebody who is really able to perform a carve-out from the McKesson Group in a decent time frame. Also, how to make sure that we are then able to handle this complexity with the four different segments, and therefore our round about 100 operational colleagues on our payroll, our so-called task force, was quite an important argument when it did come to the decision of McKesson to whom business they will sell it to. Quite pleased that we were able to get it with the funds to co-invest in such a deal.
Definitely a new chapter in the history of the AURELIUS Group, and for us as AURELIUS Equity Opportunities to invest in such a big company and therefore quite a decent enterprise value and ticket size for us as well. This brings me to the overall portfolio on page 17. We heard something about it already when it comes to the numbers. In general, a very balanced portfolio when it comes to the different industries. There is not so much of a risk attached to one specific industry. The same applies for the geographical focus, so it's quite spread out all over Europe. Also, size-wise, we do see companies here with 50 million, 60 million turnover up to a couple of 100 million EUR in turnover.
On the right-hand side, the numbers for the first nine months, especially focus on our sidelines on the operational EBITDA. In total, on average, pretty much EUR 60 million every quarter so far of this year. If we keep the pace, then I don't see any reason why we should not end up round about EUR 240 million of operating EBITDA for the full year 2021. Of course, then the question pops up, what about exits? I would talk about we have four or five candidates which are really mature and therefore ready to exit. In total, we are talking here about companies with a combined EBITDA, operational EBITDA of EUR 100 million.
If you would apply, let's say very conservative industry standard multiplier of, let's say, seven, then this will lead to around about EUR 700 million of proceeds in the upcoming months and years. We will see some smaller exits maybe in the near future already, and then bigger ones in the second half of next year. In total, I think we will for the companies I've just mentioned, trigger and launch the process in the upcoming 12 to 18 months, and so therefore, the EUR 700 million of proceeds you should see retrospectively in the upcoming two years. This brings me to the outlook for the remaining year and the upcoming months. Overall, we remain very optimistic.
I think we have seen quite some stormy water in the last 18 months, but very pleased with the solid performance of our portfolio companies. We made it possible together with our colleagues, our operational colleagues from the task force, staying very close to the business, acting quick and take the right decisions immediately was definitely an important ingredient to make sure that we were able now to present you the strong numbers for the first nine months of this year already. We have seen some transactions already and have still a nicely thin pipeline in all the three segments, for platform investments, add-on investments, and also for co-investments together with the funds. First exits I've mentioned ahead in the upcoming month, and very important again, let me talk about the share buyback initiative.
Up to 1 million shares in the upcoming 12 months. This is definitely something, given the strong performance, and where the net asset value per share is, and given where the current share price is, we think this is the best thing we can do for the moment to increase also the shareholder value within a short time frame. Let me last but not least mention that we have also launched our ESG project to make sure that we will be able to touch all the three different pillars of ESG in the upcoming weeks. We will implement some quick wins immediately, but this will become not the same type of transparency in this initiative, not only a one-hit wonder in the upcoming two, three weeks.
This is where we are currently having launched a project to really make sure that we will implement the different measures on a sustainable basis within the AURELIUS Equity Opportunities. This brings me to the end of our presentation, and now we would be happy to take your questions.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question for our speakers, please dial zero and one on your telephone keypad now to send to the queue. Once your name has been announced, you can ask a question. If you find your question is answered before it is your turn to speak, you can dial zero and two to cancel your question. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making a selection. One moment, please, for the first question. As a reminder, to ask a question, you have to press zero and one on your telephone keypad. As we haven't received any questions, I would like to hand back to you.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for dialing in and listening. Let me finally steer your attention again to our report, which we launched for the first time, which is on our webpage already. Otherwise, stay tuned. I think, as I've mentioned before, more deals in the pipeline. I'm pretty sure that we will see the one or the other deal to be signed in the upcoming months. Exits ahead, and overall, the performance of our portfolio company is very solid, and I don't see any reason why this should slow down in the upcoming months. Thank you very much for listening, and stay healthy. Goodbye.
Thank you very much. Goodbye.