Hello, dear ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining the Port of Tallinn webinar, where we present the results for 2021 Q2 6 months. My name is Marco Reit. I'm the CFO of Board of Tallinn. Aside me is Waldo Karl.
He is the Chairman of the Management Board. During the presentation, you also have An opportunity to ask questions. For that, please use the question mark on the upper right hand side. We will answer the questions at the end of the presentation. And with this, I will give floor to Waldo to continue with the presentation.
Good morning, Tera Homikost. And I would like to start And of course, with main events from Q2, We had record volume from rural and bulk cargo. That's really a nice surprise. RORO is Real record and shows the good situation in Estonian import export. That means we got some 25% increase from last year.
And with bulk cargo, we got the record Over the 10 years, we saw the growth of more than 30%. That's definitely good news and supports our main business. Also, our state decided to change the financing model For the construction of the military, that means that they will use EO money To order and build the 5th, from our perspective, 6 vessels, and then we will operate that. We got additional trips for regular this summer, and that's Almost on the same level as last year supports our ferry business. And we had annual meeting, this time again electronically.
And also we our stakeholders decided the dividend and we paid it Out as we promised and important this week that we fulfilled our dividend policy. Also, there was a decision by our Supervisory Board to Bronk, Markus Wiechmann's Authorities as a management board member and commercial officer for another 3 years. Then we got silver medal for responsible business, same valid for Our daughter company is Liveatt. There are more and more environmental actions, And there are new rules in our old city, but saying us how to Clean vessels and also important milestone that Tesla served 10,000,000 passengers since 2016. The main trends in Q2, we saw the growth on passengers numbers.
That's 12%. But honestly, these numbers are lower Then we expect it due to the restrictions from governments, I mean, mainly from Finland. Although we got the revenue growth and maybe more important is that It's still number of vessels growing. Who are visiting our Ports in Q2, there are 14% more vessels than last year and in 6 months, 10% more. It's all about RORO growth.
That means these Russian vessels carrying their Ouro and also there are we see quite nice numbers on cargo side. As we mentioned on cargo, we see the continuous growth, 9% in Q2 and 9% over 6 months. This half year, we see the growth from coming from mainly from drybulk and raw raw, But also on containers, we see 12% growth. This time on liquid side liquid bulk, we see decrease. But It's really fluctuating, as we always said, and it's very project oriented.
The business is stable by the revenues and profits. And also on the data segment, we follow Podnica's Actions and Podnica are doing well. Podnica serving Steel Canada Icebreaking plus additional offshore jobs, and We see the stable revenue and profits from Podnica. COVID impacts. As we already mentioned, there is strong downturn from March last year, Although we have seen the growth on Q2 and what we are saying that we're doing what we can To support the passenger business, we opened the new cruise terminal.
Then there are very strict rules how to serve the customers In cruising model but also on ordinary passenger business, the question is all about And willingness to travel. Therefore, to be honest, We are not very optimistic on second on next half of the year due to that 3rd wave of COVID is coming. Cargo side, we see the continuous growth and we see that that will continue. On ferri business, no significant impact, very stable business, say valid for Podnica. And we see the recovery of our daughter company, Green Marine Profitability, shows also positive Signs due to the growth on passenger and then cruise business.
We will continue with our investments. There is good cooperation with Institutions with our partners, operators and maybe you noticed that we try to promote And motivate the vaccination of passengers together with all the operators. Then to the evolution. Back on passenger side, as I mentioned, yes, we see the growth on Q2, but still 50% down on 6 month period, and we are not focused on second half of the year. On cargo, Q2 shows good growth, same for 6 months.
We already said that In our case, our portfolio is very mixed. We can So very different cargo. Our operators are very active. Therefore, we are quite positive on the future trends also. Shipping volumes, ferries doing well.
On Q2, our local ferries, Domestic Ferries did very well. Passenger numbers up 55% And vehicles also 50, but last year, Q2 was very low level. But still, we see the Demand of the service, Estonians traveling a lot to the Saarim Ayumu and also there are more and more tourists. Bottnica shows stable charter numbers. All right.
But then to the financials.
Thank you, Waldo. Here are the results for the group, both for the Q2 6 months. As Arlo already said, 2nd quarter turned out to be very successful for us, However, mainly due to the fact that last year, second quarter was the one most impacted by the COVID restrictions. So we saw growth of almost all the Indicators or main figures, we had growth in revenue. Also adjusted EBITDA grew almost by 9%.
And Last year, Q2, we had a loss. So this year, we managed to earn a profit, Partially, that's due to the lower income tax costs, due to the fact that the dividends that were paid out This year were smaller than the dividends paid out last year. And as a reminder, in Estonia, dividends are taxed when they are declared. So there is no, so to say, classical Corporate income tax, the tax is applied when the dividend payment is actually being made. And this has impacted the income tax cost.
Also, investments are down. Last year, we had a very heavy period of investment. This year, it's about half at the last year's level. However, when we now look at the 6 months number, these are More on the negative side, we still have a slight decrease in revenue due to the fall of revenues in the Q1. That's mainly because last year, Q1 was still Mainly a normal period, only at the second half of March.
The restrictions started to kick in And therefore, also adjusted EBITDA has declined. And last year, we also had one another event impacting the EBITDA level that was the sale of Palossara Harbor assets, where we earned about €1,600,000 of income, which was included in the EBITDA number. So those two components are still the main One is impacting this year's figure compared to last year's. Otherwise, on investment level, the same as second quarter, we had almost half Of the last year's volume and we are 7% behind also on the profit and loss figure. Looking at the results by business segments, the first item, passenger harbors, is the one where we are most concerned.
2nd quarter was successful. We achieved better results almost in all the segments, Better or almost at the same level as last year. Passenger Harbor Revenues and EBITDA increased. Cargo Harbors revenue increased as well. Adjusted EBITDA a little bit declined due to the one time factors mainly.
And ferry segment and others were on a same level as Second quarter last year. On 6 months still on the passenger harbors, we can see that the impact of the first quarter And the restrictions has been greater than the positive impact of the 2nd quarter. So on the 6 month level, we both decline in revenues and adjusted EBITDA. Cargo Harbors revenue has increased. Adjusted EBITDA decreased due to the onetime profit from the sale of assets.
So if you take that out, we have increased also the cargo harbors. EBITDA and ferry segment has shown a little bit increase in revenues. However, due to increased costs and we have said before this year, We already have started and these are still ongoing. There's a maintenance of main engines on all of the ferries. So we will have a little bit elevated costs for this year's compared to the previous periods.
Other segments where we mainly have Botnica and our Green Marine, a daughter company, There's a slight improvement in profitability, both coming from better result of Botnica and Green Marine. So mainly, we are concerned about Passenger Harbor segment, and this is impacting our total results as well. On cash flow side, we have had an increase on the Cash from operating activities also due to the lower volume of investments, less capital is being invested. So cash used for investing activities has decreased. And those 2 combined have had positive effect of €4,600,000 pure free cash flow.
Cash Used in financing activities has increased. This is due to the fact that this year we paid out the dividend on the 2nd quarter Last year, the dividend payment was made in Q3. So it is not included in the 2020 figure. And also we have not taken any loan capital this year. And therefore, the net cash flow for 6 months is negative by €6,000,000 whereas last year it was positive by €9,000,000 And due to the decrease of cash balance, mainly Also the net debt has increased this year compared to the 6 months last year.
On balance sheet side, we don't have much changes when we compare to the situation at the end of last year. Basically, we are on the same levels. Then we have 2 slides where we have laid out the revenue generation And EBITDA generation by all 4 quarters. So you can follow So this concludes our explanation on the financial side of the results. Now we go into Q and A session.
You have an opportunity to write your questions. Please use The question mark on the upper right hand side to do that. We have a short break. So you can write your questions. And in some 3 minutes' time, we will start answering them.
And you can post more as we are answering the ones that are already presented. So please use the opportunity to ask questions. Thank you. Okay. We'll start answering the first The questions that we have received, so the first one was submitted upfront.
And I will read the question, so you can follow-up maybe more easily. So the question is that last week, The press reported that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications plans to buy 4 ferries between the mainland and islands that are currently owned by the Board of Thailand subsidiary, DeS Laivat, for €106,000,000 How can such a potential transaction financially Impact the Board of Tallinn's revenues in the long run. Is there a risk that after expiry of the current Mainland Island ferry connection agreement, the state will not look for a new operator, which could theoretically be the Slavad again, but will set up a new state owned company to operate the ferry service. This is a good question. Yes, A few weeks ago, there was information in the newspapers that the state is discussing and they should discuss this question.
The current contract that we have with the state, There is an option for the state to buy out the current vessels. They can either exercise that option or not. So this is the basis for the discussion. But the state has not decided. They need to inform us At least 4 years before the end of the contract, this means by September next year.
So basically the state has 1 year to decide whether they want to exercise or not this buyout option. And this buyout, the amount or the cost of the vessel, this is fixed. This was already presented during the tender for the contract. So basically, The only thing that a state needs to decide is whether they use the option or not. If of Of course, they decide to use the option.
That will mean that the at the end of the contract period in 2026, Autotalin will receive this €106,000,000 for the vessels. And then it's up to us How we will continue with this money? How can we invest that? But if the As state buys out the vessels then of course the service model for the next period will be different. There is no Capital component, it will probably only be operational tender.
But the question went that is there a hypothetical possibility that the state will operate themselves? Hypothetically, yes, there is an opportunity. But I personally and this is purely my view, I don't think that They will start operating that. Probably it will still be a new tender, but with then state owned vessels. So it will be at the lower margins definitely.
And how that It will impact Port of Thailand Business. That's mainly, of course, it's separately reported as a ferry segment today. And I would say that a large Share of the revenue would be impacted if the capital component is not present next year. But on the other hand, then we have at least 4 years' time to think what to do with this capital and how to How and where to put it at work? So the impact could be weak Depending on what the state ultimately decides, but this decision has not been made.
And we are also active in terms of communicating the consequences of One or the other way to go forward. And of course, we are interested and willing to continue with the current model. But The decision is for the state.
Next question, can you please confirm that There are no new releases confirmed for 2021. We can confirm that There are already calls this year around 20 cruise ships entered our boat. And it's still some 40, 50 confirms For the next coming months, therefore, The final results, of course, will be clear of the closing the Q3 Results. Next question. Please comment on the process of the real estate development in Tallinn.
Just remind you that we are on a detailing process of Five plots or 5 areas. And now we are very close to publish Design of first plot. It's, of course, up to city government. But we're working with all 5 areas. But now, yes, first, a blog will Open for the comments for the public.
Okay. Next question. Please comment on the comparability of upcoming Q3 with Q3 last year, are they comparable from COVID restriction perspective? Good question. As Stated before, this year has been a disappointment, I could say, for us.
We have been more optimistic in terms of recovery of the passenger business. And this is largely due to the fact that mainly Finnish government has imposed tighter restrictions on or due to the COVID situation. And unfortunately, we see that when last year at the end of Q2, the traffic between Estonia and Finland was basically free for all the passengers. Then this year, we still have or have had restrictions and the COVID situation is worse. So unfortunately, this year, I could say that in terms of Traveling between Estonia and Finland, the situation is worse compared to the Q3 last year.
But as Waldo said, on cruise business, last year we did not have any vessel calls This year, Q3, we already have had several actual vessel visits with cruise passengers. So on the cruise side, the situation is a little bit better, even though it's not easier than it was last year. So it remains to be seen what the final figures are, But the Q3 is continuously difficult in terms of Passenger Harbor segment.
Would you give us a feel for the normal Annualized maintenance investment level. If you talk about maintenance investment, then it's Around €10,000,000 €15,000,000 annually. What That would be the main drivers for dry bulk volumes. As I mentioned, it's Lot of Estonian export, but also There is good start up of some operators in Moga Harbor. They made their investment investments, I mean, warehouses, cranes.
And now we see the results.
Next question, can you please remind why Q2 Other segment is with negative operating profit? Seems like it's a seasonal effect, but why? Yes, it's seasonal And it's because icebreaker Wodnica, the winter contract ends at the second half of April. So second half of April, May and large share of June, Wotnica does not earn any revenue until at the end of June, it will go on a summer charter. And this is largely the reason why second quarter has, all in all, negative results.
How the recent accident or incident with the ferritel affects The result of the very segment in Q3, honestly, we don't see any big effect Because TEL has insurance contract behind that and Also, there is still valid guarantee From the producer of this hybrid system, therefore, no major effect. Yes.
No, no of course, there will be Slight increase maybe in some of the costs. But overall, this we are not aware that there would be any problems in terms of insurance. And as Waldo said, we had a guarantee on the system and the cost should be recoverable. How that will materialize, we'll see. But currently, we don't expect any major impact.
Next question. When explaining the ferry service revenue in First half twenty twenty one, you referred to the decline in fuel price index, but the fuel prices have generally increased this year. Please explain. I think what is meant here is that The adjustment of the fees comes with the delay. So for example, this year's our first Quarter fees are adjusted with the last year's last quarter prices and etcetera.
So when prices fuel prices go down, Then we have kind of elevated positive effect because the downward Adjustment comes with a delay. When prices go up, then we have a delayed Impact as well because the revenue will go up 1 quarter or behind. And this kind of creates this small Disruption, whereas cost levels are more daily following the fuel price Changes, but the revenue adjustment comes with a delay. So this is what is impacting Revenues. It appears that there are no more questions at the moment.
So we thank you for participation. The webinar will be made available in a stock exchange announcement link. And it will be also be possible to access it from our website. So we thank you for your interest and hope to see you again when we have the 3rd quarter results.