Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is the operator speaking. Welcome to NN Group's analyst conference call on its first half year 2021 results. The telephone lines will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. The lines will be open for a question and answer session. Before handing this conference call over to Mr. David Knibbe, Chief Executive Officer of NN Group, let me first give the following statement on behalf of the company. Today's comments may include forward-looking statements, such as statements regarding future developments in NN Group's business, expectations for its future financial performance, and any statement not involving an historical fact. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and NN Group assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or for any other reason. Furthermore, nothing in today's comments constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Good morning, Mr. Knibbe. Over to you. Yes. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our conference call to discuss NN Group's result for the first half of 2021. As always, I'm joined today by Delfin Rueda, our Chief Financial Officer, and Bernhard Kaufmann, our Chief Risk Officer. I will start off this presentation with the highlights of the first half year results, including the strategic and commercial developments. Delfin will talk in more detail about our solvency position, as well as the financial results of the group. After wrapping up the presentation, we will open up the call for Q&A. Let me start with the financial highlights shown on slide 3. Our businesses across the group delivered an excellent performance in the first half of 2021. We saw a strong recovery in sales in Europe and Japan as COVID-19 restrictions are easing in many countries, and online sales are becoming more common practice for agents, brokers, and customers. Our value of new business doubled to EUR 242 million on the back of higher sales, as well as improved margins and business mix. At our Non-life business, we see encouraging signs of improvements, partly thanks to the measures we have been taking. The integration of VIVAT Non-life is also progressing well, with 90% of VIVAT premiums already migrated to NN systems. NN Group's operating result increased 21% on the same period last year to EUR 1.1 billion, driven by strong operating performance at all segments. Operating capital generation, or OCG, increased by 44% to EUR 780 million. This increase reflects a strong business performance with better Non-life underwriting results, high new business at Insurance Europe, and a higher net result at Asset Management. OCG was further supported by a higher investment return on the shift to higher yielding assets and a positive contribution from Banking under the new methodology. Our capital position remains strong, with a Solvency II ratio of 209% at the 30th of June 2021, and we have announced today that we will pay an interim dividend of EUR 0.93 per ordinary share. More details on the solvency position and financial results will be covered, as always, by Delfin later in the presentation. Let's turn to slide 4. We continually strive to provide relevant products and services that meet our customers' evolving needs and to be there when they need us most. As I mentioned on the previous slide, we saw higher sales in the first half of 2021, which is really encouraging, and it illustrates the strength of our distribution channels as well as all the hard work in our units. The consequences of the pandemic in the past 18 months has highlighted the need for protection. For example, in the event of illness or loss of income. As well as the current under-penetration of insurance in many markets. We continue to launch protection and living benefits products. For example, an income protection product in Japan, which safeguards SME CEOs and their employees against the risk of not being able to work due to sudden illness or accident, as well as payment protection product in Spain. Besides the higher sales, we saw the business mix in Europe shifting to more protection products, as well as an improved margin in Japan as a result of management actions, including repricing. All these actions resulted in a very strong value of new business in the first half of 2021, as you can see on the slide. On the other hand, we did all we could to help our customers deal with the damage caused to their homes and businesses during the recent floods in the Netherlands and in Belgium. NN's claims managers were immediately available on site to directly assess damages and where possible, process and pay out the claims straight away or to provide an advance on the claim amount. We are proactively approaching customers in the affected areas to check if they need our help. Our insurance products are designed to help people at times like these, and our customers can rely on us to support them, as should be expected from the market leader in the Dutch market. The full extent of the damage caused by the floods will only become apparent once buildings have dried out and all claims have been submitted. While there is still quite some uncertainty, we currently estimate the financial impact on our results of around EUR 70 million, net of external reinsurance, in the second half of the year. Now, turning to slide 5. We are making good progress on executing our strategy as set out at the Capital Markets Day last year, with a commitment to achieve resilient and growing long-term capital generation. Our strategy is built on three pillars, the first one being our resilient balance sheet. Delfin will talk about that later. The second pillar is on generating strong cash flows in the Netherlands. The actions we are taking to improve the results of our Non-life business are starting to come through. We have a leading position in Dutch pensions, as well as strong defined contribution or DC propositions. We continue to attract inflows in line with our market share of around 40%. In DC, assets under management are currently amount to EUR 27 billion. At the same time, mortgage origination at NN Bank remained at high level in a very buoyant Dutch housing market. These assets are also very attractive for our insurance investment portfolios. A large portion is transferred to group companies as part of our shift to higher yielding assets. NN Investment Partners continues to attract new mandates with close to EUR 4 billion of net inflows of third-party assets, while continuing its leadership in responsible investing and increasing the percentage of ESG integrated assets. The third pillar is to achieve profitable growth in Europe and Japan. Our distribution strength in Europe is enhanced by digital capabilities, making customer engagement more efficient and more effective. For example, process digitalization to enable remote sales, as well as the strong increase in lead generation, have both led to a growth in new sales. Our strategy is focused on organic growth, but we are open to inorganic opportunities that create value. We recently announced the acquisition of MetLife's businesses in Poland and Greece, as well as a 70% stake in Heinenoord, one of the largest Non-life service providers and insurance brokers in the Netherlands. Both these acquisitions strengthen our proposition in the relevant markets, and they are also accretive to operating capital generation, offering an attractive return on investment. At the same time, we continue to manage our portfolio, and we perform a regular and thorough assessment of our individual businesses against our financial and strategic criteria. This has led us to announce the sale of our business in Bulgaria in February, and the transaction was completed in July. The strategic review of our Asset Management business that we announced in April is ongoing. We will update the market when we have any news to share. When we talk about generating value, we mean value for all of our stakeholders, and we measure this against our non-financial targets for excellent customer experience, engaged employees, and our contribution to society, which are shown in the appendix. I am particularly proud of our highly engaged employees who are committed to helping our customers while also actively volunteering in community projects. Moving to slide 6. Our commitment to shareholders is to provide attractive and growing capital returns, and we have been consistent in delivering on that promise, as our track record shows. We announced today that we will pay an interim dividend of EUR 0.93 per ordinary share in September, which represents an increase of 8% compared to last year. This amount is calculated in line with NN Group's dividend policy, so as 40% of the pro forma 2020 full year dividend per ordinary share. With that, I pass you over to Delfin. Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone. Let me start, as usual, with the movement in NN Group solvency ratio in the first half of 2021. Our solvency ratio remains strong at 209% at the end of June. There are a number of items that impact the ratio, so let me take you through them. Firstly, operating capital generation added 9 percentage points to the ratio. I will talk more about the drivers of operating capital generation on the next slide. Market variance was positive, mainly reflecting the positive impact of the tightening of the spreads, in particular mortgage spreads, and added 8 percentage points to the ratio. These two positive items were partly offset by the category other, which includes an increase in the capital requirement due to the shift to higher yielding assets and the replacement of part of our swaps with government and corporate bonds with very long durations. In addition, the ratio was lower by the impact of the UFR reduction from 3.75% to 3.60% as of the 1st of January this year, as well as capital flows to shareholders in the form of the announced 2021 interim dividend and the EUR 250 million shares buyback program that commenced in March. Please note that the expected impact on the solvency ratio from the recently announced acquisitions of MetLife and Heinenoord, as well as the sale of the Bulgarian business, will be reflected at the time the respective transactions close. Let's now turn to slide 9, which shows the operating capital generation by segment. Total operating capital generation in the first half of 2021 increased to EUR 780 million, compared with EUR 543 million in the same period of 2020, with most segments contributing to the increase. The main drivers of this significantly higher operating capital generation were the improved Non-life underwriting result in both P&C and D&A, as well as the higher new sales at Insurance Europe. In addition, the contribution from Banking in the first half of this year is based for the first time on the new methodology and reflects the statutory net result offset by a limited increase in risk-weighted assets. Let me just remind you that in previous years, the operating capital generation of Banking was based on dividends remitted to the holding. The ongoing shift to higher yielding assets, as well as higher equity valuations, led to a higher investment return, mainly at Netherlands Life. On the other hand, higher sales at Japan Life lead to new business strain, which has a negative impact on operating capital generation in the short term. A breakdown of operating capital generation by source can be found in the appendix to this presentation. The next slide shows the capital position at the holding. Let me begin, as usual, with Netherlands Life, which reported an operating result of EUR 520 million. The increase compared with the first half of 2020. Sorry. I think I moved too fast within the presentation. We are back to slide 10, and we're talking on the cash capital position at the holding, which increased to EUR 1.5 billion at the end of June 2021, compared with EUR 1.2 billion at the end of December 2020. Total remittances received from subsidiaries reached EUR 978 million in the first half of 2021. While we saw the gradual resumption of dividend payments from some units regularly, regulatory restrictions are still somewhat impacting remittances, mainly from NN Bank. As usual, details of all the remittances upstream by each segment can be found in the appendix to this presentation. Cash outflows in the first half of the year were the payment of the cash portion of the 2020 final dividend of EUR 252 million and the repurchase of own shares for an amount of EUR 165 million. The amounts to be paid for the announced acquisition of MetLife in Poland and Greece and Heinenoord in the Netherlands will be deducted from the cash capital position at the time that the transactions are closed. Moving on to the next slide, I will take you through the IFRS financial results of the group. Starting on the left, NN Group's operating result in the first half of the year was up 21%, compared with the same period in 2020, with almost all business units reporting higher results. Please note that the current period benefited from EUR 24 million of private equity dividends, while the first half of 2020 including EUR 16 million of private equity dividends and non-recurring benefits. I will take you through the results of individual segments on the next slide. On the right-hand side, you can see that the net result for the first half of 2021 was EUR 1.4 billion. The increase compared with the first half of last year and is mainly driven by higher non-operating items, which include capital gains on the sale of public equities and government bonds in the current period. The operating result by segment is shown in slide 12. Let me begin, as usual, with Netherlands Life, which reported an operating result of EUR 520 million. The increase compared with H1 2020 is mainly driven by a higher investment margin in the current period as we continue to shift to higher yielding assets, as well as higher dividends from equity investments following the postponement of some dividend payments in H1 2020 due to COVID-19. The operating result of Netherlands Non-life increased to EUR 189 million from EUR 111 million in H1 2020. The higher results in P&C were mainly driven by favorable claims development in the fire portfolio, also supported by frequency benefits due to COVID-19. In D&A, we saw favorable claims development in individual disability, as well as a higher underwriting result in the accident and travel portfolio. The combined ratio improved to 92% versus 94.9% in the first half of 2020. This is a strong result, but please keep in mind that Non-life results can be volatile. As David already mentioned, we will see the claims from the flooding in the Netherlands and Belgium coming through in the second half of the year. Insurance Europe's operating result increased to EUR 161 million. As COVID-19 restrictions are eased in many countries, the recovery in sales led to higher life and pension fees across the region. We also saw a recovery in sales of COLI products in Japan. The operating result of Japan Life was up 23% on the same period last year, excluding currency effects, reflecting a higher technical margin, lower DAC amortization and trail commissions, and higher fees and premium-based revenues. Asset Management's operating result increased to EUR 91 million, driven by higher fees on the back of higher average assets under management and a more favorable asset mix. The operating result of Banking was broadly stable at EUR 79 million in H1 2021. Higher operating income, mainly reflecting fees earned on the larger serviced mortgage portfolio, was offset by higher total expenses. The operating result of the segment Other improved to - EUR 76 million, mainly driven by the higher operating result of the reinsurance business, which last year included claims related to Netherlands Non-life's disability portfolio. With that, I will now pass you back to David for the wrap-up. Thank you, Delfin. We can look back at an excellent first half of 2021, with a strong financial and commercial performance at all of our business units. Operating capital generation increased 44%, and our solvency ratio remains strong at 209%. We have announced today that we will pay an interim dividend of EUR 0.93 per ordinary share in September, in line with our dividend policy. Even if COVID-19 continues to impact the lives of many and uncertainties continue, our employees remain dedicated to providing excellent products and services to our customers to help them care for what matters most to them. We are committed to delivering on our strategy to create long-term value for all stakeholders, and we are progressing well to achieve both our financial and our non-financial targets. Let me now hand you back to the operator to open the call for your questions. Thank you, Mr. Knibbe. Ladies and gentlemen, we will start the question and answer session now. To register for the question and answer session, please press star one now on your telephone. As a reminder, in the interest of time, we kindly ask you to limit the number of questions to two. Your questions will be answered in the order that they are received. So please press star one now for your questions or remarks. Go ahead. Our first question is from Mr. Andrew Baker of Citi. Go ahead, sir. Your line is open. Great. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one's just on OCG. I was just wondering if you could provide the outlook for OCG for the second half based on where current market conditions are, and if you're not willing to provide that, maybe you could just provide the mark-to-market impact that you've seen in the second half from interest rates and mortgage spread moves. Secondly, if you were to dispose the Asset Management business, just curious what would be your plans for any proceeds that you may receive. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Andrew. Delfin, can you cover the first question, and I'll take the second one? Certainly. Thanks. Good morning, Andrew. Thanks for your question. On the OCG outlook for the second half, first let me remind you that, of course, OCG is more volatile than operating result as it is dependent, as you rightly point out, to the condition of the market, of the rates in particular. Nevertheless, of course, the first half of the year has been very good, driven by many factors. It certainly will be wrong to just use the first half of the year and multiply it by two. There has been quite a few elements, positive during the first half in several segments. For example, in Life, we mentioned the private equity dividends that are not expected to come in the second half of EUR 24 million. Non-life has had a very good result, and at a 92% combined ratio, we do expect things to evolve more, within the range of our target of 94%-96%. Insurance Europe has had strong sales and benefited from a strong market performance, providing some additional performance fees of pension business. Keep in mind that, also, NN Bank has a good OCG contribution. As the strong origination of mortgages, there was a significant transfer to third party that impact positively in the operating results and in the OCG. Overall, there is an elevated level in H1 2021 that we don't expect repeated in H2 2021. On your question on the rates, when you look at the OCG in H1 2021, these are based more or less on the average monthly rate in that period. When we look at the current level of interest rates, they are close to that average. Overall, the impact on the markets are expected to be limited. Of course, don't forget the impact of the flooding in the second half. Yes. Thank you, Delfin. Your question on potential proceeds. Just as a reminder for everybody what we have announced there. We have announced a strategic review of our Asset Management business to see if we can accelerate the growth of this business by making it part of a larger platform. Options on the table are a joint venture, a merger, a partial, or a full divestment. This review is ongoing, and obviously, if we have news to share on that, we will do that immediately. Yeah, in terms of then speculating on capital return, we have a very clear capital framework. In the past, we have been disciplined around returning capital to shareholders, and all I can say in this stage is that we will remain also disciplined on returning capital to shareholders, not only in the past, but also going forward. Great. Thank you very much. This question is from Mr. David Barma of Exane BNP Paribas. Go ahead, your line is open. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. The first one is to come back on the operating capital generation. I think you mentioned EUR 700 million as an underlying capital number for the first half versus the EUR 780 million reported. Can you help bridge the two? From what you're saying, it seems like the gap is a bit bigger than that with the private equity dividend, the very strong Non-life business and the European new business contribution. That is the first question. Secondly, on M&A and more generally on your appetite for Life portfolios, can you talk a little bit about your appetite for, let's say, more guaranteed books of business, especially following the MetLife transaction where the portfolio differs quite a bit to what you were rumored to look at in the past? Maybe, sorry, just a last small one on NNIP. Just to check, in the press release, I see you refer to growth mostly, and now you seem to mention all the options are still on the table. Is that still the case, just to confirm? Thank you. Thank you, David. Let me start with your question on M&A and NNIP, and then I'll give it to Delfin on the OCG question. Let's start with M&A. I think, let's start with a comment in general. We obviously have our hands full now with trying to close the transactions that we did and preparing the integration. Overall, our base case is organic growth, and that's why we're also pleased to see the progress that we're making in driving long-term capital generation that is really driven by our businesses, whether this is the Non-life improvements that we have seen or for example, the commercial growth, where we have been doubling our value of new business or the mortgage growth. That is our base case. We'll continue to do active portfolio management, and the divestment of Bulgaria is an example of that, and a strategic review that we're doing on NNIP. Currently the priority is really around preparing and running the integration of our acquisitions and we'll also going forward, will remain disciplined on M&A. I think specifically on your question on MetLife, I think MetLife had a very good overlap of business with our businesses. That helps in many ways. It helps obviously to create more synergies on the expense side, on the product side, but it also helps on the distribution side that you can easier align distribution channels and create a larger platform for growth. That's why we were very interested in the MetLife business, both in Greece and in Poland. It will support our growth profile in these markets also going forward and thereby also supporting our operating capital generation and the EUR 50 million that we have given as a guidance on the back of this deal. Overall, it provides a double-digit return, so we're very pleased with the transaction and are now working to close it and prepare the integration. For NNIP, I'm not exactly sure what your question are. Indeed, all options are still on the table. If we look at the underlying performance of NNIP itself, it had a very good half year. We saw an inflow of third-party business or a net inflow of third-party business of EUR 3.9 billion, which is of course very good news. Also the performance was very strong. We've seen an increase of our outperformance versus the benchmark at now 162 basis points, which is very good news, and 70% of our alpha funds are now outperforming peers. For us it's really a combination of good customer inflow, but also strong investment performance. Certainly, the ESG angle, the sustainable and impacting investments of NNIP have always been a priority and we see that also coming through in the portfolio where there's a good growth also in that asset category. Overall, NNIP had a good half year. David, on your first question, I always have a bit of a struggle to define what is normalized run rate or underlying. The truth is that the OCG in the first half of the year, don't have, let's say, many sort of one-offs. It is supported by a strong underlying business driver. The only thing is that these drivers were very strong. In terms of guidance or expectations going forward, we do believe that it is not prudent to use that same figure for the first half, for the rest. I mentioned before the private equity dividends, which actually is an one-off that we have indicated impacting operating result. That actually is not a special item within the OCG. As for operating capital generation, we do consider the expected return on equity and the actual performance. Over performance or under performance is reflected in the market movement. With that clarification, I think the areas where we see that has been very strong in the first half and might be less so going forward, related to the Non-life combined ratio, as I mentioned before. The level of strong sales in Europe, we think that they can be maintained, but some of the outperformance fees for the pension business, it depends on maintaining a strong market performance and can be a bit less strong. Overall, when you look at the overall expectations for the second half, certainly will be lower and probably closer to the EUR 700 million that you mentioned, but with no specific one-off to mention. Of course, this raises questions in relationship to the target for 2023, on which, apart from the positive momentum that we have seen across the different businesses, we see, therefore, some upside on this segment targets. Also, we have to take into account the expected contribution from the acquisition of MetLife Poland and Greece, and also Heinenoord in the Non-life segment. Overall, just the two acquisitions together might bring something between EUR 70 million-EUR 75 million for 2023, apart from the positive momentum there. Thank you. Next question is from Mr. Ashik Musaddi of JP Morgan. Go ahead, your line is open. Thank you, and good morning, Delfin. Good morning. Good morning, David. Just a couple of questions I have, if I may. Let me stick with this OCG. Sorry to come back on this OCG. If I hear you correctly, you were saying second half EUR 700 million is more normalized. If I do times two of EUR 700 million, it looks like your normalized OCG at the moment is about EUR 1.4 billion. You said that a couple of acquisitions would add about EUR 70 million-EUR 75 million. That basically takes you to about EUR 1.5 billion, just shy of EUR 1.5 billion. There are dynamics of lower UFR in the future, some more underlying improvement in your P&C business, some growth in Asset Management, et cetera. How do we think about EUR 1.5 billion? Are we talking about EUR 1.6 billion, EUR 1.7 billion? Any color on that would be very helpful. That's the first one. Secondly, David, just wanted to say thanks that your capital management has been absolutely very spot on with respect to dividend, buyback, et cetera. If your capital generation OCG is moving higher and remittance is moving higher, how do we think about the buyback? What needs to happen for you to say that, "Okay, instead of EUR 250 million, now I'm doing EUR 500 million buyback?" That is one thing I would like to understand is when do we get a higher buyback? Clearly, M&A is good as well. It is adding value, but any color on that? Thirdly, on Asset Management. Now, if I understand correctly, you delivered like EUR 90 million profits in H1 2021. That's EUR 180 million for the year without any growth. Post-tax is EUR 140 million. Is that the right way to look at the math on Asset Management earnings? The speculated EUR 1.4 billion then looks relatively low for a business that is making EUR 140 million and is generating cash on a recurring basis. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Ashik. Delfin, can you start with the OCG question? Yes. Thanks, Ashik. You're right. I think there is certainly, clearly, upside to the EUR 1.5 billion target for 2023. I don't think it's now the time in order to set the new targets. Apart from the acquisitions that we have mentioned, there are some positive underlying drivers within the different business and re-risking. We are also progressing quite well. In terms of the gap, how to think about the share buyback. Certainly, we have been very clear and actually we have acted with the same clarity in terms of delivering returns to shareholders with the surplus capital. When we have excess capital, it's part of our capital management policy, and we will do so in going forward. We have a range for cash capital between EUR 0.5 billion and EUR 1.5 billion. Any excess above that, we will, over time, try to bring it back to that level. Of course, there are some acquisitions that we are expecting to close. In the case of Heinenoord, before year-end, and in the case of MetLife, in the first half of next year. This will be some cash outflows, and we will continue to be acting in that same manner. Yes. On your question on Asset Management. The way we look at the Asset Management is, as you know, Ashik, we really look from an operating capital generation point of view. The operating capital generation for the asset manager in the first half was EUR 67 million. We've given an OCG target for the NNIP business of EUR 125 million in 2023. Well, as you can see from the results, that we're well on our way to deliver on that EUR 125 million OCG target. Thank you. Our next question is from Mr. Michael Huttner of Berenberg. Go ahead, your line is open. Fantastic. Thank you. Congratulations on amazing results, and anyway, I feel sorry for myself for not having you as mine, but that's me. Just two questions, if I may. The first one is, could you possibly give us a kind of walk-through what could be the cash at the year-end? I'd arrived at a figure, but I forgot that some of the deals close after the event. I'm completely confused now. Any kind of help on how we can, using kind of, because some of the subsidiaries do remit quarterly and some don't, and maybe the bank will do a catch up, and I got confused with all this. That's really gratefully received. The second is on the strategic review of the Asset Management. Can you help us a little bit on this? The business is doing fantastic. You do not need the cash. You don't seem to have tail risk like some of your competitors. I don't get it. I still don't understand what prompted you to review something which you had firmly embedded in your strategic plan for 2023. Clearly, I'm missing something. You're a very sensible company, you've thought this through. Any help on explaining why it makes sense would be gratefully received. Thank you. Thank you, Michael, and thanks for the compliment also. I think let me start with the strategic review on the Asset Management, and then Delfin can talk about the cash position at the year-end. Indeed, to your point, we're not trying to address here an underperformance issue or a big problem in our business. This is really a long-term strategic review, the question is: do we have the right setup? Is this the right way to further develop the Asset Management business? We all know that scale is an important element. We know that having scale to invest in the right capabilities is important. There's an ongoing pressure on fees. There is still a shift to passive. There's a lot of macro trends that are happening. At the same time, we also see that customers become more demanding. There's a wide capabilities are needed from LDI up to the general kind of the alpha products, all the way up to alternatives and everything that is in between. There's a lot happening in this space. It's clearly also becoming more and more a global space, a global competition, which I would argue is not necessarily the same for insurance, where we often compete very much in local markets with local regulation and local tax laws and local pension systems. There's a lot happening, and this has led us to say, let's do a strategic review, not because of that today, we don't have a good performance, to your point, and I made that point earlier. We're very pleased with the performance, but is this also long-term the best way to run our asset manager or should we think about accelerating the growth by making it part of a larger platform? That's what we're investigating, and I trust that we will also come with a sensible outcome of this review, and once we know this, we'll obviously come back to you. On the cash position, Delfin. Yes. Good morning. Thanks, Michael. Let me see if I can provide you a bit of guidance on that front. For the cash position, first and important is the expected remittances. 2020 was a year where we saw restrictions on the payment of dividends. Although there is still some prudency and some limitation in some markets, we see that this has already more normalized, and this is already reflected in the remittances of the first half, with the exception mainly of the NN Bank, on which the amount of dividend was of EUR 13 million, following the current limitations. We do expect that as from September, this will be clear, and we will come back to the normal payment of dividends from the NN Bank. Of course, in order to look at the dividends of the second half, you need to take into account that there is seasonality on which Insurance Europe and some other entities tend to pay more dividends in the second quarter of the year. The long-term guidance, in terms of free cash flow, not only remittances, but also the expenses of the holding are to be in the range of the operating capital generation. There are, of course, other cash flows that are happening. One is still the execution of the share buyback program that we are now on more or less around half of that program, so that will continue over time. The different transactions. We will have some proceeds from the disposal in Bulgaria, not that large. In the second half of the year, we are expecting to close the acquisition of Heinenoord, and that will be approximately EUR 300 million. That is the cash outflow related to the acquisition of 70%, and also the fact that we refinance, we take a loan on board of EUR 129 million. For the second half of the year, there will be this EUR 300 million outflow in terms of cash. The acquisition of MetLife, which is of course, more significant, around EUR 600 million, a little bit less, EUR 584 million expected. This will only happen in the first half of 2022. That's very clear. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next question is from Miss Fulin Liang of Morgan Stanley. Go ahead, your line is open. Thank you. Very good results, and congratulations. I got two quick questions, hopefully. The first one is, obviously in Dutch you have seen the frequency benefit. Are you seeing the severity actually going up in Dutch market at the moment? Are you making any provisions for this potential severity going up? That's the first one. Secondly is, I just wanted to look at your VNB. Obviously your VNB actual growth year-over-year is very impressive. If I compare the VNB versus the pre-COVID-19 world, which is the 1st of 2019 number, H1 2019, it really kind of flat. That is based on the fact, if I understand correctly, Japan is still in partially lockdown and there may be many of the CE countries there are still restrictions in place, your current capacity may not be the full capacity. I just wanted to, do you have assessment of the real organic growth of the business in CE countries as well as in Japan? Thank you. Yes. Fulin, thank you. Let me first start with your question on VNB. Indeed, we had a very strong development of VNB versus last year. Europe was up 61%. I think there's a couple things happening here. We do see a higher demand from customers in general. I think COVID, maybe even the extreme weather, everything that's been happening to the world, has led to an increased awareness of vulnerabilities that people have. Certainly in some of the markets outside the Netherlands where we operate, the level of social security protection and the insurance penetration is relatively low. I think that is one factor that contributes to our growth. I think there is also a bit more of a one-off effect. We have seen that households have, in general, spent a bit less. Maybe less holiday. There's a bit of a catch-up effect as well that people have a bit more money to spend. I think that obviously is more of a short-term effect. The other thing that we've been doing, we've been really moving ourselves more into the online world. I think we made very good steps in further making our business online. We set up also, we've shown a 40% leads increase to our agents. I think part of it is market, part of it is our own doing. We've also seen that while tied agents were very resilient during the height of the pandemic, now also banks and brokers are really picking up again. If you look at the numbers, if you would compare it to 2019, I think Europe still shows a good growth. The value of new business in 2019, the first half, was EUR 108 million. It is now EUR 135 million. Also versus 2019, the first half, which was obviously pre-COVID-19, we're showing a good growth. Going forward, we've always said that VNB growth for Europe, high single-digit growth should be achievable, certainly on the back of these macro factors that I mentioned and the strength of our distribution channels. Yes, this has been a very impressive number, but also over the longer term, we believe we can continue to grow the value of new business and therefore also the capital generation of Europe. Japan indeed is a different story. We saw a phenomenal drop after the tax reform and after the COVID-19 lockdowns. Also here, I think we're very well on our way back up. We more than doubled our sales. I think that puts us in the number two position in the market, with an overall market share of around 13%-14%. We continue to sell a lot of protection products, which is also supportive for our value. We see also for Japan going forward, we do see a further growth even though competition is of course also adapting to the new products like we have done. Overall, we've given a target of EUR 150 million VNB for Japan in 2023, and we're well on our way to deliver that as well. All in all, indeed, I think it has been a very strong growth, but also going forward, we do expect that probably at a bit different pace. We do expect to grow our business. By the way, this is not only around sales. If you look at Japan, for example, for the first time, we passed the mark of 100,000 SME customers. Also we're putting significant effort in our retention. Q2 is typically a bad retention month, but we managed to do that a bit better. Therefore now for the first time, we also passed the 100,000 number of customers in the SME space in Japan. Your question on the Netherlands. Obviously, the flood has a big impact. I think we also need to acknowledge that even though weather has become more extreme, if you look at the last period, the weather has been relatively favorable. Certainly in the first half year, the floods obviously happened after the first half year. The weather has been favorable. We are looking, of course, at our models. What does this do in terms of the premiums that we need to ask to customers? The fire market is still a relatively hard market, especially in the SME segment. Maybe not as much as in the past, but there's still a possibility to increase premiums where needed. Retail probably also, but a bit less. We see less burglaries. There's more people at home, but there's still some room also for premium increases. I think that's on the short term. On longer term, obviously, we also have a reinsurance cover that is very helpful for this event that happened. We do think that over time, there is a possibility that we'll see more of these extreme weathers happening, and that's something we need to account for in our pricing and potentially also in our reinsurance coverage. Thank you. Very clear. Ladies and gentlemen, if there are any further questions or remarks, you can still press star one on your telephone at any time. Star one for your questions or remarks. Go ahead, please. Our next question is from Mr. Nasib Ahmed of UBS. Go ahead, your line is open. Hi, thanks for taking my question. Just coming back to the 2023 targets, you're progressing well against the EUR 1.5 billion total target. If I look at the divisions, as you point out, Insurance Europe, your target was EUR 3 million-EUR 5 million. It's looking that it's going to exceed P&C. I think it was EUR 2 million-EUR 5 million. That's looking to exceed as well. The one where you probably need to catch up is Life, which was a target of EUR 900 million. You're making good progress on the re-risking, and you had a target of EUR 200 million. Just question, where are you currently with respect to the EUR 200 million, and can you exceed that EUR 200 million target? Related to that, on the solvency, there was a EUR 3 million increase in the SCR. How much of that is driven by re-risking? Second question, you just mentioned that the online sales are driving VNB. Is there lower persistency on this business? I guess it's too early to say because you've just started selling this business. In terms of the assumptions that you're making in the VNB, are you expecting lower retention from this business going forward? Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Nasib. Let me start with the online sales question, and then I'll give it to Bernhard on the, let's say, the impact of re-risking, and Delfin can cover the target of NN Life. Maybe just to clarify, when we say online sales, we don't necessarily. You shouldn't compare this to direct sales. There are still agents, brokers involved. It's just the way they do it. They can do it via a screen. There's a lot more online possibility to do policy amendments, online underwriting. The amount of tooling is a lot more online, and we don't need to have agents driving through countries anymore for a few hours to meet a customer. There's obviously the online leads model that can support these agents so that they get enough leads, but also they can do it in a more efficient way. We don't have any indication that this would lead to a different retention level. I would argue that it's also positive for customers, that they are now in an easier way, can do business with us in an online way. Generally, we see that the more online active customers are, the higher the NPS, the higher the net promoter score, which could potentially be a plus even for your retention. We don't have any indication that this would be a reason for lower retentions. On the target of EUR 200 million, Bernhard Nasib, where we are with our re-risking program, we have already now reached our target of additional EUR 200 million OCG contribution coming from re-risking of our investment portfolio compared to our 2019 OCG numbers. We successfully reached our targeted level. Please keep in mind that 2020 was a very special year, where we were able to seize opportunities in the markets that were impacted by the pandemic. Now in the first half of this year, we shifted also to high-yielding assets, but at a much lower pace. What we will do going forward is we will continue, but gradually, to shift to high-yielding assets, mainly focusing then on the illiquids, like mortgage, real estate, and loans. The SCR related to re-risking activities in the first half was roughly half of the numbers that we also show in the bucket Other. Yeah. Thank you, Bernhard. Delfin, on the overall targets? Yes. Thank you, Nasib. For the 2023 target, you are right, we are progressing well. There is clearly upside to the EUR 1.5 billion. I could go segment by segment, I think overall there is a positive underlying business drivers. Bernhard has mentioned the ability on the further improvements on the re-risking, on the investment margin. I mentioned already the two acquisitions that are going to contribute positively. We do expect also some additional benefits here and there. Indeed, there is clearly upside to the EUR 1.5 billion in 2023. Thank you. Thanks. Our next question is from Mr. Robin van den Broek, Mediobanca. Go ahead please, your line is open. Yes, good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my question. Only one last. With your investor day, you basically guided for free cash flow to grow towards OCG over time. I was just wondering, given your flagging outperformance on OCG delivery versus the EUR 1.5 billion, how you're thinking on the fungibility of that capital generation towards free cash flow looks like in 2023, or share some words on how you're thinking on how that correlation should progress over time. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Robin. Delfin? Thanks, Robin. The link between the OCG and the free cash flow is an over time reference because it's logical. The OCG is measuring how much additional surplus capital is generated, let's say, on a normalized basis or driven by the normal business. Of course, always there's going to be fluctuations around that as market impacts the actual OCG. A market impact, the actual surplus capital is not reflected in OCG and the rest. Therefore, this guidance is maintained. Obviously, in some units, the OCG might be usually a bit lower, the remittances might be lower than the OCG. Also we have other units, like the segment Netherlands Life, on which we are currently distributing slightly above the level of the OCG, and it's expected that to be maintained for the future. Overall, that guidance is maintained. Okay. Very clear. Thank you. Our next question is from Mr. Farquhar Murray, Autonomous. Go ahead please, sir, your line is open. Morning, all. Just two questions, if I may. Firstly, on the floods estimate, I presume that EUR 70 million, there's limited risk around that, I presume it's capped by the reinsurance coverage. Could I just ask what the gross claims are within that estimate? Secondly, sorry to come just back to NNIP. Could I ask how you're managing the uncertainties around the process there within the business? It is ultimately a people business. I do just wonder, is there any sense of urgency about trying to reach a conclusion there? Thanks. Yes. Good morning, Farquhar. Yes, on the floods, indeed, the estimate is around EUR 70 million pre-tax, net of external reinsurance. Gross claims estimated around EUR 90 million. Again, there's also here some uncertainty around these numbers, but this is broadly the ballpark of where we are. On NNIP, obviously we're actively managing this. I think also both the customer performance and the investment performance has shown that we're managing the uncertainties well. We also do a lot of measurements on staff and engagement, and we've also seen that NNIP has a very strong engagement also in the company. From that point of view, the uncertainties are well managed. Obviously, in terms of timing, we're doing this on the one hand as fast as we can because there's no reason to delay it, but we also need to do it the right way. This is important. We're going to take the time that it requires. Obviously, as quick as we can, but doing it right in a responsible way is a leading principle here. Okay. Thanks a lot. We have no further questions, sir. Back to you, Mr. Knibbe. Yes. Thank you very much for all your questions. Before we close the call, let me just wrap up by saying that we can look back on an excellent first half year of 2021, with a strong financial performance at all of our business units, and a very encouraging growth in our sales, and a solid capital position. Have a good day.