DWS Group GmbH & Co KgaA

XETRA:DWS

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q1

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Moeth, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the DWS Group Q1 2023 Results with Investor and Analyst Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]I would now like to turn the conference over to Oliver Flade. Please go ahead.

[Oliver Flade, executive]

Yes. Operator, thank you very much, and good morning, everybody, here from Frankfurt. This is Oliver Flade from Investor Relations, and I would like to welcome everybody to our earnings call for the first quarter of 2023.And before we start, I would like to remind you that the upcoming Deutsche Bank analyst call will outline the asset management segment results, which have a different parameter basis to the DWS results that we are presenting today. I'm joined as always by Stefan Hoops, our CEO; and Claire Peel, our CFO. And Stefan will start with some opening remarks, and Claire will take you through the presentation. For the Q&A afterwards, please could you limit yourself to the 2 most important questions so that we can give as many people a chance to participate as possible.And I would like to remind you that the presentation may contain forward-looking statements, which may not develop as we currently expect. And therefore, I ask you to take note of the disclaimer and the precautionary warning on the forward-looking statements at the end of our materials.And with that, I will now pass on to Stefan.

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

Perfect. Thank you, Oliver. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our Q1 2023 earnings call.Given that every quarter seasons have its own source of volatility, let me skip the usual part on markets were tough and jump right into what we've been focusing on. Overall, our Q1 numbers are in line with what we've guided and with what you can expect in such an environment. Revenues were a bit lower than we would have liked as transaction and performance fees were below normal levels given the market circumstances. At the same time, costs were better than expected, which is something we took active action on in Q1. Adjusted profit before tax and cost/income ratio were in line with what we had planned. And hence, we are able to reconfirm our financial targets for 2023.As promised during our Capital Markets Day and full year 2022 earnings call, we are committed to disciplined portfolio optimization in our 4 key categories of reduced, value, growth and bid. And we are fully focused on implementing this with a sense of urgency. In the first quarter, we intensified our efforts on reduce, given our intention to save first and then invest in growth and bid. We completed the sale and transfer of our private equity secondaries business, and we accelerated our restructuring program from Q4. Since June 2022, approximately 15% of our managing directors have left or are in the process of leaving us in due course.In addition, we have continued to streamline and delayer our organization. Over the last few quarters, 2/3 of the managers reporting to the Executive Board have either moved into a new role or have significantly changed mandate. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of work to engage in such a significant restructuring, while also ensuring the stability of our franchise. We did so with a huge focus on culture and communication. And our colleagues seem to buy into our strategy as we only face 3 resignations among our 200 most senior people in the last 9 months. Overall, a lot of the heavy lifting has been done, but it will obviously take some time for these changes to be fully reflected in our cost base. Claire will go into more detail, but let me reiterate that while we cannot control the market, we can control our costs. And you can rest assured that we have the utmost discipline to take active action where we can.While the reorganizations and majority of the restructuring are behind us, we can now fully focus on growing our business. There are early signs that this is working as reflected in our flow performance with Q1 net inflows of EUR8.8 billion, excluding cash. This marks a positive turnaround from 2022, for which I would like to thank our team for their hard work in blocking, tackling and winning mandates. A special thank you also to our distribution partners for a solid start to the year, not easy given the greater competition we are facing from plain vanilla savings accounts in the current yield environment.As outlined at our Capital Markets Day, we see further upside in working more closely with Deutsche Bank's corporate bank. This collaboration has enabled us to secure significant mandate wins in the first quarter. In addition, our flagship funds have received a lot of external recognition. Thomas Schuessler was awarded the Golden Bull for German Fund Manager of the Year 2023 for the DWS Top Dividende, while our flagship multi-asset fund, Concept Kaldemorgen, won several Morningstar Awards. It was also nice to see Xtrackers bounce back in Q1, reporting positive net inflows. And in alternatives, we launched the DWS Infrastructure Europe as part of our European transformation program, offering German retail investors the opportunity to invest in infrastructure projects in Europe for the first time.All in all, a constructive first quarter in which flows shifted back into positive territory and in which we continue to implement what we promised with a sense of urgency, delivering financial performance in line with our guidance.With that, I will now hand over to Claire for the details.

[Claire Peel, executive]

Thank you, Stefan, and welcome, everyone.Today, I will present our financial results and activities for the first quarter of 2023, starting with the key financial highlights. Net flows returned to positive territory in Q1 with EUR8.8 billion of net inflows, excluding cash, driven by strong demand for Xtrackers and active multi-assets. Adjusted cost income ratio stood at 66.3%, mainly impacted by lower quarterly revenues. We remain on track to achieve our guided ratio of below 65% for the full year. Adjusted profit before tax totaled EUR206 million, also mainly due to a decline in adjusted revenues in the first quarter.Moving on to our Q1 financial performance snapshot. Starting on the top left, AUM increased to EUR841 billion, up 2% from Q4, supported by positive market developments and Q1 net inflows. On the top right, adjusted revenues decreased to EUR610 million, reflecting lower management fees and performance and transaction fees in the first quarter. On the bottom left, adjusted costs increased to EUR404 million as compensation and benefit costs normalized after the reversal of carried interest in the fourth quarter. This resulted in an adjusted cost/income ratio of 66.3% and an adjusted profit before tax of EUR206 million, reflecting, again, the lower revenues in Q1.Let's recap on the market environment. Following a turbulent 2022, investor risk appetite has shown signs of improvement. Major equity indices were strong in the first quarter, driven by the falling U.S. 10-year yields and the prospect that the federal stop pricing rates in May. While there was some volatility in the first quarter, this was relatively short lived. Overall, both U.S. government bond yields and European rates remained relatively unchanged at the end of Q1, while the U.S. dollar continued to weaken. Collectively, these developments were constructed for the asset management industry as well as for DWS as we saw improvement in our AUM development, which I will now outline.At the end of Q1, assets under management increased to EUR841 billion, up 2% quarter-on-quarter. This quarterly increase can be attributed to EUR19 billion of positive market impact, which was more than offset by unfavorable FX movements in Q1. This is supported by quarterly net inflows, marking a reversal from 2022 outflows, as I will now outline in more detail.Following a difficult 2022, investor risk appetite showed signs of improvement, which we can see clearly in our flow performance. In Q1, we reported total net inflows of EUR5.7 billion and EUR8.8 billion, excluding cash, driven by contributions from both retail and institutional investors and with inflows across both active and passive Xtrackers. In addition, our ESG funds performed strongly, attracting EUR1.4 billion of net inflows in the first quarter, mainly from retail investors in EMEA. The positive turnaround in our flow momentum is a testament to our strong relationships with our clients and distribution partners. And this was evident across our active management investment strategies in Q1.Active multi-asset reported EUR5.6 billion of net inflows in the first quarter, including a significant institutional mandate win through our distribution relationship. Active fixed income also shifted into positive territory with EUR0.5 billion of net inflows, marking a reversal from 2022 outflows. This reflects intensified efforts to improve our performance in the asset class after difficult 2022 and with a particular focus on institutional clients. In the first quarter, we saw signs of this focus paying off with 2 insurance fixed income mandate wins in the Americas and in EMEA. Meanwhile, active equity sustained its positive flow momentum from Q4, attracting EUR0.4 billion of inflows, supported by continued client demand for our flagship retail strategy, DWS Top Dividende, as well as our active equity ESG funds.In addition to active passive also returned to positive momentum in Q1, reporting EUR4.4 billion of net inflows. This was driven by Xtrackers ETFs, primarily in Europe, where we ranked #2 by ETP net inflows in the first quarter. Notably, fixed income ETFs contributed strongly to our quarterly ETF flows, enabling us to generate net new flows, higher than our fixed income ETF AUM market share in Europe. This result is the outcome of a dedicated sales campaign on our fixed income ETFs, which continued to attract strong client demand as we have seen at the start also of Q2. Collectively, inflows into active and passive strategies more than offset net outflows from cash and alternatives in the first quarter.Following a strong year of flow momentum in 2022, alternatives reported EUR1.4 billion of net outflows mainly due to mandate redemptions from liquid real assets. This more than offset inflows into the DWS Invest ESG real assets fund, which continues to perform strongly in the quarter. We have a solid forward pipeline of alternative flows, which we expect to drive positive flow momentum in the second quarter. Overall, Q1 marked a solid start in terms of flow performance, further supported by new product launches, which continue to be an important flow driver for DWS, which I'll now outline in a bit more detail.Since our IPO in Q1 2018, new product launches have attracted EUR51 billion of cumulative net inflows and an overall management fee margin of 36 basis points. This includes EUR1.1 billion of net inflows in Q1, sustaining the positive flow momentum from 2022 and reaffirming the importance of product innovation to deliver growth. As outlined in the previous quarter, we are developing new product launches that support clients' investment needs and with a particular focus on our growth areas of Xtrackers and alternatives.On this front, we've had a good start to the new year. In Q1, we launched various thematic ETFs, which consider sustainability topics, including 9 UCITS SBG and climate transition ETF launches. We continue this momentum with the launch of the Xtrackers MSCI USA Climate Action ETF in Q2, which was developed in collaboration with a leading Finnish insurer. In addition, we are expanding our alternatives business through our European transformation program. In the first quarter, we launched the DWS Infrastructure Europe fund, offering German retail investors the opportunity to invest in infrastructure projects for the first time. And in Q2, we plan to launch the European Real Estate Transformation fund. To support continued flow momentum into our value asset classes in Q2, we will launch a DWS Fixed Maturity Diversified Bonds 2027 Fund, which was developed together with a key strategic partner.Moving on to revenues. Total adjusted revenues decreased to EUR610 million in Q1, down 4% quarter-on-quarter. This decline can be attributed to 2 key developments. One, we have fewer business days in Q1, which had an impact on management fees and other recurring revenues compared to Q4; and two, lower performance and real estate transaction fees in Q1, although some recovery is expected in Q2. Together, these more than offset the quarterly increase in other revenues, which benefited from a favorable change in the fair value of guarantees together with increased net interest income. Our Chinese equity investment harvest contributed EUR13 million of net income in the first quarter. As guided, we expect total adjusted revenues in 2023 to remain essentially flat compared to 2022.Moving on to costs. Total adjusted costs stood at EUR404 million at the end of Q1, up 6% quarter-on-quarter. Adjusted general and admin expenses decreased by EUR24 million as we continue to focus on cost optimization initiatives, reducing our external spend on IT and professional services in the first quarter. Adjusted compensation and benefits costs were up in Q1 as expected, following the reversal of incurred carried interest in Q4. Excluding carried interest, adjusted compensation and benefits expenses were essentially flat quarter-on-quarter. Combined with lower revenues, this resulted in an adjusted cost income ratio of 66.3% at the end of Q1.Looking ahead, we expect the cost optimization efforts we have made in Q1 to come into effect over the coming quarters. And this supports ongoing assets to reduce our costs by EUR100 million by 2025, so that we can invest in our targeted areas of growth going forward. As a result, we remain on track to achieve an adjusted cost/income ratio of below 65% for the full year 2023 as guided and a ratio of below 59% by 2025. As a reminder, the total adjusted cost base excludes EUR18 million of investments into our infrastructure platform transformation in the first quarter.I will now hand over to Stefan to conclude.

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

Thank you, Claire.Overall, a respectable first quarter on track to achieve our financial targets for 2023 as guided. As mentioned earlier, we have taken active action to reduce costs by restructuring headcount and delayering our organization. With a lot of the heavy lifting done, we can now focus more on growing our business without compromising our disciplined efficiency. And quite frankly, we see upside across the board. In the value part of our franchise, active fixed income, equity, annuity asset, we see substantial potential to strengthen our positioning. In particular, we've intensified our efforts on institutional fixed income, resulting in more than EUR1 billion net inflows in the asset class in Q1.And we've set up a dedicated global insurance council, which I will personally chair so that we can sharpen our value proposition for insurance clients. Of course, our targeted growth areas of Xtrackers and alternatives remain top priorities. In Xtrackers, we have a pipeline of bespoke ETFs, which we expect to deliver another quarter of positive flow momentum in Q2. And in alternatives, we are continuing to develop products that will align more strongly with our European transformation program. While alternatives win outflows in Q1, we are confident that our pipeline of products will help us to return to positive net inflows in Q2.In addition to our existing portfolio, we are building out new capabilities through our strategic alliance with Galaxy Digital Holdings that we announced yesterday. Together, we will provide investors access to the $1 billion -- $1 trillion digital asset market with DWS becoming Galaxy's exclusive partner for digital asset ETPs in Europe. We will also work together to issue a euro stable coin, aiming to become the first significant asset manager to launch such a product.To summarize, we are continuing the disciplined implementation of what we have promised with a sense of urgency. And we are looking ahead by targeting the upside we see across our franchise and working together with our partners to capture new growth opportunities. This gives us confidence that we remain on track to deliver our financial targets for 2023 and beyond.Thank you for listening. I will now pass over to Oliver for Q&A.

[Oliver Flade, executive]

Yes. Thank you, Stefan. And operator, we're ready for Q&A now.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from Jacques-Henri Gaulard.

[Jacques-Henri Gaulard, analyst]

Jacques-Henri here from Kepler Cheuvreux. I have 2 questions. The first one, I would like to come back on the initial statement you made last quarter, Stefan, about the green washing allegation, particularly the results of the internal audits. I don't think we've seen it. Can you give us a sense of timing, at least on this? And the second question was about the guidance that you reiterated. There was nothing on the EUR1 billion capital return just to make sure that this is still going. And together with a flat revenue guidance, it looks a little bit more difficult to achieve now, but well done for the consistency that you're taking to get the things done.

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

Jacques-Henri, thank you for your question. I will start with the first one, and then Claire will take the second one. So there's nothing new to report on the ESG front. So what we've done, and I mean what we talked about last quarterly earnings call is that we would publish essentially the key highlights from our internal investigation in the areas in which we will focus on going forward or the areas that we will focus on, that we've done. So we published a 2-page on our website, essentially with the lessons learned and next steps that we take. Oliver will ensure that all of you get it, and they will help you find it. I mean we didn't hide it on the website, but obviously, all of you are following many asset managers. But so we published the 2-pager, which again, kind of has the lessons learned conclusion from the internal investigation. Obviously, we didn't publish the whole internal audit report. I mean, that would be highly unusual. But essentially 2-pager with the conclusions and next steps.I'm sure some of you would ask the question if there's any update. We can only reiterate that we are fully focused, and it has the utmost management attention to resolve the investigations. I think we're making good progress, but we're working on the time line of the authority. So therefore, we can't really drive it. What I would want to point out, in Q1, we had EUR1.4 billion of inflows of net inflows in ESG products. So it seems that people out there that clients and investors are seeing our sincere effort to be fully transparent on things that potentially -- or in our view, didn't happen in the past, obviously resolving the investigations, but also, which is quite important, being fully focused on the future of ESG and responsible investing.Handing over to Claire for the second question.

[Claire Peel, executive]

And yes, I can just reiterate the guidance that we gave regarding the extraordinary dividend of up to EUR1 billion in 2024. We still maintain that commitment. That will be fulfilled. It's subject to capital commitments, of course, but at this point in time, we're very much committed to paying that special dividend next year.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Arnaud Giblat from BNP Paribas Exane.

[Arnaud Giblat, analyst]

I've got a couple of questions, please. First, if I could start with a quick update on fund launches in alternatives. I was wondering if there were any larger fund launches in the pipeline coming up in the next few quarters, you should give a bit more detail? And then more specifically, you mentioned a few quarters ago that you're looking intensely at coming up with a private credit offering. There's clearly a lot of demand for that in the market. I'm just wondering how that's going, if you're having -- I think you talked about a lot of sourcing coming from Deutsche Bank. What sort of feedback are you getting from clients there?And my second question is a housekeeping question. Could you give us a bit more of a granular split in terms of other revenues from harvest from the effect of NII and revaluation of pensions in the other line?

[Claire Peel, executive]

Arnaud, thank you for the questions. If I start with the question on fund launches. Firstly, just to confirm, we did launch in the first quarter, the Infrastructure Europe Fund, which we indicated. So that has been launched. And coming up in the second quarter, we've indicated the European Real Estate Transformation Fund launch, which is also on track. Obviously, we will start with first closes and have subsequent closes. We have a continuation of the series of the Pan-European infrastructure funds coming up to its fourth series in the latter part or early part of the following year. So we have a good pipeline of both fund launches and activity in general in the alternative space. And we reiterated that noting that we did have net inflows in the first quarter for alternatives, but we do have confidence in that forward pipeline for the remainder of the year, which will turn back certainly in the second quarter, we expect at this point in time into positive territory.

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

And Arnaud, regarding the question on private credit, let's define it as private corporate credit. So direct lending, not the debt version of real estate and infrastructure. I mean there, we're making good progress. We have funds out there, but I think your question specifically was on private credit -- corporate credit. Now I fully agree. I mean, the opportunity, if it was relevant 3 quarters ago, it's much more relevant now given what just happened with the regional banks in the U.S. and so on. So we definitely see plenty of demand for credit from the real economy and probably less supply from banks, hence, great opportunity for alternative asset managers. So that's probably more relevant.We definitely see plenty of interest from clients. So there are plenty of clients that specifically when it comes to direct lending in Europe would want to work with us. Unfortunately, I just want to be obviously transparent, but also realistic. We need to set up proper teams and proper processes before we can manage money for clients. And I think what I -- when I started speaking about it, I explained that we needed a couple of senior people to drive it to then really set up teams, processes and so on.You know that Paul Kelly, our Global Head of Alternatives, who coming from Blackstone Credit, where he was the COO, obviously, knows a lot about private credit. He joined mid-Feb. We've spent a ton of time together. He's been on the road obviously interviewing people, looking at potential inorganic opportunities where we would potentially look at smaller fund managers that we could take on and speaking to clients. So I think to be realistic, it will take a couple of quarters until we have a team in place that will give us confidence that we can actually manage on behalf of clients. So opportunity is huge. There's definitely interest. We're fully focused on setting up a team, but it will take a couple of quarters until that is in place.

[Claire Peel, executive]

And to pick up on the question, the second question on the composition of the other revenue categories. I indicated we saw in Q1 harvest revenues of EUR13 million. There was some final audited results true-up for the prior year in that number. So the more normalized run rate number to look at is EUR15 million for the quarter. We saw net interest income of EUR14 million. That's an increase from what we guided to what we disclosed in the fourth quarter, actively managing our liquidity balances and seeing rate increases, which is supporting that stream. We saw negative movements on our principal revenues in alternatives, mark-to-market negative movement of EUR6 million, lower than what we saw in the fourth quarter, but an indication of some of the revaluations that we've seen in the alternative portfolio. And we saw a positive addition in the fair value of guarantees with the rising long-term interest rates, reducing the shortfall balance that we carry. Those are the main drivers that we saw in other revenues.

[Arnaud Giblat, analyst]

That's very helpful. Just a quick follow-up if I may, could you perhaps give us an indication in terms of the step-ups you're expecting in the funds you indicated?

[Claire Peel, executive]

Sorry, a step up in the...

[Arnaud Giblat, analyst]

A step up in the -- so in the Alternative fund you're launching, the magnitude of step-up, for example, you mentioned, you're doing fourth series. What's the step-up versus a third version of the fund?

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

So, I think one of the things we've learned in Q1 is to under promise even more and then aim to overdeliver. So I think we want to be cautious. I think the target for our P4 is -- I'm looking at Claire whether we want to say, EUR4 billion to EUR5 billion. So it should be larger than P2 and P3 who worked out quite nicely in this, plenty of interest in European infrastructure. We did launch the DWS Infrastructure Europe which is, to our knowledge, the first retail fund. And that is garnering interest.I think we see upside in some of the real estate vehicles that are targeting value-add or are focused on debt. So I think there is enough things in the pipeline that gives us confidence to say that we expect positive net inflows in Q2. But I think I would leave it at that and maybe give a more in-depth update next quarter, if that's okay, Arnaud.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Hubert Lam from Bank of America.

[Hubert Lam, analyst]

I've got two of them. Firstly on revenues, you are still targeting revenues to be flat year-on-year this year after revenues fell 12% year-on-year in Q1. Where do you see the improvement coming from for the rest of the year? Do you expect it from the management fees through stronger flows or markets or recovery in performance fees? So just what gives you confidence of the target?The second question is for Stefan around strategy execution. Now that we are five months after the Capital Markets Day, can you talk about the progress of your strategic plans? I know you've alluded to part -- a bit of it in your opening remarks, but specifically, which parts of it do you think have been delivering faster than expected and which parts have been slower?

[Claire Peel, executive]

I'll take the first one on the revenue outlook. So I would say, mainly the transaction fees and performance fees is the line and that was particularly low in the first quarter. I think that's actually the lowest quarter we have reported for transaction and performance fees. And we would expect that to increase in coming quarters. We have good line of sight of that in certain categories. Obviously, we know in the real estate market at the moment, transactions are generally low. We would expect that to continue in the first half of the year, but pick up in the second half of the year. But in general, we still stay by the guidance that we have, the performance and transaction fees of between 3% to 6% of our revenues overall.On the management fees, Q1 again, as mentioned, is a slightly shorter quarter. So we saw less management fees and we also saw the adjustment of the average AuM levels, which has now stabilized. So we would expect that level of management fees to stabilize going forward. And I've mentioned the other revenue categories in the previous question. And again, all of those other revenue categories, I would consider to be stable. So with the pickup in performance and transaction fees and a stable increase in management fees, that would meet our guidance for the full year.

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

And Hubert, when it comes to your second question, and at this stage, we've done a couple of quarterly calls together and I think I've met all of you just like a couple of times at conferences and so on. But understand that obviously, we need to build up credibility. So I fully understand that we as a company, but also me specifically is essentially a show-me story. So I get that.So what I would encourage all of you to do is kind of see what we have talked about in Q2, Q3, Q4 earnings call at the Capital Markets Day and kind of compare with what we've done. And I fully appreciate, especially after overseeing transaction banking for four years, that these things take some time. We need to make proper investments and then kind of implement focus on it relentlessly, and then revenues come in or costs go out, so longer-term business.So therefore, what I would want to point out to, I think what we've definitely shown in Q1 that we're able to take tough decisions. So having 15% of the MD's and by the way, that's a high double-digit number of people leave the platform with many uncomfortable discussions and tough decisions. Delayering or changing the mandates of 2/3s of the people reporting to the Executive Board was really, really difficult in many tough discussions.So to some extent, coming back to our strategic plan, our strategic plan at the Capital Markets Day was to take pain first and then focus on growth. And I think you've seen that we are willing to take the pain. And obviously, as we said, it will take a couple of quarters for that to materialize in the cost base. If we part away through somebody they don't give up their notice period, so obviously we pay -- fixed pay a little bit longer. So some of those things will take a couple of quarters to materialize.And then, when it comes to the staff, which is more fun to talk about, because taking out costs, taking out people is always tough, but hopefully you've seen that we're willing to do it and we are disciplined and fast in doing it. When it comes to growth, again the big topics we've talked about in Xtrackers and Alternatives are also building out digital assets. I think you've also seen us take the necessary steps, right? In Alternatives, it was predominantly making some hires, because we simply elect seniority, specifically in private credit, coming back to the question Arnaud asked. We had spoken about from July last year about the European Transformation, that being a big topic. And you've seen us launch new things in infrastructure, Europe, for example. So you've seen us again, do what we've talked about.I think in Xtrackers, it's a little bit easier to pivot fast versus Alternatives, that simply takes longer because you need to recruit people. I think in Xtrackers, we will not just watch and see. I mean, we're pretty disciplined in what we asked them to do. I think we have, what is it, 73 new products that are anticipated to be launched in 2023. So it's like a specific timeline that all of it operates on. And I think there we see early signs of this playing out fairly nicely with the turnaround in Xtrackers flow.So again, coming back to the strategy. Now on the growth part, I think Xtrackers, I think we are confident and -- so, like, we like what we've seen so far. I think in Alternatives, I think the next couple of quarters will then ideally give us confidence, but so far, the pipeline looks good for Q2. I think when it comes to the bid part, you've seen us announce the partnership. Obviously, we now need to launch ETPs, that will take quarters. I think launching a Euro Stablecoin will take more quarters than launching ETPs, but will be as part of our three year plan.And then when you come to the value part of our portfolio, I'm actually pretty pleased with the progress, but I mean, we spoke about fixed income, this being an area of weakness, you may have seen us make a bunch of changes in leadership in fixed income, which unfortunately sometimes is part of turnaround. And we've now seen inflows. I mean, EUR1 billion inflows, institutional fixed income was nice, we definitely want to see a lot more. We see upside specifically with insurance clients where we had been #1 two decades ago in third-party insurance asset management. We're also like #3, #4, but definitely it's very strong franchise which we want to build on and put more emphasis on our insurance clients.So, Hubert, I think to summarize, I understand we are show-me story. Hopefully, you've seen us being willing to take the pain that we promise we would take. And now, watch us grow the business. Again, I think early signs of this working out in Q1, but rest assured, we will really focus on that part of our plan going forward.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Nicholas Herman from Citi.

[Nicholas Herman, analyst]

Two from me, please. One on costs, and then another one for Stefan. So on costs, could you just help us please understand the moving parts this quarter on a sequential basis? So, I guess, within that, how much did running dual platforms contribute to the higher costs? And I guess, on top of that as well, you've hired 600 people in India. Have I understood correctly that this is in-sourcing, so removing from G&A and adding to comp, and what was the effect there?The second question, first, for Stefan, it's kind of a follow-up to before, but -- I appreciate there's a lot of uncertainty because they are out of your control. But could you help us get a sense of how you're thinking about the approximate timeframe to both implement the improved ownership structure at DWS and to resolve the greenwashing investigation? Do you think either could be completed by the end of this year, or I guess even next year -- sorry, the year after?

[Claire Peel, executive]

I will take the first one on costs. So, first quarter, we saw EUR404 million of costs overall. That did include all of the items that you referenced. So maybe if I take the first one, the notable increase in headcount, we saw approximately 600 headcount increase coming from our teams in India. And this is effectively a shift from G&A expenses to comp and ben. So within the quarter, we saw that movement, it was -- the population was always part of our cost base, but it wasn't part of our comp and ben. And I think that also demonstrates that we've taken that cost into the comp and ben, and we still see that stability net of the carried interest credits that we had in the fourth quarter. And so yes, effectively in sourcing of capabilities and part of our transformation program.On the dual platform, we continue on plan with the program and the project. The transformation expenses themselves, EUR18 million is excluded from the adjusted cost base, but in the adjusted cost base, we do have the operating cost of the current services. We have seen some expected increase in that -- in the first quarter and the continued onboarding of activities to takeover services in the future. So we've managed that within the EUR404 million within the quarter. Otherwise, we've seen some restructuring activity. We see some benefit of that in the fourth quarter, but again we'll expect to see more of that coming through in subsequent quarters, which will fund some of the activities, the dual platform costs and the growth investments that we're making move fully. Hopefully, that covers it.

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

Nicholas, to your second question, just to make sure you said ownership structure. I guess, you mean the legal structure, the KGaA. That was...

[Nicholas Herman, analyst]

Yes. Sorry, that's correct. Exactly.

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

Okay. So -- but that makes my answer easier, because I can't comment on that, right? So I think a question that should be addressed to Deutsche Bank, every time I say anything about it, they get in trouble. So we essentially a take-off a decision by Deutsche Bank, what are sort of structure they like. Secondly, on ESG greenwashing, again, unfortunately, nothing I can really add to what I've said before. It obviously has utmost Management attention, it does appear that many asset managers are being looked at, meaning you can maybe assume that the authorities are reasonably busy, which is why there's only so much pushing we can do, we operate under their timeline. But it has utmost Senior Management attention to get this resolved, I can promise you that.

[Nicholas Herman, analyst]

Would you be disappointed if you weren't able to resolve it by the end of this year?

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

I think it's tough for me to comment. I mean my contract runs until summer 2025, I would definitely be disappointed if I can't resolve it until then. And -- but again, I've learned to under-promise over-deliver. So I would love to leave it at that. But again, Nicholas, I just wanted to re-emphasize, I got another update on this, this morning. So I look at it twice a week. So we're definitely fully focused on it. But at the same time, we're also focused on the future of sustainability and responsible investing. So we sort of balance that. But obviously, resolving the investigations is of utmost importance.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Haley Tam from Credit Suisse.

[Haley Tam, analyst]

I have two, please. First, just on the institutional mandate wins that you've mentioned. Could you confirm the size of the significant win in multi assets and those two fixed income mandates you've mentioned? And also, could you give us some indication, given the investment and the sales processes that you've mentioned, are you confident that these are a sustainable level of inflow, or should we be considering sort of lumpy one-offs in some kind of nature? And if there is any comment you can make on fee margin on these mandates, that would be great.Second question on SFDR, the vault clarifications by the European Parliament on 14 of April. Is there any impact on your own funds classification Article 8 or Article 9? And in particular, I guess Xtrackers, is what the question is focused on?

[Claire Peel, executive]

Maybe I'll take the first one on the mandate. So we have indeed seen some good institutional mandate wins in the first quarter in both fixed income and in multi assets. In multi assets, we saw the majority of the inflows that we saw were coming from this mandate win. It is institutional, so it is a lower margin. So, certainly not close to the retail multi asset funds that we see, of course, in that asset class.So I can't be specific on the fee margins individual institutional mandates, I'm afraid, but of course, institutional is lower margin. But I would also add that it's a strong client relationship, it demonstrates good collaboration with distribution partners. And there are also different follow-on mandates related to that particular client in different asset classes as well, of smaller size, that demonstrates the depth of the client relationship.In the fixed income arena, we saw two mandate wins. One was in U.S., one was in EMEA. Both of those are ongoing relationships that we've seen redemptions in the past, and we've seen a renewal of mandates coming from those. And those are in line with the average of the fee margin that we have within fixed income for institutional mandates.On the second -- so you also asked about sustainability. Of course, the multi assets one is quite exceptional in size. So, I would say, you could call it lumpiest, but as we've indicated, we have a good visibility of pipeline in the second quarter. I can't give too much details on that, and nothing is committed at this stage, but we have a very good pipeline for the second quarter that gives us confidence on the institutional side again.On the topic of SFDR and Article 8, Article 9 re-classifications, as we've often indicated here, we're quite unconservative in our definitions of Article 8 and Article 9. We did see some re-classifications with the market last year, and we will always see some re-classifications as the boundaries shift a little bit. But we are not envisaging at this point in time, anything significant or anything that changes the classification of our pipeline.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Angeliki Bairaktari from JPMorgan.

[Angeliki Bairaktari, analyst]

Firstly, on the management fee rate decline quarter-on-quarter, I do hear you on the fact that there are two business days less in the first quarter, but nevertheless, I was wondering, can you give us some color with regards to sort of the management fee rate, which asset class saw the biggest decline? And how shall we expect this to progress in the following quarters, please?And then with regards to the passive funds that have returned into inflow, you mentioned that your fixed income ETFs are now getting flows higher than your market share. Can you please give us some color on the competitive dynamics at the moment within the passive fund industry? Are you still seeing competition on price? And how shall we expect sort of passive margins to progress this year?And one clarification, you booked, I think it's EUR13 million, EUR14 million one-off sales gain in other income, which is not included in adjusted revenues. I was just wondering, is that on the back of the sale of the secondaries business or something else?

[Claire Peel, executive]

Angelika, on the last question, a simple one, yes it is. So we do see a gain on sale there that's not included in our adjusted revenues, but is included, of course, in bottom line, and is related to that item, yes.On the first question on the management fee margin, we saw a decline in the first quarter to 27.7 basis points compared to 28.1 basis points. Half of that is coming from the previously mentioned de-consolidation of our fund platform, the IKS platform, where we see an adjustment in the ways that, that is accounted for. So that accounts for half of the management fee movements as expected. And the other half of the management fee movements is coming from general fee mix that we see across distribution relationships and more related to fee pricing. So half and half in terms of the movement. And we still guide to around 1 basis point of fee margin on the full year, but we are looking, at the moment, to be running below that for lower than 1 basis point of fee margin overall. That's our current estimation.On the questions around ETFs. In the first quarter, we saw EUR4.4 billion of net inflows and the majority of that was coming from ETFs. We have an average market share in Europe of 10% and our net flows were in that range. But I noted that of the ETF inflows, almost half of that was coming from fixed income, which was substantially higher than our market share in fixed income ETFs. So we've seen a bigger step change in client attraction for the fixed income ETFs over equities, but equities is still accounting for about half of it as well. Obviously, the market share there is higher.I think you had another question on the forwards, so the market dynamics there. We've been very active in continuing to launch new ETF to meet client demand on thematic topics and sustainability topics, and also, in the fixed income range. And we do see that those fund launches do contribute to our inflows. We saw a very large seeded funds that saw inflows in the first quarter as well. So product innovation continues to be high on the agenda. Hopefully, that answers it.

[Angeliki Bairaktari, analyst]

I think, if I may just follow-up on the fixed income ETF market share above sort of -- sort of flows above the natural market share that you would have had. Is that, do you believe, driven by a more competitive pricing in that category relative to peers?

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

Angeliki, I don't think so. I think it was more client-driven. So fixed income -- and there was Euro corps and Euro Govies. So we saw significant inflows. I think it was driven by institutional clients. And there is more client driven, some of those longer-term RFPs some of them are quicker decisions. But, therefore, it's not really pricing-driven. But I would say, more focused on institutional clients, which helped us this quarter. Hopefully, you settled in well at JP.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the next question comes from Michael Werner from UBS.

[Michael Werner, analyst]

Two questions from me, and apologies if these were addressed before. I missed some of the beginning of the conference call. But looking at the investment performance, we saw a downtick on the retail side, in both equities, as well as in cash, I mean I guess, cash here still is on a one year basis, is performing pretty poorly.I guess two things. On the equity side, are you seeing any slowdown in demand for active -- retail equity products on the back of the weaker one year performance? And then in terms of cash, my understanding is you guys have a fantastic cash franchise, particularly in the U.S. We didn't really see much inflows into cash at the group level. I was just wondering if you could provide a little bit of color into kind of the retail money market space, and ultimately if these -- if the one-year performances is acting as an impediment.

[Claire Peel, executive]

So on the investment performance, yes, in the one year performance, we did see a reduction in the short-term, one year performance, still stable, slightly better actually in the three year. The one year performance decline was coming from equity retail and was coming predominantly from German equity retail funds within that quarter, within the one year. So that was the main driver that we saw in the one year. But the three years, as I say, is slightly better overall. There is no other particular spots I would point to in investment performance. We did see some improvements in the Alternatives LRI performance, and we saw improvements in the fixed income performance as well. So really just that one spot, and that has attention.And on the second question around cash, we often see -- well, we always see a lots of volatility in our cash flows. We continued to see that in the first quarter. The specific events that take place in the U.S., which can lead to corporate clients that we have requiring to take funds to these obligations. It's very difficult for us to really ascertain what those movements are with different corporate clients, institutional clients. And we see, throughout the quarter, large growth, inflows, outflows, but in this quarter, it culminated in a net outflow overall. Nothing particular to spotlight.

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

And Mike, just to add a couple of thoughts, essentially, what type of clients we cater to, because they are completely different between German retail equity and money market. It is probably the most extreme difference we have. So in the U.S. money market, we have -- and we like all of our clients, but we have reasonably opportunistic client base that give us money if we have the highest yield, but put it out if you don't have the highest yield. But we wouldn't really benefit from any, let's say, perceived flight to safety, because they wouldn't move from our deposits or let's say deposits with Deutsche Bank Group for example, into DWS money market. It's simply highest yield, they come, not highest yield, they go out. But we didn't really benefit from the move from deposits into money market in March.I think German equity retail, it's a pretty loyal client base, especially for funds like top dividend, because they understand what they get. So Thomas Schuessler is a big proponent of value. He is not really growth oriented in kind of his selection. So a few things that he had focused on in the year were things that obviously didn't play out in Jan and Feb. But we don't think that it would have a big impact on our ability to raise assets for German equity retail.

[Operator]

There are no more questions currently. And I hand back to Oliver Flade for closing comments.

[Oliver Flade, executive]

Yes. Thank you very much, everyone, and as always, very good questions. And I can just offer you to follow-up with the IR team if anything was left open. And otherwise, I wish you a fantastic day and a healthy time. Thank you. Bye-bye.

[Stefan Hoops, executive]

Thank you very much.

[Claire Peel, executive]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.