The group's business continues to be affected by the impact of the pandemic. The Italian operation remained closed until June; while in Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay or Panama, there were temporary closures and it continues to operate under important restrictions.

As a result, the group's operating income1 in this first half fell by 51.3 million euros, reaching 266.3 million, 16.2% less than in the same period of the previous year. The most significant falls occurred in Italy (€ -54.7M), closed from October last year to June, and Argentina (€ -23.4M), closed for almost the entire second quarter.

Operating expenses1 decreased by € 48.8M (-16.6% year-on-year), although the volatility of activity during the semester has made it difficult to align fixed costs with income generation.

As a result of the above, Adjusted EBITDA1 registered a fall of € 2.5M, to € 21.5M. The EBITDA1 margin reached 8.1% in the semester (+0.5 percentage points above 1H2020).

During 1H2021 the company generated a loss of € 168.7M (compared to € 177.6M in 1H2020). The company's cash as of June 30, 2021 was € 93.1M.

In terms of installed park, at the end of the semester the group had 33,767 operating gaming machines, 117 open gaming rooms, 1,139 lounges, 181 sports betting points and 8,335 bars.

At present, with the opening of the rooms in Argentina and Uruguay in July, Codere maintains open, although with numerous restrictions, its entire face-to-face operation.

The company continues to work on the implementation of the financial restructuring announced in April, and expects to complete it during the month of October. The execution of the transaction will result in the loss of control by the parent company Codere S.A. about the operating group. At the conclusion of said operation, Codere S.A. will have a 5% stake in the new group, in addition to certain additional economic rights (warrants) as explained in the Inside Information issued on April 22, 2021.

1 The aforementioned figures do not consider the application of IFRS 5, thus contributing to facilitate the comparison between the operating results of this period compared to the previous year. For more information refer to the 6M 2021 Results Report.