Hello, everyone. Welcome to TAQA's Q2 2024 Results Call. My name is Asjad Yahya. I'm the Head of Investor Relations, and I'm joined by our CFO, Steve Ridlington. Please note that this session is being recorded, and by participating in this meeting, you consent to the recording. Please note that this session is being recorded, and by participating in this meeting, you consent to the recording. This presentation will follow the usual script. Steve and I will walk you through the operating highlights and the financial performance of this period, and we will then open the floor for Q&A session. I'll now pass over to Steve, who will guide you through the key highlights of Q2 2024.
Thank you, Asjad, and thanks all for being with us today. So turning to slide 5, which shows the results overview. Q2 proved to be another healthy quarter for TAQA. Our utility segment continued to perform well, with the consolidation of SWS Holding enhancing the underlying performance of the business. This helped offset pressure from the oil and gas segment, which was impacted by lower commodity prices and production. Overall, revenues declined slightly compared to Q2 2023, mainly due to the oil and gas and generation segments. Adjusted EBITDA, on the other hand, was up 2% year-on-year, driven by transmission and distribution and SWS. Net profit recorded an even sharper 18% increase as the oil and gas segment also contributed to this growth.
We are making good progress on various projects, particularly within the transmission, distribution, and generation, which translates into more than doubling of CapEx to AED 2.1 billion in the second quarter. Despite this increase, free cash flow also nearly doubled year-on-year to AED 4 billion. This sharp rise was supported by a positive impact from working capital changes. TAQA's board has also approved an interim dividend of 0.7 fils per share for the second quarter of 2024, in line with our declared dividend policy. Last but not least, we continue to improve our disclosure standards on the ESG front and commence reporting on Scope 3 emissions as part of our latest sustainability report. Turning to slide 6, group revenue and adjusted EBITDA.
Taking a closer look at revenues, the group's top line fell by about 1% due to a lower contribution from oil and gas and generation. T&D, transmission and distribution, remains our largest revenue generator. This segment's top-line growth, 4% year-on-year, primarily due, due to two things. To several things, sorry. Higher pass-through BST, a recovery of corporate income tax, which is reimbursed by the, by the sector, increase in MAR, as determined under the RC2 framework, and fourth, inflation. Generation, on the other hand, recorded a 6% year-on-year decline in revenues, mainly due to lower pass-through fuel revenue in Morocco. The oil and gas segments also saw a 39% year-on-year decrease in revenues, mainly impacted by lower average realized commodity prices and a reduction in volumes due to planned cessation of production in several UK North Sea fields.
SWS, the latest addition to our business, also contributed a healthy AED 593 million a quarter. In terms of Adjusted EBITDA, the group saw a 2.4% year-on-year rise to AED 5.4 billion in the second quarter of 2024. With regard to the individual business segments, first, T&D recorded a 3% year-on-year improvement. This slightly lagged its top-line growth, translating into a 20 basis points decline in the EBITDA margin. Second, the generation segment's Adjusted EBITDA was 5% lower year-on-year due to a decline in contribution from associates and joint ventures and higher G&A expense. Third, oil and gas experienced a 23% fall in Adjusted EBITDA, primarily due to lower commodity prices and reduced production.
Fourth and lastly, SWS added AED 383 million to adjusted EBITDA for the quarter, which equates to a healthy 65% EBITDA margin. Turning to slide 7, non-operating P&L items. Movements in P&L items below the EBITDA line were as follows: TAQA's share of net profit increased 18% year-on-year to AED 2.3 billion, as we benefited from the consolidation of SWS and AED 298 million dividend from ADNOC Gas in the second quarter of 2024. As a reminder, in January 2024, we announced the planned sale of the Atrush oil field in Iraq, and as such, all contribution from the assets has been classified as profit from discontinued operations. We also announced the completion of this transaction earlier this month. Turning to liquidity and debt profile.
Within our balance sheet, leverage as well as liquidity declined slightly in the second quarter of 2024, as we repaid about $1 billion worth of outstanding corporate bonds during the quarter. That said, we continue to benefit from a mix of ample liquidity, controlled leverage, and an attractive cost of debt, largely locked in across the portfolio. Total outstanding debt decreased by 5% compared to the year-end 2023, while the net debt to EBITDA ratio also trended down slightly to 2.3 times. The group-wide average interest cost increased slightly to 4.8%, mainly impacted by the repayment of the corporate bonds, which were associated with a lower interest rate. Almost all the debt portfolio is characterized by fixed interest rates and has an average maturity of over 10 years.
I'll now pass over to Asjad, who will lead us through an overview of the segment performance.
Thank you, Steve. Starting with our transmission distribution business, the segment delivered strong operational and financial results in the second quarter of the year. Network availability stood at 98.6%, slightly higher than 98.3% in the corresponding period of the previous year. CapEx increased about 79% year-over-year, driven by timing and phasing of project implementation across the sector, while the T&D regulated asset base decreased slightly to AED 78 billion. We also announced financial close of the AED 1.5 billion strategic reservoir project in the Makkah region during the quarter. As Steve mentioned earlier, T&D revenues increased by 4%, driven by a combination of increase in pass-through revenues, reimbursement of corporate income tax, increase in MAR, and higher inflation. Meanwhile, adjusted EBITDA grew by 3%, benefiting from the impact of inflation and increase in MAR.
Going to slide 11. The generation segment from an operational standpoint, commercial availability saw a slight decrease to 98.1% compared to 98.8% last year. This was due to planned and unplanned outages in plants within the UAE and the international field. CapEx surged to AED 470 million, driven by continued spending on the Mirfa 2 and S4 reverse osmosis desalination plants. On the portfolio development front, Taweelah RO, which is one of the world's largest independent water plants, began full commercial operations, while Masdar also announced a number of acquisitions during the quarter, including stakes in Terna Energy and Terra-Gen. On the financial front, generation revenues decreased by 6% year-over-year, mainly due to the lower pass-through fuel revenue in Morocco.
This was partially offset by higher revenues across the UAE assets, reflecting recognition of UAE corporate income tax recovery. Meanwhile, adjusted EBITDA decreased by 4.5% year-over-year, impacted by lower contributions from associates in JVs and higher G&A expenses. Within the associates in JVs segment, Masdar, in particular, contributed a loss of AED 22 million for the quarter. Moving to SWS. As we highlighted during the first quarter of the year, economic contributions from SWS were assumed by TAQA from January 1, 2024, hence consolidation in our financials from the start of the year. Meanwhile, we expect legal completion of the transaction later this year. In terms of Q2 2024, SWS accounted for 4% of group revenues and 7% of the adjusted EBITDA. This translated into a very healthy 64.6% EBITDA margin.
Moving to our fourth business line. The oil and gas segment saw a continuation of the trend seen in recent quarters, with a 10% year-over-year decline in production in Q2 2024. This is mainly driven by the cessation of production in several North Sea fields. Meanwhile, CapEx in the segment increased 24% year-over-year due to higher drilling, completion, and tie-in costs. Also, as Steve highlighted earlier, we completed the sale of our interest in the Atrush field last week. The oil and gas segment's financial results were impacted by a combination of lower commodity prices and a decrease in production. Average realized oil price fell 6% year-over-year, while realized gas prices fell 51% year-over-year. This translated into a 39% decline in revenues and a 23% decline in EBITDA for the business.
Taking a look at the performance of the first half of 2024 as a whole, our revenues grew 2%. This growth was largely driven by the consolidation of SWS and our T&D business. Adjusted EBITDA grew at a faster 4% year-over-year, led by the healthy performance of our utilities business, which offset a decline in the oil and gas segment. The net income comparison between the first half of 2024 and the first half of 2023 was distorted by the presence of one-off items in the previous year. Excluding these one-off items, our bottom line grew by 12.3% in the first half of our current year. Last but not least, free cash flow stood at AED 4.3 billion for the first half.
The decline compared to the corresponding period of the previous years is explained by higher CapEx, greater investment in Masdar, and working capital. I now hand back over to Steve for concluding remarks.
Thank you, Asjad. So to wrap up, our utility businesses in particular, continue to move from strength to strength. As I've stated before, the addition of SWS further solidifies our position as a truly integrated utility with a growing footprint. We also remain committed to our position as a responsible leader in the industry. As such, we commenced Scope 3 disclosure as part of our latest sustainability report, published earlier this year. Fitch recently upgraded our rating to A A, in line with the Sovereign, reflecting our close ties to the Abu Dhabi government, as well as the resilience of our business model. As I highlighted earlier in the presentation, we repaid about $1 billion worth of bonds in Q2 2024, and our ample liquidity allows us to wait for the opportune time to tap the debt markets.
Finally, TAQA remains an ambitious company, and we continue to evaluate organic, inorganic growth options to drive further growth. In short, we are pleased with the overall performance of the company to date in 2024 and remain optimistic about the opportunities available to us in the future.
Thank you, Steve. We now open the floor to questions. Can you please raise your hands and then I'll call out your name, and you can ask your questions, or you can type the questions if you want. Luke, could you please introduce yourself and then ask your question?
Hi, yeah, thanks for the presentation. Luke here from Barclays. I was just wondering, on the oil and gas segment, I noted your, your comment in the release saying there'd be another cessation of production from one of your assets in September. So I'm just wondering how much of a production impact you would expect from that, and if you expect production to be less volatile following following the other decommissioning that you've had in the UK assets. Thank you.
Yes. Okay. Thank you. Well, the production decline that we've seen in the second quarter of this year compared to last year is almost all a result of cessation of production in some of the northern North Sea fields in the UK. And that will continue, and there will be further cessation of production in all of our North Sea fields, northern North Sea fields in the coming months and year. And so you, I think you can expect that decline that we've seen to continue into next year.
Great. That's very helpful. Thanks a lot.
Again, if you have any questions, please feel free to raise your hands, and we'll open up your mic. Luke, do you have any other questions, or?
Yeah, I mean, maybe just going back to, yeah, your potential thoughts on the bond market. Obviously, we've seen rates come down quite a bit in the last couple of months, so any updated thinking on, yeah, potentially returning to the bond market would be helpful. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks, Luke. Well, yes, I mean, I agree with you. It has been a very helpful development, as far as we're concerned. We did update our filings in the middle of the year. I'm sure you will have seen that. So we remain ready to approach the markets as and when we need. We haven't needed to so far, and we still have sufficient liquidity in our revolving credit facility to fund what we need to do through the rest of this year, as far as we can see it. But that doesn't mean that we won't go to market.
It's something we'll keep an eye on, and I think, potentially, if we have favorable market conditions in the fourth, the end of the third quarter and the fourth, fourth quarter, we may, may well approach the markets at that point in time. But, it's a decision we haven't yet finally taken.
Great. Thanks a lot. That's all from me.
All right. If you could just remove the hand, because that's still there, so I wasn't sure if you had more. Thank you. I apologize. I don't know how to pronounce your first name. So, Yang, if I could ask you to-
Yes.
Come with your question.
Can you hear me?
Yes, please.
Okay, great. Yes, Yishi here. Thanks so much for having the call. So I have two quick questions. One is, you mentioned some unplanned closures in the generation assets this quarter, I believe. So just want to see if there's if we can get a little more color on, you know, what that is and maybe the size of that impact. And then also you mentioned Masdar had, I think, negative EBITDA this quarter. So also, you know, I guess wondering maybe what caused that?
Okay, I'll start with the Masdar one. So Masdar, it's not EBITDA, so to be clear, it comes in as, you know, we take the contribution of our associates and JVs as part of adjusted EBITDA, as you've seen consistently. So it's their share of income coming to us. That was negative for the quarter, mainly because there were some legacy assets from before the transaction where we entered, which had some asset price readjustment done to them. This is more on the North African side of the business, so none of the newer businesses. This is more legacy portfolio cleanup, which is having an accounting impact, so to speak, on that. So that's that. On the closures, sorry, unplanned closures, I'll get back to you.
We haven't shared the details of the breakup. I just need to check if I'm allowed to, and I can get back to you on that with it. Size-wise with the planned ones, which were more significant, the unplanned ones were relatively less significant.
Thank you.
Again, if anyone has any questions, please feel free to raise your hand, and we'll open up your mic. All right, looks like we're done with the questions. Steve, any remarks?
I know. Thank you. That's, that's fine. Thanks very much. If there are no further questions, we will end the call there. Thank you.
Thank you very much for joining, and looking forward to speaking to you guys either in person or on the next call. Thank you.
Thank you.