Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Poppy, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the ELLAKTOR Group conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the ELLAKTOR Group nine months 2022 results. All participants will be in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session for institutional investors and analysts via audio conference. Please refer to invitation received if you wish to connect to the audio conference for your questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Efthymios Bouloutas, CEO, ELLAKTOR Group, Mr. Dimosthenis Revelas, CFO, ELLAKTOR S.A., Ms. Aphrodite Avramea, Head of Strategy, and Mr. Andreas Papanagiotopoulos, Group Treasurer and Finance Manager. Mr. Revelas, you may now proceed.
Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to Ellaktor's conference call regarding our nine-month 2022 results. A press release announcing Ellaktor's financial and operating results for the period. The interim consolidated condensed financial information and the presentation were issued last week. They are available on the investor section of our website, www.ellaktor.com. On our call today, we will share with you the business update and review of our financial results, which will be followed by a Q&A session. I would now like to turn over the floor to Mr. Bouloutas.
Thank you very much, Dimos. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for your participation. As Mr. Revelas mentioned, I'm gonna follow the presentation that has been uploaded last week in our website, nine-month 2022 financial results dated November 2022. Prior to getting into the numbers of the first nine months of the year, I'd like to update you on the RES sales progress. As you know by now, I'm pretty sure by now, we have entered in a strategic agreement with Motor Oil on the 6th of May of 2022, effectively doing a transaction whereby we are divesting 75% of our RES business.
In terms of approval, status, on the 1st of October, Ellaktor BoD approval for the SPA and the shareholders agreement with MOR was effective. Commencing the RES segment spin-off, RES is to be incorporated in a new company. On the 4th of August, Motor Oil board of directors approved the SPA and the shareholders agreement. On the 25th of August, the EGM of Ellaktor approved the transfer of the 75% of Ellaktor's RES sector to Motor Oil Renewable Energy. On the 8th of September, we had EGM approval by Motor Oil and the execution of the SPA. On November 29th, the Ellaktor EGM approved the spin-off of the RES sector. We've also had the approval of the Antitrust Competition Authority in Greece.
Effectively all the regulatory hurdles plus the milestones have been concluded, we hope that we will be able to affect the financial close of transaction within the next 2-3 weeks maximum by the end of 2022. In terms of transaction structure and economics, I remind you that the RES sector was hived down in a newly incorporated company wholly owned by Ellaktor called Anemos RES. The Motor Oil Renewable Energy and Ellaktor jointly formed a new company 25%, 75% in which company Motor Oil Renewable Energy will contribute in cash, where Ellaktor has contributed in kind. Ellaktor will sell and transfer the remaining of Spin-Co shares for cash.
As detailed previously, all this will probably be finalized in the next couple of weeks. In other developments, what we've done since the end of last quarter, on August 1, ELLAKTOR VALUE, a wholly owned subsidiary of ELLAKTOR, announced an offer to purchase all the outstanding senior secured notes due 2024 at 101 plus accrued interest. The offer was triggered by a change of control due to framework agreement between Reggeborgh and Motor Oil. The offer was valid until September 21st, and an amount close to EUR 500 million. The exact number was EUR 497 million. 74% approximately of total notional have been tendered.
Ellaktor has funded the purchase by a combination of cash and facilities committed by domestic banks. A full redemption process is currently underway. We launched concurrently with the announcement of our nine-month results. We launched Public tender offer for the remaining EUR 172 million. This transaction is expected to be completed on the 15th of December. By the 15th of December, we will effectively buy out the whole of ELLAKTOR VALUE PLC international bond of initial size EUR 675 million, EUR 670 million. Now, with this corporate developments, I think we've completed a major part of our financial operating restructuring.
I'll turn now to page number seven of the presentation, where effectively, the bullet points of our financial results are the following. Sales have been increased with a growth rate of 16% to EUR 739 million versus the same period of last year, reaching an annualized level of last 12 months, more than EUR 1 billion. Our EBITDA increased by 67% to EUR 176 million, and on a comparable basis, it came in at EUR 185 million, up 41% versus the respective figure of the nine months of 2021.
Our nine-month pre-tax profit came in at EUR 43 million versus losses of EUR 40 million during the similar period of last year, while the net income reached EUR 16 million versus losses of EUR 56 million in the respective period. Now, our net debt reached EUR 608 from EUR 578, while the net debt from continuing operations amounted to EUR 712. Group cash and liquid assets amounted to EUR 434 at the end of the quarter versus EUR 470 at the end of 2021. Net debt versus annualized comparable EBITDA without taking into account the Moreas' debt came in at a very healthy 2.6x .
Finally, what I believe is very important, the operating cash flow for the company came in at EUR 40 million for the first nine months, compared to EUR 22 million during the same period of last year. Turning to page number eight, here, you can see the nine-month and the quarter last 12 months comparison this year versus last year of the revenue and the EBITDA figures for the sectors of the group. As you can see, the total increase in terms of revenue has been 16%, while the total increase in terms of EBITDA has been 67%.
In terms of revenue, all of our sectors, construction, concession, environment, real estate, and, the discontinued operations, the rest, have performed higher than last year, with a high growth rate in construction of approximately 20%, in real estate, 39%, and the lowest growth in environment and discontinued operations of 5%. In terms of stability, as you can see in the graphs, in the same page on the left-hand side, you see that the EBITDA of the group has been remarkably stable during the last five quarters between EUR 55 million and EUR 67 million. In terms of operational update, I think we've covered that in our six-month result.
The difference versus the six-month results is a total an additional EUR 48 million awards on the construction segment, for a running year-to-date total of EUR 771 million, with a current backlog of EUR 2.7 billion, up 9% versus December 2021. The construction EBITDA for the nine months continues to be on a break-even basis underpinning the sector's turnaround. Most of the other issues we've discussed in our previous results presentation. In order to save some time, I will turn the conference to Mr. Dimos Revelas to give you a more detailed view of our results and our consolidated P&L, and impact in our final numbers. Dimos?
Thank you, Thimios. On page 15, we present the group's P&L in a distinct way, separately reporting continuing and discontinued operations. Looking at continuing operations on the left-hand side, revenues rose by 17% year-on-year, chiefly on account of construction and concessions, which recorded deltas of EUR 63 million and EUR 31 million respectively. In terms of geographical breakdown, Greece accounted for 77% of continuing operation sales and other European countries for 18%, with the remainder being accounted for by Middle East. Of domestic sales, 36% corresponds to the public sector. Continuing operations EBITDA settled at EUR 73 million or 8x last year's respective reading, thus yielding an EBITDA margin of 17.2%. Excluding one-off charges, i.e., last year's EUR 26 million arbitration charge relating to construction, and this year's EUR 9 million charge relating to traffic disruptions in Attica Ring Road in January.
Comparable EBITDA would have been EUR 82 million compared to EUR 35 million in the same period of 2021. On the bottom line, continuing operations produced a pre-tax profit of EUR 4 million, reversing losses of EUR 40 million a year ago, while at the post-tax level, a loss of EUR 17 million was recorded, mostly attributable to income tax linked with the concession segment. On page 18, in compliance with IFRS 5, the rest segment's assets and liabilities are being accounted for in a single line as assets and liabilities classified as held for sale. The group view, i.e., including the rest segment, is also provided for comparative reasons on the next slide. Excuse me. Total equity attributable to shareholders amounted to EUR 321 million, with a ratio over total assets standing at 11.3% compared to 10.1% at the end of last year.
The EUR 119 million delta in total receivables is mostly accounted for by trade receivables and contract assets. They are also counterbalanced by circa EUR 54 million increase in trade and other payables, mainly due to advanced payments received. Moving on to page 20. As of September 30th, the net debt of the group's continuing operations, excluding the Moreas non-recourse debt, amounted to EUR 412 million, up by EUR 32 million for the first nine-month period, driven by circa EUR 4 million more debt and almost EUR 29 million less cash and equivalent balances. On the next page 21, operating cash inflows from continuing operations at -EUR 3.8 million, compared to outflows of EUR 44 million a year ago, chiefly on account of the construction segment's turnaround. Moving on now to the business units, starting with construction on pages 23 and 24.
Construction's Q3 operating profitability is at break-even, reinforcing the positive trend of the year, with nine-month revenues expanding by 20% year-on-year. In total, new projects worth EUR 723 million were awarded during the period, with additional EUR 48 million signed after September 30th, 2022. The most significant ones are the North Crete Road section, Neapoli-Agios Nikolaos, of a value for AKTOR EUR 140 million. All the values are referring to values excluding VAT and the share corresponding to AKTOR. The Patra-Pyrgos national road, EUR 105 million. The Psyttaleia Wastewater Treatment Plant operation and maintenance, EUR 68 million. The Corinth Canal restoration works, EUR 25 million.
Regarding concessions on page 25 and 26, traffic in all roads we operate was up by 18.5% during the first 9-month period of 2022 versus the same period of last year. For Attiki Odos in particular, nine-month traffic was higher by 17% year-on-year, though marginally lower by 0.3% versus the 2019 reading. However, traffic is steadily catching up with the pre-pandemic levels. On June 7th, a joint venture in which AKTOR Concessions participates has been announced preferred investor in the PPP project of the North Northern Crete Road with a 20% participation, and both revenues and EBITDA posted solid growth rates for the period, up by 19% and 11% on a comparable level.
For the environment segment on pages 27 and 28, during the third quarter of 2022, a contract was signed, a joint venture scheme between ELLAKTOR and other parties, ELLAKTOR's participation's at 60%. This project was related to the Attica Clinical Waste Incinerator, a concession, a concession tender for the revamping and 25-year operation of the facility. The budget of the contract is at EUR 86 million, and this corresponds to present value of the projected revenues over the project life. Total revenues for the segment are reported up by 5% at EUR 88 million, and EBITDA reduced by 27% to EUR 11 million.
Both items have been negatively impacted by a provision for the retrospective adjustment regarding increased risk revenue compensated at day-ahead market prices with an impact of EUR 9.1 million in revenues and EUR 7.9 million in EBITDA, respectively. Prospects remain solid for the segment as Greece needs to accelerate relevant infrastructure in compliance with national and EU waste management legislation and guidelines. On real estate, no developments during the last quarter. However, Smart Park, the sector's yielding asset, is experiencing constantly rising footfall and excellent occupancy rates, both of which are reflected on almost 40% higher EBITDA versus 9 months 2021. Finally, a very quick view on the rest segment on page 32.
Both the financial and operating profitability performance of the parks improved significantly with revenues and EBITDA at +5% and +6% respectively. The capacity factor at 25%. In the appendix, you are also provided with PNL details by segment for the period as well as segmental breakdown of the group's net debt. I would now like to open the floor for any questions you might have. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, management will receive questions from institutional investors and analysts via the audio conference. Please refer to invitation received if you wish to connect to the audio conference for your questions. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, then you may press star two. Please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. Once again, to register for a question, please press star one on your telephone.
As a final reminder, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to management for any closing comments. Thank you.
Thank you. No other comments on our end. We remain at your disposal for any questions or information you might require from us. Thank you very much. Thank you for your attendance.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling and have a pleasant evening.