Everybody, we're here with our usual team, our CEO, Orazio Iacono, our CFO, Massimo Vai, and our Investor Relations Director, Jens Hansen. We have just approved this morning at our Board of Directors. We approved our nine-month results, which I'm sure you have already had a look at with the press release. These results are in line with the good results we posted in the first two quarters of the year. In fact, we are accelerating the growth we saw in the first two quarters. If we look at the various lines of P&L, we notice that turnover is going down, but it's going down due to the prices' effects, which accounts for 80% of that reduction, along with the reduction in the Superbonus activities. EBITDA is up by EUR 30 million, with a 3.1% increase.
This good result, as you can see, is inserted in the results of the first nine months, which are in line with the growth we saw in 2023. We have a good growth in 2023, and we're still growing in 2024. If we go down to EBIT, we'll see that this growth increases in terms of percentage points. We started at EUR 18 million growth at EBIT. Of the EUR 30 million we saw at EBITDA, more than 50% goes down to EBIT, and we'll be seeing how that increase in growth happened. All the way down to net profit, which is up by EUR 47 million, which is a EUR 47 million equal to 20%.
Now, this significant growth we're seeing in terms of the net profit is a growth which is also linked to the major reduction in financial expenses, as we'll be seeing in a few minutes over the next few pages of the presentation. So we posted good results, and let's take a look at how we achieved these results more in detail. If we look at EBITDA, we're seeing an organic growth here, which is driven both by growth on the liberalized markets and on the regulated markets, EUR 74 million and EUR 43 million respectively.
We're seeing an overall organic growth worth EUR 117 million, an organic growth which allows us to more than offset the extraordinary effects that we had seen in 2023, thanks to the Superbonus that's linked to the Superbonus, thanks to which we had developed activities with benefits in 2023, but which, as you know, expired at the end of that year, which means that this year we're not seeing those effects anymore. The group was able to withstand achieving a good organic growth.
In terms of EBIT, we're seeing that the amortization, which is up due to the higher investments we're making in recent years, are more than offset in terms of growth by lower provisions, which are also linked to the reduction in turnover, which means that you can easily appreciate that as far as provisions are concerned, we had a reduction worth 25% compared to last year, which is in line with the reduction in turnover.
So these are the main elements in terms of EBIT, which give us the final result of EUR 523 million in the first nine months of the year. We can now see how these variables create value. In terms of ROI, we're seeing a 50 basis point growth from 9%, which was the result we had a year ago, up to 9.5%, which is the result we posted in the first nine months of the year.
The growth further expands as far as ROE is concerned, with a 10 basis points increase, which further underscores our ability to create value. Now, these growths in terms of profitability are also linked to the fact that, given the higher investments we made over the period, we were also able to increase net invested capital by over EUR 200 million, which leads to the effects we're seeing on the right-hand side of the graph, highlighting an earnings per share growth equal to 20%, and if we add that to the 4% dividend yield, if we take into account the dividend we paid this year and that our stock price is at EUR 3.5, all in all, we have a total shareholder return in the first nine months of the year, which stands at around 24%.
You may remember that when we looked at our business plan, we had an average growth of the total shareholder return worth 12%, which means that we are speeding up compared to the average we expected in the business plan. Let's now move on to the business-by-business breakdown, beginning with energy. In energy, we highlighted the contributions stemming from the Superbonus and the VAS in recent years, which were significant both in 2022 and in 2023. You can notice that the structural growth grew in 2022 and 2023, and we've seen a further increase in 2024, with an overall effect worth EUR 59 million over the period. That was as far as organic growth is concerned. This is a significant organic growth level, which already considers the marginalities of the STG. You may remember that early this year we had acquired 1 million customers on the STG auction.
We didn't have to make an upfront payment to acquire those customers. It was based on the discount offered to our customers. This discount, which had an effect on the margins, was already offset by the organic growth, which would have been even higher had we not had that discount. But as we had mentioned back then, we had all the tools, all the skills needed to continue to grow organically. For the very first time in our history, we are above 4 million customers. We currently stand at 4.7 million customers in late September. For the first time in history, we have more electricity customers compared to gas customers, given the auction we were awarded, which goes to show that we were able to increase by 900,000 customers compared to the previous last year.
Also, as far as the STG world is concerned, we concluded all of the activities to bring the customers on board, and compared to what we thought as far as those customers were concerned, we found a very good customer base, good payers, very loyal, and this to us is very valuable. The onboarding activity was conducted swiftly. We have already received the very first payments from them. We've already activated the home payments for those customers, all of which is very positive. We have already sent out all the communications to our customer base, and we concluded that in a very positive way. This, of course, is also linked to all of the activities, all of the business we're working on. We also figured out how many Italian citizens are served by at least one of our group services.
We now have over 7.5 million Italian citizens, which means 13% of Italy's population receive at least one service from our group, and roughly 80% of them have at least one energy service. Let me now hand it over to our CEO, who will talk to us about networks and waste.
Thank you, Cristian, and good afternoon. As you can see from the slide regarding waste, we are continuing to consolidate the growth that we had described during the H1 presentation this year. On the left-hand side, you can see the acceleration we had already commented in Q2, which was confirmed in Q3, and in a moment in time in which industrial production, as you all know, is slowing down, we are still continuing to grow. In fact, we are continuing to conquer market shares.
All of the various parts of the waste business contributed: waste collection, waste treatment, all contributed. As far as waste collection is concerned, we were recognized in inflation, as you know, given our increased efficiency and given the expansion of value-added services offered to the territory, all of which gives us margins, but also thanks to the lower goodwill for the long 15-year concessions we were awarded in our territories. Moving on to the waste treatment activities. In this case, we have a + 11 growth, which means that it is a business which continues to grow by volumes for the most part, as we can see on the graph on the right-hand side, with 260,000 tons in special waste volumes, which are up in the first nine months of 2024 compared to 2023. We've also expanded our market share.
We're also looking to those sectors, to those sectors of the market, which aren't linked to economic cycles. Therefore, with our commercial channels and through cross-selling, we are able to continue to create value, which means that our plants are always running at full capacity. What you can see on the left-hand side of the graph, the negativity as far as urban waste is concerned, is simply a normalization. There's a delta linked to the flood emergency we had in 2023. As you can see in the top right-hand part of the slide, we included the Innovation Fund label. We're continuing to invest, and in fact, recently, we continue to activate our carbon fiber recycling processes. We are the very first to enter that business, and in the future, we'll be able to share our very first results in the production of recycled carbon fiber.
We received the news that we were recognized by the Innovation Fund for our CO2 capture project, and we received a EUR 24 million grant for that project, which is the carbon capture project in our waste-to-energy plants, beginning with the first one in Ferrara, which means that we are the leaders in that market segment and we are leading the way in terms of innovation. When waste-to-energy plants will be included in the ETS, we will certainly be able to manage this development process in the best way possible. Moving on to the networks business. For the first nine months of the year, we operated in a trimestral way with the fact that networks are the main contributor to our growth, with a maximum value worth EUR 391 million, a growth which is in line with the previous quarter.
Even here, you can see the effects due to the review of the WACC, which in turn allowed us to post a double-digit EBITDA growth. We are above 11%, and we have an overall growth, which is also the effect of the investments that we are continuing to make in terms of innovation, extracting efficiencies, and as you can see on the left-hand part of this graph, EBITDA has really boosted the results we've had in recent years, even in years in which we didn't have an increase in WACC when it was constant, in fact, and therefore, thanks to our investments, thanks to our efficiency, and thanks to the premiums we obtained, we were able to allow our EBITDA to grow this much. As you can see in the graph on the right-hand side of the screen, we have growth both in energy, energy distribution, +EUR 25 million.
We also have EUR 25 million in water, both of which more than offset the negative result in district heating, which in 2023 was affected by one-off events that we're seeing this year. We're seeing some effects which lead to that difference we're seeing in the first nine months of the year, so let me just conclude by saying that if we compare the first nine months of this year to the first nine months last year, our growth would be even higher. We would be up to 50 had we not had the one-offs related to district heating, which means that networks contribute to EBITDA in a very significant way, improving our risk management abilities because we are at 38% on the regulated side of the business, and let me give the floor now to Massimo Vai for his part of the presentation.
On slide number seven, we are seeing an overview of the cash flow and then we also make a comparison with what we had seen in late July for the first six months of the year. Beginning on the left-hand side, the operating cash flow in the first nine months of this year stands at EUR 774 million, which means that compared to the value we had in June 30, we have a growth worth EUR 238 million, and if we compare that to the same period in 2023, we have a growth worth EUR 110 million compared to the value we had in September 2023. Now, beginning with this operating cash flow generation, let's now see how it was used.
We have a cash absorption worth EUR 261 million as far as net working capital is concerned, which is up EUR 90 million compared to the value we had in late June, and which stands at around the same value we had seen in late March. This year, we know that after a major net working capital in 2023, we have an increase linked to commercial development. Plus, as the executive chairman was saying, beginning July 1st this year, we now have an extra one million energy customers. And as we were saying, all of the invoicing and cashing in services, our performance was very good. It would exceed our expectations, in fact.
And the process, of course, was completed after September 30th, given the goodwill period we have when dealing with these major numbers. And of course, to us, this was a very important figure compared to our previous customer base.
Moving on to the cash flow needed for CapEx, at September 30th, we stand at EUR 535 million compared to the EUR 212 million, which is up EUR 212 million compared to the value we had as of June 30th. A sizable increase, therefore, and compared to the same period last year, CapEx is up by some EUR 50 million, which goes to show that we are continuing to invest in recent years as a way of supporting our organic growth. Then we have dividends, which is, of course, a figure you're already familiar with because we referred to it in late June.
We also have EUR 45 million cash out linked to the TRS Ecology company, which operates in the waste sector, which is a part of the group, and which is already starting to generate its economic benefits, which leads to a value variation worth EUR 347 million, which is up by EUR 100 million compared to the figure we had seen in June this year. Moving on to the two graphs on the right-hand side. In the top right-hand graph, you will see that our EBITDA ratio continues to stand stably at around 2.7 times, which is well below the threshold we aim to give ourselves, which is three times, giving us a good financial soundness and a good flexibility for any further growth opportunities. Then in the lower right-hand graph, you will see the net interest expenses, which are a major part of the company's P&L.
And in the first nine months of the year, we are now back at the figures we had in the first months in 2022 compared to 2023, which had had a major impact linked to all of the provisions we needed for the energy commodity stock, which you all remember, and which we were able to solve brilliantly, also thanks to the cash we had available as a company. Obviously, this result isn't only linked to the scenario. It also requires a careful management of our debt and our resources, something which began midway last year, which is already giving major effects, as I have mentioned during the past months. I said that this comparison would have been consolidated as the months went by, all the way up to the end of the year. Moving on to the following slide.
On the left-hand side, you'll see that our cost of debt is confirmed at 2.7%. This is the medium to long-term debt. You'll see the mixed interest rates stand very much focused on fixed interest rates, 97%, which guarantees the stability of the cost of our debt. Moving on to the right-hand side of the graph, we have a change in the financing mix which happened in the recent months. During the summer, we had the expiring of the green bond, which was the very first Italian green bond which was emitted in 2014, which expired in July, which was worth EUR 288 million, and then we had another loan which expired in August, both of which were repaid using the cash we had available.
Then in September, also given the development of our investment plan and taking advantage of a dip in medium to long-term interest rates, we decided to use the EIB line that was given to us a year ago, something that we were very proud of, of course, because it proved how positive our investment plan on resilience, innovation, and sustainability was. So basically, we took advantage of this EIB loan, which is in line with the optimization process of our debt structure, as a way of guaranteeing our resilience and a very low refinancing risk. And back to the chairman for some conclusions now. Microphone, please.
So let me just summarize the presentation. By using four main indicators that allow us to underscore the good organic growth we've seen in the first nine months, which stands at around EUR 117 million.
This is an organic growth which is worth roughly 11.6%, excluding the negative effects linked to the Ecobonus activities, which have developed a significant amount of turnover. The EBIT is up by 3.5%. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio stands at 2.7 times. It has now become a constant element during the year. But above all, we're seeing a further growth in net profit, + 20%. And this growth is something that continued even this year. In June, we were still at 16%, and we now stand at 20%, which means that we are progressing from that point of view. We are keeping our promises as laid out in the business plan. In fact, we're doing even better compared to what we were forecasting in terms of the execution. And you have the results in front of you.
We tried to give you this quick presentation of the figures to give you plenty of time for questions, for any doubts, or any comments you may have. And our first question is by Javier Suárez, Mediobanca. Over to you, Javier. There is a technical issue we can't hear, Javier. And we need to get Javier Suárez's audio on the platform. Yes, here we are.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody.
Thank you for the presentation. I have three or four questions for you. The first is on the cash flow statement. I noticed the increase in the net working capital absorption in Q3, and I heard your explanation which is linked to the commercial development that the group is working on with the acquisition of these new electricity customers. What are our expectations for net working capital absorption to the end of the year?
And how are you looking to the balance sheet for 2025 and 2026? Is the negative net working capital something that we should consider as being structural after having acquired so many new customers? The second question refers to something the CEO was saying when he said that in Q3 you're speeding up. And I wanted to focus on the waste business. There was an acceleration in volumes, especially when it comes to special waste. And even despite the economic difficulties the country is facing, how is Hera able to increase its market share, and what are the dynamics you expect in the next few quarters for volume dynamics? Third question. Management is referring to this acceleration compared to the business plan. Can you comment on how you're doing from the qualitative standpoint, not the quantitative ones? What are the qualitative dynamics we should expect for the next few quarters?
Also, compared to what you were saying early last year, are you speeding up in your deliveries? Thank you.
Yes. Let me give the floor to Massimo for the question regarding the net working capital.
Thank you for your questions, Javier. As far as the outlook regarding what we're seeing today on the net working capital cash absorption, well, my forecast is that it won't change very much for the remaining part of the year. Whereas as far as the future outlook is concerned, as I was saying this year, we saw a negative impact linked to a number of events which last year had generated a positive event and which were one-off. Typically, the commercial growth absorbs net working capital, and when it stabilizes, we expect the net working capital to stabilize as well. And then it's a bit more complicated to see how it performs in each single quarter.
As you know, we're currently working on the new business plan. Following that, we'll have a more detailed forecast on a month-on-month basis. But I don't expect to have a prolonged negative effect of cash absorption for the net working capital. Of course, with a price scenario that would remain stable, because as you know, where the energy prices grow, in turn it would amplify, as we saw in the past. But that's something which is normal when it comes to the net working capital linked to turnover and then linked to energy commodity prices that we have to manage. And Orazio, do you want to answer the question on waste?
Yes. Hello, Javier. I kept it short. So I didn't describe the growth we're seeing in the waste sector, especially when it comes to waste treatment. In that sector, the oil and gas sector prices have gone up, in fact.
The other half of the 260,000 tons refers to the so-called utilities waste. What that is, is urban waste areas where there are no treatment plants or basically it is the outcome of trading activities or commercial waste which goes into our waste treatment plants. Plus, as I was saying earlier, we have a very developed commercial network. Plus, our waste treatment plants are located strategically where the waste is created. For example, recently we were able to expand our market presence attracting the waste from the major infrastructure construction sites in our country, especially, of course, in the northeastern part of the country, which is where our waste treatment facilities are located.
The increase in volumes, the broadening of our portfolio, our cross-selling capabilities, along with the positioning of our plants in the more strategic parts of the country, which we continue to expand, along with the fact that the country is still short in terms of waste treatment capacities, and it will continue to be so for a very long time. Due to all this, prices are high. They continue to be high. And in fact, when it comes to liquid waste, as I was saying earlier, in fact, we have seen a slight increase in those already high prices. So we will certainly continue to have a very positive situation for us. But let me begin with a few figures. If we look at EBITDA, in the first nine months of the year, we grew EUR 117 million organically. In June, we stood at EUR 66 million.
So if you compare things to last year, in Q3 this year, we had a good performance, which is also linked to a sizable increase compared to last year, compared to the growth we posted in Q3 last year. So that gives you a way to measure our acceleration. The other element, of course, is the speed with which we were able to normalize our financial expenses in September. We were back at a level which was consistent with last year's level, with a positive difference worth EUR 50 million. So that's the picture from the quantitative point of view. But how did we do so well from the qualitative point of view? Well, certainly, we've overperformed in terms of waste, which is what our CEO was mentioning. The amount of waste has grown despite that being able to grow. Our market share was very positive.
Plus, in the energy business, we were able to grow net by EUR 60 million on the organic side of things, if we consider our commercial development and the very quick normalization of our shipping costs compared to the same period last year. So these are two elements which really did speed up. They really accelerated compared to what our expectations were. So this acceleration doesn't mean that we are ahead of schedule in terms of achieving our year-end results, although it's something that we were expecting, in fact. Although everything came into place in a very positive way. We are very confident, even for the last quarter of the year. We are halfway through the quarter, and for the time being, we're doing well, which means that we are confident that we'll be continuing in our good performance. Thank you very much.
The next question is by Emanuele Oggioni, Kepler Cheuvreux. Over to you, Emanuele.
Yes. Good afternoon, and I hope you can hear me.
Yes, we can hear you.
Thank you for the presentation. I have a couple of questions for you. First of all, on energy supply. The 4.7 million customers that you have, you saw 900,000 net growth year on year. And in your first statements following the auction, you said that you had acquired 1.4 million customers, which then had become roughly 1 million in H1, whereas now the net amount is 900,000. So can you just walk us through the moving parts? These figures can't fully be compared. We have both additions. There's going to be a normal market churn rate dynamics. So our first question refers to this number, the number of new customers.
The second question is on the profitability, the shift rate you expect, not so much in Q3, of course. It was far too soon, of course. Beginning with the end of this year, and especially in 2025, can you tell us what you expect in terms of the shift you expect to see towards free market contracts through cross-selling and other services? How do you expect to convince these customers to migrate from the former tutelato market conditions to the new liberalized market conditions? Thank you.
Thank you for your question. As far as the numbers are concerned, the number of customers you were mentioning, we began with an estimate worth 1.1 million customers. Those were our expectations, the figures relating to October. Then we made our estimate in July, and then the customers we actually acquired were below 1 million, slightly below 1 million.
Nowadays, part of those customers left and part of them will return into free market customers. As a goal, of course, is to offer different tariffs to them, because as you know, there is a variable tariff for the variable safeguard contracts. Whereas currently, with the relatively low interest rates we're seeing compared to the past, many have already decided to stabilize their price with these new offers that we are making to them. Now, I don't want to give you very specific numbers because it is somewhat price-sensitive. But from the commercial point of view, what I can say is that so far we're doing better than expected. Quality of our customer is very good. The customer loyalty we're seeing is better than what we were expecting in terms of the churn rate. We were a little bit more pessimistic.
We were expecting this would leave us very soon, but we're seeing a very good loyalty rate with good returns, so we're seeing that customers are very satisfied. We're seeing positive returns, so as both myself and Mr. Iacono said earlier, we're seeing a good quality of customers, and we're doing better than expected from all points of view, then, of course, as you were saying, it's only been three months since these customers joined our company, we'll see how things continue, but I think that the first few months were very positive, and as far as market dynamics are concerned, yes, we had 1 million customers coming in. Currently, we stand at 900,000 because a few customers left us, and then we also saw some specific dynamics regarding that, in the last instance, that they have seen some units reduced.
Other markets, such as the last resort market, which means that currently we stand at + 900,000 customers. But you remember that in the business plan, we were expecting to reach the end of the business plan years at a lower number compared to 0.7 million customers, just to take into account the churn rate in general when it comes to this customer base. We will be updating these numbers with the business plan update as a way of illustrating what we're seeing by getting to know these new customers. Just a short follow-up on provisions. So you don't expect any changes in provisions given the good quality of these customers. So we don't have to expect any changes in your provisions in general, not just linked to energy supply.
Provisions in 2025 and over the next few years will continue to stay on the low levels we've seen in 2024 so far. Well, we have no reason to believe anything will change. And if then prices will go back up to EUR 500 per megawatt per hour, then we'll see. But for the time being, that isn't a reasonable scenario. In our business plan, we're expecting a return to more normal levels, even when it comes to the last resort market. We'll take all the necessary steps. But for the time being, we don't have any specific topics we're looking at.
Thank you for your answers. Thank you.
The next question is by Davide Candela, in Intesa Sanpaolo. Over to you, Davide.
Good afternoon, and I do hope you can hear me. Thank you for your presentation, and thank you for giving me this opportunity.
I have three questions for you. First of all, a question on energy supply. The concept of customer loyalty linked to the fact that you acquire customers with a low churn rate, and therefore the discount you offer has a higher impact on your accounts, or is it simply quality? In other words, how you see your customers, and you expect to have a net revolution in moving to the liberalized market. Then the second question is also on energy supply, on the competitive scenario. What do you expect next year? Do you expect to continue seeing price levels? Quali sono le vostre aspettative in questo senso? Then I have a question on waste, which goes back to what Javier was saying. Yours as countercyclical. Despite a slowing down in the economy, you're doing quite well. So can you tell us something more regarding your diversification on customers and waste?
Looking at your balance sheet and your leverage, there are circa EUR 300-EUR 400 million . There's a EUR 300 million difference between 2.7 times and 3.3 times in net debt to EBITDA, which means you have some EUR 300 million to invest in any possible opportunities. Are you looking at any possible opportunities, or are you conservative regarding your possibility to use the net working capital?