Good afternoon to you all, and thank you for your attention. Let me highlight the three main achievements characterizing Group performance in the first quarter of the current year. Let me just remind that, for the Group, the first quarter represents a structurally marginal quarter as the educational business has an annual cycle marked by strong seasonality. Most net revenues and earnings are accrued during the second and the third quarters, while the first and the fourth quarters are typically less relevant in the net revenues and loss-making. Looking at the Group result, we can observe: the Group continued to increase the economic performance driven by the positive trend in revenues, both organic and through M&A, and by the careful management of operations that has allowed a further improvement of EBITDA, as we will see in the next slides.
An LTM ordinary cash flow of EUR 69 million confirms the solid cash flow generation capacity of the Group, enabling Mondadori to self-finance M&A and to remunerate shareholders. As of March 31st, the Group consolidated net financial position IFRS 16 amounted to a net debt of approximately EUR 205 million, down by 7% versus the same period last year. Alongside the ongoing improvement of profitability and strengthening of the financial structure, the Group continued developing its core businesses, focusing on strengthening its book publishing presence. Specifically, in the first quarter we finalized acquisition of 51% of Star Shop, operating in distribution of third-party publishers in the comics channel and in the management of comics shops, aimed at replicating the vertically integrated business model in the comics segment with which the Mondadori Group already operates in the book segment.
The company has been consolidated starting from 1 February 2024, distribution activities in the trade books area, and the management of comics shops, directly operated shops, and affiliates in the retail areas. In April we acquired 51% of a startup to develop the web novel market in Europe. This initiative involved an initial investment of EUR 1.5 million in 2024 and a further EUR 1.5 million planned for 2025, reaffirms our Group's willingness to look at what is most innovative in the innovation publishing environment, also following the global spread of Korean entertainment contents in music, films, and comics. Lastly, in May we finalized acquisition of 100% of Chelsea Green Publishing, consolidated as of 1 May, in order to diversify our publishing portfolio in the US and UK through a publishing house focused on sustainability matters, making a further step in our international footprint in English-speaking countries.
The consideration for the transaction was $5 million on a debt and cash-free basis, and in fiscal year 2022 the company reported consolidated revenues of $8.1 and operating income of $1.1 million. Let's now comment on the performance of the trade book market in the first quarter of the current year. The first three months of 2024 highlighted a slight 3.8% drop in the book market in terms of value, especially resulting from the trend in the first two months of the year penalized by comparison with the previous year when Mondadori published "Spare" in January, the Prince Harry biography which had sold more than 260,000 copies in the first quarter alone. If we remove this performance from the market figure, the contraction would fall to 2.2% over the period.
In this context, the Mondadori Group publishing houses recorded a 4.7% drop, most marked in January for the reason previously explained. The month of March, on the other hand, backed the trend recording an increase of more than 15% to the previous year. Neutralizing in 2023, the Mondadori sales of "Spare" the first quarter of 2024 saw a growth of 1.8% for our publishing houses, performing significantly better than the reference market. The Mondadori Group maintained its national leadership with a market share of 27.2% at March 2024. If we analyze the performance in the following weeks, it is even more evident that the contraction recorded in the first months of the year is only the result of the distortion produced by the publication of "Spare" in 2023, in a month which is seasonally unremarkable in book publishing.
In fact, the five weeks following March showed a 7.7% market growth, which takes the performance since the beginning of the year to a drop of only 1%, a significant improvement compared to the first quarter figure. A dynamic that, when stripped of the "Spare" phenomenon, would return to a positive result confirming the vitality of our reference sector. This remark is even truer when applied to our Group's publishing houses. Thanks to the trend in April, the first week of May, a double-digit 10% increase year-on-year, the year-to-date performance is back in line with the market. Net of the success of the "Spare", the growth would be over 4% year-on-year. Let me outline and briefly comment on the first quarter results. Revenues show a growth close to 4%, driven by the performance of trade books and retail areas.
Also thanks to the consolidation of Star Shop, on a like-for-like basis revenue growth would have been 1.5%. Adjusted EBITDA came to EUR 4.8 million, improving by 9.3% versus previous year, deriving again from the positive performance of trade books and retail, in particular, as we will see in the next slides. Reported EBITDA came to EUR 5.7 million, improving by 22.7% versus first quarter 2023, thanks to the positive operating performance and to some non-recurring items. EBIT recorded a slight decrease due to higher depreciation and amortization, coming from higher Capex, from the new acquisition, and from the PPA process. Net profit, which in the first quarter of the year is typically a net loss due to the seasonal nature of the educational business, amounted to EUR -7.1 million, down from EUR -5.2 million, accounted in the first quarter 2023.
Half of this trend is due to higher minorities versus the same quarter last year, as more in detail described after. The increased top line versus first quarter 2023 comes mainly, as already said, from the positive performance of the trade books and retail segment. In particular, the trade books area increased by EUR 3.6 million or by 4.2% in the period, despite the great success of "Spare" last year, mainly driven by the positive performance of the digital revenues and of some special initiatives, and by the contribution of Star Shop, net of which the like-for-like growth would have been 1.7%. The education books, whose performance in the first quarter is not really representative of the business perspective, improved by 8.4%, thanks to some anticipation in the supply of wholesalers.
It should be reminded that the revenues achieved in the first three months typically account for less than 5% of the annual figure. The retail area recorded a strong improvement of EUR 3.8 million or 9% versus last year, also thanks to the consolidation of Star Shop retail activities, comics shops. The organic growth amounted to 5.2%, coming from the book revenue performance that, in the quarter, has been close to 5%, driven in particular by directly operated stores. The digital activities of the media area delivered an improvement of 25%, mainly thanks to the positive performance of MarTech segment, while the media print has recorded a fall due to the structural decline in add-ons and the circulation revenues. As already seen, the improved profitability by 9.3% versus first quarter 2023 comes mainly from the trade books and retail segments.
In particular, the trade books area increased by EUR 1.6 million, +12% in the period, driven by the positive performance of the top line and by a general profitability improvement of our publishing activities that have also benefited from a paper contribution for Star Comics in 2023, accounted in the second quarter. The educational books have recorded a worsening of its margin, half of which is due to a timing effect, in particular to the anticipation of the new textbook production in order to simplify the logistic activities during the adoption campaign that is still ongoing and will last until the end of May. The retail areas recorded a strong improvement by 35% to EUR 0.6 million, thanks to the book revenues growth and ongoing store network development and renewal.
The media area delivered a global improvement of EUR 0.3 million, deriving from digital activity that has recorded an increase of EUR 0.4 million, while the media print has generated a stable margin thanks to the ongoing cost savings that have offset the structural contraction of add-ons and circulation revenues. The corporate and shared services recorded a stable margin in this quarter.
Then, finally analyzing the change in the net profit for the first quarter of financial year 2024 compared to 2023, please note that we have recognized: a EUR 1.1 million improvement in EBITDA, as we saw. A EUR 1.5 million increase in depreciation and amortization in the first quarter due to both the growing Group investment policies, EUR 1 million, of which EUR 0.25 million from the new flagship store in Piazza Duomo in Milan rolled out in March 2023, and the accounting effect of the PPA process, plus EUR 0.5 million related to the M&A transaction finalized in 2023, especially in the trade books sector. Substantial financial expenses stability, an improvement in the recurring result of Associate for about EUR 0.5 million due to non-recognition of losses from investment in the SEE, publisher of Il Giornale, and Mediamond, both sold during 2023.
However, the first quarter of 2023 had benefited from a non-recurring item, the EUR 1.3 million fair value revaluation of the stake held in ALI. Tax income in the period totaling EUR 4.1 million versus EUR 3.6 million as at 31st March 2023, due to the lower pre-tax result, and lastly, a greater minority interest, EUR 1 million, mainly due to the improved Star Comics results. Overall, we can say that half of the EUR 1.9 million dropped in the net profit for the period is due to the non-recurring item mentioned and the other half to a higher share of the profit attributable to minority interests. Moving on the cash position, we can see that in the current year the Group increased again its strong cash flow generation capacity. The cash flow generated in the last 12 months by ordinary operation amounts to EUR 69 million.
The consolidated net financial position before IFRS 16 amounts to about EUR 133 million compared to EUR 151 million at March 2023, so down by approximately EUR 17 million year-on-year. The comparison with the net debt at 2023 year-end reflects the typical absorption in the first quarter resulting from the seasonal pattern of the school business, -EUR 47 million in the first three months overall versus -EUR 45 million in the first quarter 2023, more impacted by M&A activity than the last year. Analyzing the change in the Group net debt between March 2023 and March 2024, we observe that, as already seen, the ordinary cash flow showed in the last 12 months an increase versus the fiscal year 2023 figures, thanks mainly to the improvement in profitability. Group Capex amounted to approximately EUR 38 million, in line with the 2023 figure.
Extraordinary cash flow was negative by EUR 19 million and includes cash out for M&A of about EUR 10 million and for restructuring costs of EUR 5 million. Consequently, the LTM free cash flow was positive for about EUR 50 million, confirming the Group's ability to self-finance its development and to properly remunerate shareholders. Let's now end our brief presentation with the outlook for the full year. In light of the positive result achieved in the first months of the year and the trend in our reference market for the full year 2024, we are confident to confirm the estimates previously disclosed. Therefore, we are expecting, without actually taking into consideration any further possible M&A transaction, a low single-digit growth in revenues, a mid-single-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA, with a group profitability stable at 17%, thanks to the pricing policies and to the further reduction of paper and printing costs.
The Group will confirm the increase in cash generation capacity shown in 2023, and therefore the ordinary cash flow is expected to reach EUR 70 million. Also, looking at April's consolidated result, we can affirm we are completely on track with our guidance. Thank you all for your attention. For your attention. For your attention.