Good afternoon to you all, and thank you for your attention. Let me highlight and briefly comment on the group performance in the first nine months of the current year. 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 1.1%. Adjusted EBITDA came to EUR 133.3 million, improving by 3% versus the previous year, deriving again from the positive performance of trade books, retail, and media businesses, as well as we will see in the next slides. EBIT recorded a slight decrease due to higher D&A coming from higher CapEx and from the PPA process. Adjusted EBIT net of non-recurring items and PPA came to EUR 93.8 million, improving by EUR 1.2 million versus the same period 2023, thanks to the positive operating performance.
Net profit amounted to EUR 59.3 million, down from EUR 66.3 million accounted in the first nine months of 2023. As more in detail described after, this trend was strongly impacted in the 2023 financial year by some positive non-recurring effects. The adjusted net profit, neutralizing the extraordinary components including capital gains and amortization resulting from the PPA, would be equal to EUR 63.2 million, substantially stable compared to EUR 62.8 million of the same period of the previous financial year. This slide highlights the continued improvement of group performance in the adjusted EBITDA in the last five years, recorded both in the third quarter and in the first nine months of the year, confirming once again the positive outcome of the strategic path implemented. Group profitability in the same time frame has significantly increased from about 14% in 2021 to almost 19% in 2024.
The stability shown between nine months 2023 and nine months 2024 is totally consistent with the full-year guidance and recorded despite the accounting of revenues with lower marginality. Let's now comment on the performance of trade book market in the first nine months of the current year. The third quarter of 2024 showed substantial stability in the book market, - 0.6% in value, which was evident already in the first half of the year. Overall, the first nine months of the year, therefore, showed a trend in terms of value of stability compared to the previous year, - 0.5%. In this context, the Mondadori Group publishing brands recorded in the third quarter a 3.6% increase.
Thanks to this positive performance, the group growth in the entire period under review stood at 1.5%, a result that was significantly better than the reference market, thanks in particular to the excellent performance of the Italian fiction. The Mondadori Group was able to place during the first nine months of the year four titles in the top 10 bestseller titles, as highlighted in the right section of the slide, and additionally thanks to Einaudi to win the Strega Prize with L'età fragile by Donatella Di Pietrantonio, which, as of today, has sold more than 200,000 copies since its launch. As a result of this positive trend, the Mondadori Group reinforced its national leadership with a market share of 28% at September 2024, growing from 27.4% September 2023.
Moving on to the education books business, we can observe that in the current year, the publishing houses of the Mondadori Group achieved a market share in terms of adoption equal to 32%, stable compared to the recorded in the previous year, with a growth in the secondary school segment, middle and high schools, and a decline in the primary segment characterized by greater volatility and lower profitability. Overall, the school textbook market in Italy, both for primary and secondary segment, has recorded a decline of 1.5% of the total number of students, most marked in primary school, attributable to the demographic trend in Italy.
The increased top line versus nine months 2023 comes mainly from the trade books area increased by almost EUR 20 million or by 7.5% in the period, mainly driven by the contribution of Star Shop and Chelsea Green Publishing, net of which the like-for-like growth would have been almost 1%, thanks to the positive editorial performance, in particular of Einaudi, also of the relative digital revenues, despite the decline registered in the museum activities. The education books business recorded overall a slight decrease in revenues of 0.7% compared to the first nine months of 2023, with a positive growth in the secondary school segment and a contraction in the primary school. The retail area recorded a strong improvement of EUR 10.4 million and almost + 8% versus last year.
Also, thanks to the consolidation of Star Shop retail activities, the comics shops, the organic growth amounted to 2.6% coming from the book revenues performed that in the period has been close to 2.5%, driven in particular by directly operated stores, and despite the negative impact of temporary closure for total renovation of two bookstores, net of which the organic growth would have been equal to 3.8%. The digital activities of the media area delivered an improvement of about 25%, mainly thanks to the positive performance of the MarTech segment and to the excellent result of the activity of Social Agency. While the media print has recorded a decrease due to the structural decline in add-ons and circulation revenues, the overall business unit presented positive organic growth of 5%, given that the increase in the digital segment more than compensated for the decline in print activities.
In the end, it is important to underline that the core business has grown by EUR 37.7 million in the period. The improved profitability of EUR 4 million stems from the positive performance that all business units recorded, despite the decrease that the group had to deal with regarding primarily lower grants in the media print business that have been accounted in the current year. I remind you that in the last year, grants have been recognized for more than EUR 5 million, while in the current year, this contribution is equal to EUR 4 million. Excluding this one-off effect, the improvement versus last year would have been of almost EUR 6 million. The positive performance was driven by, firstly, ordinary business operation, which improved by almost EUR 4 million, a decrease in paper cost equal to EUR 3.6 million.
On the other hand, this trend was negatively impacted by an increase of almost EUR 2 million in logistic cost in the education business. The conclusion at the end of April of the multi-year concession of ticketing activities and services carried out in the Roman archaeological areas of the Colosseum. As already seen, the improved profitability by EUR 4 million or 3% versus nine months 2023 comes mainly from the trade books, retail, and digital business segments. In particular, the trade books area increased by EUR 1.2 million in the period, driven by the improvement in the profitability of editorial brands, resulting in particular from the growth in digital revenues and the lower incidence of industrial costs, primarily paper, which more than compensated for the contraction in margin recorded by museum activities.
The education books have recorded a stable margin thanks to the positive effect deriving from the cost dynamic, despite higher logistic cost, which offset the contraction in the margin resulting from the lower revenues. The retail area recorded a strong improvement by 13% equal to EUR 1.1 million, thanks to the book revenue growth on the ongoing store network development and renewal. The media area delivered a global improvement of EUR 2.6 million deriving from digital activities that recorded an increase of EUR 2.2 million thanks to the revenues growth and to the overall increased profitability from 12%- 14%, and from the media print, which margin increased by EUR 0.4 million, despite the lower grants, thanks to the decrease of paper cost and the ongoing cost savings.
The Corporate & Shared S ervices recorded a worse margin compared to the previous year due to the higher cost linked to some innovation project, including PLAI, the startup accelerator of the Mondadori Group. Then, finally, analyzing the change in the net profit for the first nine months of 2024 compared to 2023, please note that we have recognized a EUR 4 million improvement in the adjusted EBITDA, as we already saw, a negative contribution from non-recurring items, of which almost EUR 1 million euro results from the accounting 2023 of the net capital gain from Grazia disposal, a EUR 4.9 million in depreciation and amortization due to both the growing business investment policy, +EUR 2.3 million , and the accounting effect of the PPA, +EUR 1.9 million related to the M&A. It is important to highlight that part of this PPA increase is a timing effect in comparison with the previous year.
Last year, EUR 2.2 million were accounted for at the end of the year, given that for the entire year we expect a year-on-year increase in the D&A close to EUR 5 million. A worsening in the result of associates from about EUR 2.5 million since the first nine months of 2023 has benefited from non-recurring items, the fair value revaluation of the stake held in ALI for EUR 1.3 million, and in Adgage for EUR 0.5 million, and from the net gain equal to EUR 0.4 million deriving from the disposal of the residual stake in Il Giornale. Tax expenses in the period increased by EUR 1.1 million, mainly since the result of 2023 had benefited from the accounting of income that was not taxable or subject to a reduced taxation, such as capital gain as well as contribution in the media area.
And lastly, a greater minority interest of EUR 1.3 million, mainly due to the improved Star Comics result. Overall, we can say that 75% of the EUR 7 million drop in the net profit of the period is due to non-recurring effect mentioned, while the remaining to higher depreciation a minority interest. The adjusted net result, neutralizing the extraordinary component and the amortization resulting from the PPA, would be equal to EUR 62.8 million, in line with the figure of the first nine months of the previous year. Moving on to the cash position, we can see that in the current year, the group confirmed a strong cash flow generation. In cash flow generated in the last 12 months by ordinary operation amounts to EUR 67.3 million, figure increased by EUR 2.7 million versus LTM figures at September 2023.
Analyzing the change in the group's net debt between September 2023 and September 2024, we observe that, as already seen, the ordinary cash flow showed in the last 12 months was substantially in line with the figure recorded in the financial year 2023, thanks to the improvement in profitability and to lower cash taxes. Despite the negative dynamics of working capital, partly recorded in the trade books area due to the change in revenue mix, higher revenues from physical channel compared to e-commerce, and partially in the media area due to the strong revenue growth in the digital business. Group CapEx amounted to approximately EUR 41 million, up the 2023 figures, also because of the renewal and efficiency of a printing plant, already accounted for EUR 2 million.
Extraordinary cash flow was negative by EUR 29 million and includes cash out from the M&A of about EUR 15 million, for the restructuring cost of EUR 6 million, and for the renovation of the headquarters of about EUR 4 million. Consequently, the LTM free cash flow was positive for about EUR 38 million, confirming the group's ability to self-finance its M&A policy and to increase in reward shareholders while maintaining the group financial solidity. In fact, the consolidated net financial position before IFRS 16 amounts to about EUR 151 million, substantially stable compared to September 2023. It's worth remembering that in the current year, the group recorded a growing remuneration of its shareholder of over EUR 31 million, of which 50% already distributed and the remaining subject to payment on the 20th of November 2024. Let's now end our brief presentation with the confirmation of the outlook for the full year 2024.
In light of the positive result already achieved, the M&A deals finalized and the trend in our reference markets, we can say we are completely on track with the estimates previously disclosed. Therefore, we are expecting a low single-digit growth in revenues, a mid-single-digit growth in the Adjusted EBITDA, with a group profitability stable at 17%, thanks to the pricing policies and to the further reduction of paper and printing costs. We also confirm the cash generation capacity and therefore expect ordinary cash flow to reach EUR 70 million, despite a higher CapEx of around EUR 4 million compared to what was expected at the beginning of the year, dedicated to the renovation of a group printing plant. Thank you all for your attention.