Good morning, this is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Orsero Nine-Month 2024 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paolo Prudenziati, Chairman of Orsero. Please go ahead, sir.
Hi, good morning, everybody. Before I pass the word to my colleagues, just to say one thing: the good results we have after nine months are confirming the good performance of distribution itself, not only, but also the fact that the good mix we have improved and developed in the last few years is paying the bill, and the fact that we are more and more concentrated on high-value products is giving us good margins as a total result. Now, I pass the word to Raffaella not to lose any time.
Thank you, Paolo. Welcome, everybody, and thank you for joining us today. Just a very brief comment before leaving the word to Matteo, as usual. We are pleased with these nine-month results, and particularly with the distribution performance in the third quarter, which was exceptional, with an EBITDA margin of 6.3%. Consolidated revenue for the first nine months is generally consistent with the same period of last year, which we consider a very positive outcome in a market where consumption is still weak. Our profitability for the nine months was strong, with an EBITDA margin of 5.8%, which was not so evident given the normalization of banana prices and freight rates compared to last year. The solidity in these results is completely built on distribution, thanks, as Paolo said, to ongoing improvements in the product mix, and thanks to our presence across all distribution channels.
This is precisely why we are aiming to keep investing in distribution, and this is why we have done the recent investment in Spain, as well as the further expansion in our Verona warehouse. About shipping, there is not much to say. As expected, it is normalized here, and we have returned to the pre-COVID market conditions. Unfortunately, the third quarter profitability was also affected by the additional cost of chartering an extra ship, and this was done to ensure efficient service during the dry docking of two of our vessels. In conclusion, we feel we are perfectly on track to meet our goals for 2024, including our ESG targets, while we had to slightly update CapEx and net financial position targets in line with the Spanish investment and higher working capital needs. Now, I leave the word to Matteo.
Thank you, Raffaella. Thank you, Paolo. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining the nine-month conference call. I will go briefly through the main figures of our nine-month end, and then I will leave the rest of the time for the Q&A session. Net sales, all in all, are in line with last year. They are slightly lower, -0.7%, mainly due or totally due to the shipping freight rates normalization. If we take into consideration only the distribution, we are over last year by 0.3%. This is, as Raffaella said, a fantastic result in our opinion because we took some important strategic decisions last year, deciding not to distribute anymore third-party bananas in Italy, in the Italian market. Just this decision is counting for more than EUR 20 million revenues lost this year.
This is something that was needed, in our opinion, in order to protect the value and our market position. The other important thing to say about sales is that we suffered during the year a relevant decrease in citrus consumption all over our market. This is something related to the market conditions. But we were able to recover a big important commodity line like citrus with better product mix, mainly related to exotic gamma. This is something really relevant because it's exactly what we wanted to achieve with our strategy in order to be able to rebalance commodity lines with added value products. And this is what happened. So we are not seeing a massive increase in our sales, but the fact that we lost some commodity lines' value and we recover with added value products is something that we are really proud about.
Going to the margin, the adjusted EBITDA comes in at EUR 66.9 million, down by EUR 22 million or minus 25% versus last year, with a margin of 5.8%. Actually, as Raffaella said, during 2024, we are pairing the results with 2023 results, and it's actually misleading because in our business, reaching 5.8% EBITDA margin with a third quarter with 6.3% is something outstanding, not really common among the business worldwide.
Results are in line with our expectations, and we are pretty keen on reaching our high end in the guidance for the year. Adjusted EBIT moved downwards with the same path related to the EBITDA and as well the adjusted net profit that still stands for the nine months at 26.3 reported and 27.6 adjusted. Total equity touched the 250, almost 251 million , mainly thanks to the P&L results. Net financial position, excluding IFRS 16, is at EUR 66.3 million.
We still have a robust cash buffer of almost 87 million EUR, gross financial debt of 153 million EUR, including 18 million EUR of this third consideration for the French acquisition. Net financial position reported stands in total at 123 million EUR, including almost 57 million EUR of IFRS 16 liabilities, of which fifth vessel lease accounts for 7.3 million EUR. I think this is more or less the most important things regarding the main figures of the nine months 2024. Last two points that I want to highlight are related to the CapEx. This year, we are experiencing a high level of CapEx, but we have to highlight that the main part of those CapExs are referred to growth investment.
So the maintenance of our footprint Europe-wide and in Mexico as well is still under control, perfectly under control, and in line with our projection and in line with the value that we consider correct in order to protect the efficiency of our operation, but on the other side, to guarantee to the company and to the shareholders the right cash flow from the operations. We decided to make two main investments this year. One is related to the upgrade of the Italian facility in Verona. It's our main hub all over Europe. And we increased the surface to develop more exotic products that, for us, is really relevant, as you can imagine, and to develop strongly the berries activities that, in our opinion, is one of the top items to develop in our markets over the next years.
Then we have just started a new venture in Spain, in the south of Spain, near Seville, where we want to expand with both the land, so where we will be able to build more or less 20,000 square meters of facility. We will do it in a phasing activity, and this will lead to the new growth plan for the Iberian Peninsula. On the other end, this year, we have the dry docking activity to make on our proprietary vessels that accounts for EUR 5.6 million. So, to resume, the CapExs are high, but we are investing in the future, and we are investing in distribution where that is our core business and where we see our growth. The last point is regarding the working capital. Actually, we are experiencing a slightly higher absorption from the working capital, and this is mainly due to two things.
There is an upgrade on the regulation in Europe regarding the payment terms for the suppliers. So, obviously, we have to comply with the new terms. This is something that we already touched at the beginning of the year. We worked on that, and we were able to recover compared to the first quarter on this point, but still, it's going to be structural to have a slightly higher absorption by working capital. On the other end, the fact that we are developing a better product mix with some importation lines, specifically berries and avocados, mango, and exotic gamma, requires some campaign anticipation to the supplier or short payment term to the more strategic supplier worldwide. So we are more than happy to invest something more in terms of working capital in order to develop a 6% EBITDA margin for our distribution.
So, for the rest of the time, I will leave the Q&A session.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To enter the queue for questions, please click on the Q&A icon on the left side of your screen and then press the raise your hand button. Please do not mute your microphone locally and make sure you turn on your webcam in the pop-up window. While on your telephone, press star and one for questions. The first question is from Gabriele Berti at Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Ciao. Congratulations for the great results. I have four questions, if I may. The first one, I would appreciate if you could give us more color regarding the new investment cycle in Spain. I mean, the amount you plan to invest, the returns you expect, and the rationale behind the investment. Then second question, I was wondering if the costs related to the dry docking were fully expensed in Q3, or will there be an impact in Q4 as well? And the last one, if you can give us the usual update on the visibility you have on shipping for 2025.
Ciao, Gabriele. Good morning. Yes, we'll try to answer to your questions, so starting from the investment in Spain, actually, as I said, now in Spain, when we talk about Spain, now we talk about the Iberian Peninsula, so we talk about Spain and Portugal. It's our together that we see as a unique market. For the moment, this is our third market after France, Italy, that each year are like top first or second. But Spain, together with Portugal, accounts for over 400 million EUR, so it's really relevant. And actually, we have no more space to grow, or at least we have a limited space to grow within our footprint, so we had to decide where to increase our surface in order to develop new product lines and new volumes.
We decided to do that in the south of Spain because south of Spain is incredibly strategic in terms of port facilities. We are close to Algeciras, incredibly convenient for African importation. That is going to be, over the next years, one of the key importation areas for Europe. We already have a very good team in the south of Spain, thanks to Fernández, and it's really synergic for the Portuguese operations. Why we decided to invest in Spain is because we need space to grow, and we decided to do that in Seville because it's the right place with the right people. For us, it's really clear. The idea now is to use the new facility as a buffer for all the markets.
The plan that we have over the next five years is to increase by 100 million revenues, the Iberian Peninsula results, revenues, working on added value product lines. We are not doing this new investment to ripen bananas, but we're doing this new investment to develop exotics, cherries, berries, so all the products that we would like to add as well in Spain for our gamma. In terms of phasing, we see a first phase that is going to be the investment of next year, probably the big one. Still, it is difficult to give you the right amount because we are finishing, let's say, the project, but it is going to be something around 10-12 million EUR. Then with this amount of money, we will be able to have around 10,000 square meters of additional ready to work.
And then there will be probably another phase, but it's going to be more in the future, around 2030, because actually, we have another facility in the south of Spain that is leased. We made some investment there, ripening rooms, packing machinery, and so on. So first of all, we want to use all the investment we made in the other facilities, and once the investment will be amortized, then we will be able to move to the new own facility the rest of the business. So this is more or less the plan. Regarding the dry docking, it's very easy. Economically speaking, the dry docking is considered 100% in the Q3 results. So there's not going to be impact in the Q4.
Regarding shipping, as usual, we say during this time of the year, it still is not the perfect moment to give some guidance, but what we are feeling from the market is that the reefer activity will be stable or slightly better than this year, but let's say for the moment to be prudent, at least stable, so the very good news is that the normalization of 2024 was slightly higher compared with what we forecast last year, but on the other end, we don't see another level of normalization in 2025, so I think the market is going to be stable or slightly better than this year.
We will work on the loading factor because when the market, at the end of the day, is stable and it's not possible to increase, let's say, the freight rate with a relevant value, the goal for us is always to keep all the clients on board and to give the best service and trying to have more volumes from our core clients or to have some client base. So this is the situation for the, let's say, reefer activity. For the dry cargo, backhaul is always more volatile, but now the market recovered since a couple of months compared to the first part of the year. So we are positive on that, but let's say it's difficult to forecast the spot market on the dry cargo, but we see as well there, we don't see any massive pressure to lose again in this value.
So not exciting news, but good news in our opinion. We can count on a stabilized situation.
Thank you very much, Matteo.
The next question is from Andrea Bonfà , Banca Akros. Please go ahead.
Hello, good morning to everybody. I hope you can hear me. Matteo, I definitely congratulate you, your team, for the distribution results in the third quarter. They are outstanding, and again, if you can explain to us how you managed to achieve these results, because in these results, if I'm correct, there is still a lower mix on the banana side and some, let's say, campaigns like citrus that you mentioned that didn't work, let's say, according to average, so it means that the underlying business is kind of booming, so if you can just elaborate on that.