Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of ACCIONA Energía H1 2023 results. I will make a brief introduction with the few points I would like to highlight, and then pass on the floor to my colleagues, Rafael Mateo, CEO, and Arantza Ezpeleta, CFSO. I believe ACCIONA Energía is now a better company than when we did the IPO two years ago. Higher value, larger scale, more profitable, better and more pipeline, and on the right track to prove our capacity to execute the 2 GW a year of new capacity target. All in all, as I say, a better company than two years ago. Our investment activity is accelerating rapidly, with 2.2 GW under construction and 1 GW of secured projects that will enter into construction in the next 12 months.
We are on track to deliver 1.8 GW of installed capacity by the end of 2023, and very confident that we can at least install the same amount in 2024. From then on, we believe that we have the means, the pipeline, the balance sheet capacity, the supply chain, the manpower, and the know-how to continue installing north of 2 GW a year in the foreseeable future. 2023 is the year when we prove our capacity to add new profitable megawatts at the pace announced at the IPO, which I expect will ease the negative market sentiment that has been holding a share price back over the last, over the last six to nine months. Of course, there are other renewable sector-wide investor concern. Inflation, interest rates, CapEx costs, supply chain, deglobalization, policies, or network congestion are undoubtedly challenges to be considered.
In our case, we believe we have all those challenges sufficiently under control. Undoubtedly, we have experienced some delays in achieving our growth targets, but then again, 2022 was a very unusual year, with all the above-mentioned problems in their epitome. The war in Ukraine, total disruption in the global supply chain, anti-circumvention chaos in the US PV market, regulatory instability, the PJM connection collapse, markets getting acquainted with inflation and interest rates hikes. All in an environment of unusually high energy prices that we all saw as temporary, thus somewhat making us victims of our own success, as the levels of profitability would be very hard to match in future years. The ultimate change in the power price methodology for the current regulatory period in Spain has added to widen the delta relative to last year.
Let me try to send a message of calm and predictability. In my view, the long-term outlook for the industry remains very bright. First, megatrends. The fight against climate change is more urgent than ever. There is an ever-growing number of country, of countries committed to take measures. Social awareness is higher than ever, and we have the technologies available to transform the model. Energy independence has become a key strategic aim in many countries, as the war in Ukraine has made it... has proved it necessary. All of this is leading to unprecedented policy support, privileged access to finance, economic incentives to develop the less mature technologies in the context of strong electrification of the global economy.
We believe supply chain problems are pretty much over, and notwithstanding capital CapEx and financing cost, returns remain healthy as energy prices have settled significantly above pre-COVID levels. We are delivering profit above market and our initial expectations, market expectations, and our own initial expectations, in the order of EUR 600 million more EBITDA in the period 2022, 2023, and enjoyed exceptional ROCE in the last two years, return on capital employed.
With respect to capacity additions and commercial activity, we will be adding 3 GW of total capacity since the IPO by the end of this year, and that's two years ago, and signed around 8 TWh of PPAs in the last, in that same period. In terms of our 20 GW target by 2025, the one that we announced at the IPO, we are approximately one year behind. Our projects are still here, with significant new additions to our pipeline, and we will deliver in 2023 more than three times what was on our business-as-usual annual growth in the IPO, before the IPO.
We believe we will be able to maintain and increase a similar pace of growth in coming years, while being very selective and disciplined in terms of risk, returns, and our balance sheet. We have invested EUR 3 billion since the IPO, our net debt has only increased by EUR 1.1 billion since. It is, I believe, too harsh from the market to attribute negative value to this. In terms of paving the way for future growth, we have selectively opened new markets in Southeast Asia and Latin America, and strengthened our presence in our core Australian, European, and North American markets, which, as you no doubt are aware, are poised for tremendous growth. We are also positioning ourselves in additional emerging technologies, such as batteries, hydrogen, or floating.
Of course, we are preserving our investment-grade credit rating and our balance sheet strength, which in the current volatile world, it is a very, important competitive advantage. As for ESG, we have obtained ratings systematically at the top of the rankings, and I dare say we are a sector benchmark. We work to ensure long-term economic, social, and environmental sustainability, always sticking to our core values, while also strive to maximize our short-term delivery. At the second anniversary of the IPO of ACCIONA Energía, I reiterate, I firmly believe that the company has made great progress since that date, since the listing, and the general market, the general market environment is looking as good, if not better, than two years ago.
As you see, I am optimistic, despite a significant disconnect between the reality of the company and what seems to be the market perception, judging by the stock price. I am confident the market will soon recognize the progress made in the last couple of years, and in the exciting future that lies ahead of us in ACCIONA Energía and the rest of the group's sustainable infrastructure business. Thank you very much. Rafael, the floor is yours.
Thank you, José Manuel, good morning to everyone. Let me please start with the key headlines for the period, defined as the operating profit level, but power prices coming off the peak of the energy crisis we saw last year, especially affected by the untimely changes in the Spanish regulatory banding mechanism for the regulated assets. I'd like to mention that although the current price levels are more moderate, they are still being at very good prices, with around EUR 100/MWh expected for both 2023 and 2024. We still have a very good year, 2023, and at least another one or two years of elevated power prices. Spanish generation EBITDA in the last six months of 2023 is not very different from what we had for the entire year before the COVID.
In 2023, we are seeing the benefit of the balance hedging and contracting we did last year, locking in very rich short-term prices for 2023, more than EUR 160/MWh, and also securing significant long-term PPAs at very attractive prices, backed by our existing Spanish generation fleet. Both the short-term hedges and the long-term PPAs, with much better prices than we expected in our IPO plans. The output remains below long-term's average, especially because the poor global resources, mainly in hydro. We increased our stake in Renomar, an Spanish wind company, where we have owned historically 50% with our partners. The company owns 494 MW , and its average production is 1.1 TWh. This is not a big acquisition.
It's basically normal course of our business, a very natural things, for us to do, as this asset, that we developed in the past and we are operating since the start, now we are pleased to take the opportunity to increase our stake to 75% in this high-quality portfolio of wind assets, as one of our partners decide to exit. We have paid just under EUR 120 million for the 25% of the stake. Renomar had significant net cash position, implying that we are able to trade below EUR 0.9 million per megawatt with a fantastic asset base. The transaction is generating a significant capital gain in the year that is helping to compensate, at the bottom line, the operating results. In the next few slides, I want to focus on our construction plan....
for the current year, and also for the increasing visibility for 2024 and 2025. I will also provide you with our update financial expectation for the current year, 2023. Starting with the construction plan, 2023, as you know, our commitment is to install approximately 1.8 GW of new capacity in the year, which is very concentrated in two geographies, North America and Australia, with ongoing U.S. solar projects, such as Fort Bend, Union, High Point, Red Tail Hawk, and our largest project under construction, the MacIntyre Wind Farm in Queensland, Australia. We are broadly on schedule, with a busy second half of the year, but on a schedule.
During the past 6 months, we completed the installation of 442 MW, and our construction schedule is back-end loaded, planning 650 MW to 700 MW constructed in each of the next two quarters. Starting with MacIntyre in Australia, we are currently in full turbine erection, with 38 machines of 5.7 MW each completed as of June, and in the process of increasing our current installation rate of 10 to 12 new turbines per month. Yesterday, we had 47 turbines, or 270 MW , already erected. In the U.S., in contrast with the disruption in model, in module PV supply that we had in 2022, aggravated in the past by the anti-circumvention issue, this year the things are going very much better.
Although we had, at the beginning of the year, some potential delays with one of our Chinese supplier, which was anticipating the problems with the U.S. border, today, we have been able to resolve well early in March, procuring more from our new Tier One manufacturer coming from India. Today, our module procurement plan for Red Tail Hawk in the U.S. market has even accelerated by a couple of months, which means that we are receiving all the modules for the project, and if everything goes according to the plan, we could potentially even increase the planned installation at this site from the initial 150 MW in the year to 250 or 300 MW in this year, 2023.
In Spain, we are expecting to get the construction permits and local license imminently to get working on the sites as soon as we can. In Peru, we are on track with our Marcona wind project. Looking at the big picture, we have a lot to do in the next six months, and there are obviously some challenges, but also some upside opportunities. We are really very confident that we will able to reach the target of 1.8 gigawatts new capacity installed at the end of the year. This is at the top of my list. We are extremely focused on completing the plan for the year, and we have the capabilities to deliver and to maintain this new pace of growth going forward.
Turning to the slide number eight, we have been very busy evaluating many projects in the last few months, approving more than 1 GW of new capacity, as well as rejecting or postponing opportunities in some markets that today were not matching our expected return targets. Past February, at the full year result presentation, we were showing to you 1.2 GW of identified capacity addition for 2024, basically comprising the tail end of MacIntyre, the Red Tail Hawk, the first part of the Aldoga PV plant in Australia, a couple of wind projects in Australia, as well as a batch of new Spanish asset, which had, after a long wait, obtaining the environmental approval.
As of today, the total fully secured capacity for 2024, it stands at more than 1.7 GW, with the addition of Forty Mile Wind Farm in Canada, 280 MW in the phase I, another 160 MW of PV in Dominican Republic, with very high PPAs, more than $90/MWh of PPA, and some additional Spanish projects. We have included also in the charts a 413 MW PV project in India that we are securing the next weeks, which will add 125 MW extra in the 2024 construction schedule, with the rest of the project delivered in 2025. We are also increasing fast the visibility, not just the visibility of 2024.
We are increasing the visibility of 2025. We have already a very good idea of what projects we are going to build in 2025. In the slide, we show you the expected regional split. We are not showing you the names of the project as yet, as some of the projects are in the internal process of getting the final investment decision. They will be approved in the next few months, and they will serve to fill the activity in the next years. That is including additional solar in the U.S., in the PJM market, potentially batteries and other battery storage in ERCOT, in Texas, and potentially some projects in the U.K. market. In India, I mentioned the large solar project we are securing that will contribute both 2024 and mostly 2025 in terms of capacity.
In South Africa, we are advancing with a view to contract and build three wind projects, totaling around 325 MW, and considering also a new battery projects for the next tender in South Africa next month. In Australia, we will complete the final 185 MW of the 433 MW Aldoga project. We have an additional good visibility of a couple of PV projects in Central America, adding more than 200 MW, and same in Croatia with our project, Solar PV Promina, with 183 MW. In Nigeria, we have a significant pipeline of solar projects, mostly hybrid, and we are considering only the most efficient for now or the best contracted.
With all these project, we are secure, as I said before, not just 100% of our capacity for 2024, but most of our new capacity to be installed in 2025. We think we have today very high visibility of at least 1.7 GW to 1.8 GW in 2024, and we can do, without any doubt today, another 2 GW or more in 2025. With that, we will reach our IPO target of 20 GW by the end of 2026, sometime in the early 2027 as the latest. We expect to reach and stay at the 1.8 GW marks in 2023 and 2024, which is a well-balanced target for us, and then we will increase to a increased speed of around 2 GW per year.
We are living today in a world of plenty, plenty of opportunities for investment and higher power prices, but also with more uncertainty for permitting, for grid access, with higher and more volatile CapEx and higher interest rates. Even the module prices, the PV module prices, are falling, are falling strongly. Today, each project has to be analyzed in its own merit. Each project has to fight its own case. There are no blanket green light for any particular region in the world. We can say that achieving the right returns is easier in some geographical areas, Australia, the U.S., Spanish for wind, Spain for hybrid PV. In other markets, we may have to develop and to very to be ready for the current moment.
This is the case of Brazil today, where we are waiting for the current moment, or in some markets, we are postponing projects we don't see today our required return. We can do that, because we have a well-diversified pipeline and a well-diversified geographical presence in several markets, and because we are not in the race to growth at any cost. We will growth at. We will grow in the future at unprecedented rates. We have the origination and the execution capacity for a run rate of 2 GW or more per year, and we want to capitalize on our increasing momentum. We will grow at the right pace, at the speed that we can digest from a financial and a credit perspective point of view, and always protecting our highly profitable existing business.
We are, for example, considering some sizable development opportunities in battery storage or in utility-scale floating offshore in the future that will significantly increase our capacity plans in the next few year. To accommodate the run rates of 2 GW per year or more in our balance sheet, we will be open in the future when we need it or when our financial ratios demand it, that is not today, we will be open to alternatives such as minority partnership or as well as selective rotation of mature assets if it would be the case and the opportunity. In the next slide, number 10, with respect to the outlook 2023, we have today half of the year behind us, the Renomar deal secure, and the minimum for power prices stabilized around EUR 100/MWh mark.
In this context, our current EBITDA expectation for the full year is in the range of EUR 1.2 billion to EUR 1.3 billion, based on the Spanish pool prices of around EUR 100/MWh, and consolidated output for the global fleet of around 22 TWh this year, taking into account the low hydro output for the rest of the year. In June, in the past month, the unexpected and extraordinary review in the Spanish regulatory price assumptions, the change of parameters for the current three-year period, had a significant negative impact in our expectation. Nevertheless, it's just an accounting effect, not affecting cash, not affecting the value of the company, and we will recover in the future this positive accounting effect in 2026, in the year, and the following years.
The Renomar transaction is contributing both at the operating profit level and at the bottom line, on top of the capital gain generated by the revaluation of the company, as it becomes today fully consolidated in our accounts. All in all, this EBITDA that we are projecting for 2023 is still above the levels that we expected at the time of the IPO, despite of lower output in the year and less investment in 2022. This EBITDA implies a significant growth relative to 2021 that was already a very good year if we look through the absolutely exceptional 2022. In terms of net investment cash flow, we expect to be close to the EUR 2 billion, and the net debt to EBITDA ratio will be around 2.5 times.
Finally, I want to share with you some decisions I have made with respect the top tier of the organization. In the light of the rapid growth in size, in geographical footprint, in new, more renewable technologies, and more activities related with the energy transition, I need to reinforce the operational control of our global businesses. For that, I have created a new position, a new chief operating officer position, designed to supervise all the global and operating activities of the company. That's a position that will be assumed by Arantza Ezpeleta from next August the 1st. Jose Antonio Trecanales will assume, on the same date, the role of the chief financial and sustainability officer on top of his responsibilities in strategy and corporate development. Congrats to both.
Arantxa and Jose will work even more closely and more directly with me, supporting myself in the most relevant operating and financial matters and decisions. Thank you very much. Let me hand the floor to Arantxa to review the financial and operating performance during the first half of the year. Thank you.
Good morning. Thank you, Rafael. Let me quickly run through the key financial and operating figures. Revenues fell by 20% to EUR 1,760 million as a result of lower prices in generation and supply activities. Generation revenues fell by 24%. EBITDA is down to EUR 686 million, falling by 25% in line with revenues. Generation EBITDA in Spain is down while international improves. Earnings before tax are flat at EUR 567 million, despite declining EBITDA and slightly higher depreciation charges, thanks to the Renomar revaluation, financial charges that are not increasing significantly, and the partial reversal of the power cancels that we mark to market through the P&L, which last year contributed a significantly negative result, this year is a positive contribution, thanks to lower market prices.
Net investment cash flow of EUR 1.5 billion is twice as high as in the previous year, evidencing the strong acceleration in our growth. Net debt increases by around EUR 1.5 billion to EUR 3.5 billion, reflecting the front-ended profile of our investment this year and the payment of the dividend. We expect net debt to be lower at year-end. With respect to the key operational figures in the slide, let me mention that consolidated capacity is stood at 10.8 GW, growing by 1.5 GW, out of which almost 500 MW are related to the consolidation of Renomar. Consolidated output grew by 2% to 10.5 TWh, while the average price fell by 26% to EUR 86.2 per megawatt hour, which explains the 24% decline in generation revenues.
Availability improved to 95.8%. Contracted output stood at 77.3% for the period. With respect to the ESG metrics in the slide 13, on the social side, we report a large increase in staff due to integration in ACCIONA Energía of the Acciona Group Renewable Energy O&M services company, EROM, last year. We increased the number of women in managerial positions and decreased the accident frequency index. On environment, the alignment of our CapEx with the taxonomy is total. Emissions increase due to the change in methodology for leased vehicles that go from Scope 3 to Scope 1. We will mitigate this later in the year by reducing Scope 2. Waste to landfill increased due to boiler cleaning waste and removal of contaminated soil. Zero-use blades go to landfill. We are working on a pilot to reuse blade materials.
We have also increased the voluntary tree planting in a major way. On governance, on track to audit 100% of our critical suppliers by year-end. We approve a new ethics channel policy for the protection of those who report on regulatory violations and corruption. Finally, we published our unique impact financing framework, which is very innovative and introduces a local impact component to enhance both sustainability-linked as well as green use of proceeds instruments. In slide 14, you can find detail on the breakdown of the EUR 1.5 billion of total investment during the period, with EUR 1.1 billion of gross CapEx concentrated in the US, Australia, the Americas, and Spain, and over EUR 400 million of net CapEx deferral.
A significant part of it represents the payment in January for the Cunningham Battery Storage System, agreed at the end of June 2022, and disbursed in early January. In slide 15, we show the cash flow for the period. Operating cash flow amounted to EUR 383 million, with negative working capital, reflecting in part that we paid back the excess regulatory income costing during 2022, which was provisional and dependent on the final government calculations, which were published very late in the year. Financial results increased from EUR 40 million in the same period last year to EUR 52 million. reflecting higher net debt and higher average cost of debt. Net investment cash flow of EUR 1.1 billion, as already discussed, then the payment of the dividend for EUR 230 million.
The acquisition of Renomar brought around EUR 100 million of project finance debt and EUR 161 million of cash to our perimeter. That takes debt before IFRS 16 to EUR 3 billion, and to EUR 3.5 billion with IFRS. With respect to the debt position, I would highlight the higher average cost of debt during the period, which increases to 4.3%, with the cost of corporate debt at 3.35% and project debt at 8.5%. Our cost of debt is gradually reflecting the higher base rates, which have increased by 250 to 300 basis points in the last two years or so, even if the spreads are under control or even lower in terms of incremental financing.
We have roughly 50% of our debt variable, as we prefer to have a balanced position and not to lock in the current high rates for the long term, with the view that as inflation pressures ease, at some stage, interest rates may correct. With respect to the average debt maturity, it has increased mainly as a result of the Australian dollar corporate facility device for MacIntyre project, which has a 16-year door-to-door term, which was possible thanks to the structuring with CESCE, the Spanish export credit agency, under its green policy. We issued our third benchmark green bond in euro at the end of April, a EUR 500 million seven-year bond with a coupon of 3.75%, implying 78 basis points over mid-swaps.
It was another very successful transaction on the back of our profile as pure-play renewable energy company with top ESG credential and investment-grade rating. We tend to trade and price tighter than similar-rated companies. For your review, we include a summary of the Spanish power market dynamics in this slide. Much lower prices than the previous years, with H1 2023 at EUR 88/MWh versus EUR 206/MWh in the same period last year, in a context of declining energy commodities off the peak.
The blend of actual prices so far this year and forwards suggest a price of close to EUR 100 MWh for the year as a whole. This has tended to stay relatively stable in recent months. Prices in the forward market in December are higher than the realized price in December 2022. Forwards for 2024 are around at the EUR 100 MWh . They have traded between EUR 90 to EUR 105/MWh for a few months now. Hydro reserves for the country remain below five-year averages in another very dry year. In slide 18, you can see the main driver for the Spanish generation business, with revenues down 32% to EUR 569 million.
Output is up by 3% to 5.1 TWh, with lower proportion of regulated, given the very high prices in the last couple of years, which has been, in turn, contracted to maintain a highly visible profile. The average achieved price falls by 34% to EUR 112 MW, reflecting the lower wholesale prices, uplifted with a significant benefit from the hedging carried out for the period and with limited impact from the regulatory drivers. The gas global paid during the period amounts to EUR 19 million, which is why the achieved price in the unhedged volumes for the period is EUR 7 MWh, rather than close to EUR 90 MWh.
In the next slide, the total EBITDA in the Spanish business declined by 38% to EUR 419 million, relative to an exceptional first half in 2022 of EUR 676 million. Generation EBITDA fell by 36% to EUR 430 million, with lower prices and some impact from the lower output when we exclude the new assets, as well as the regulatory change we have already mentioned. The contribution from the new assets and Renomar in aggregate mitigates part of the effect of the lower prices. In slide 20, you can find some statistics on the markets we operate, as well as the evolution of commodities and the main exchange rates that affect us.
I would note the pattern of very high prices globally during the mid part of 2022, and how that has corrected following the path of energy commodities. With respect to the key drivers for international generation revenues, volumes are up by just 1.4%, with another year of weak resource, more than compensated with the output from new assets. The average price falls by 8% to EUR 62/MWh, with prices declining in all markets, except for Mexico, where we had high income from capacity payments.
Generation revenues declined by 7% to EUR 334 million. Total international EBITDA grows by 14%, despite the lower revenues, thanks to lower repair and maintenance costs relative to the previous year, and to the non-recurrence of the impairment of the Mora powered power station at Portugal at the end of its feed-in tariff period, which reduced the equity accounted contribution at EBITDA level. With that, let me hand back to the chairman.
Okay, thank you, Arantza. We're gonna go on to the Q&A. We have a long list of questions, which we will try to answer. First question comes from Flora Trindade, Enrico Bartoli, and Oscar Najar, Mediobanca, CaixaBank, Mediobanca, and Banco Santander, reads the following: "Large capacity additions expected in Spain in the coming years, what are your expectation regarding returns? And whether we can detail the percentage of Spain on, on target additions until 2025." Rafael, will you please take care of that question?
Okay. Thank you, José María. In Spain, we are going to add, in the next period, 2021, 2025, something around 1 GW to 1.5 GW. That means something around 15% to 20% of our total global installed capacity for the period. That's clear that we are very careful in Spain with the type of new capacity we are going to add. Mainly, we are going to invest in wind, all the wind that we can. We are considering, when we decide to invest in wind, the profile. We prefer winter wind or night wind profile in order to compensate and to capture better prices with positive covariance.
In terms of return, we are maintaining our spread, our financial discipline in all the projects that we're constructing in Spain and in the rest of the market. In according with our solar new capacity to be installed in Spain, we are, initially considering the hybrid, looking for the most efficient hybrid projects in terms of OpEx, in term of CapEx, and always contracted as generated.
Let me add that we remain to be very strict in our return expectations and our return policies. All we do in Spain and elsewhere is abiding to the 200, north of 200 basis points margin. In Spain, we have approximately five-point-something WACC. I'm not sure exactly where. All our projects, unlevered and after tax, we are returning above the 200 basis points, which would be 7.5, 7.6. Yes, we remain disciplined on that on that front. Do you want to add anything, Arantza?
No, I think that's clear. Thank you. Mm.
Okay. I'd also like to add that I don't see, we don't see the amount of new installations in PV going to the levels that the PNIEC has projected, the National Plan for Energy and Climate, because investors will, of course, as you are being sensitive to, are also sensitive to the possible impact on prices. Unless there is a new significant source of demand, which by the way, I think can, can be the case, in the front of the hydrogen, which, as you know, we are starting our plant in Navarra with very interesting, very interesting price expectations in terms of our cost of hydrogen.
We believe that actually can become a reality as a source of significant demand, which of course, would offset what now seems to be somewhat excessive capacity installation contemplated in this national plan. Going on to question number two, which comes from Flora Trindade, Trindade in CaixaBank, asks: "Whether taking into account the acceleration of CapEx and doubts on the evolution of prices in Spain, will you consider asset rotation?" Well, asset rotation will always be considered selectively, and of course, when we exceed our balance sheet capacity. By that, I mean when we exceed our investment-grade protection. Balance sheet capacity will be determined on investment-grade protection as a very strict rule.
If that were to happen, we would indeed consider asset rotation, that's not predictable, that's doesn't look likely soon. We may selectively, as I say, consider streamlining some countries, so concentrating on strategic countries, and therefore maybe rotating assets in regions where we don't see scalability, and of course, in any event where we see a very high price offer, that also will be a consideration. Question number 4 comes from Enrico Bartoli in Mediobanca, and says: "How much was the impact in H1 2023 EBITDA from provisions related to the new reference price in Spain for regulated assets? Any additional impact expected in second half of 2023?" Arantza.
Yes. As you can imagine, we are not happy at all with the change in the regulatory parameters halfway through the year. It is very difficult to plan, to budget, to communicate to the market when the regulatory review for the current semi-period take, takes place in the middle of the year and not in December, when it should have been done. The impact of this change in the banding adjustment is in the order of the EUR 200 million, which would have significantly offset the P&L impact of lower prices, prices. This is, of course, as we have mentioned before, non-cash, value-neutral. It just changes the timing when you receive the revenues coming from the regulation, and does not have any impact on current or future market revenues or, or regulatory income.
In general, and as per the other regulatory accounting effects, you know, the Spanish regulation accounting system is quite complex. I will not enter into the details, but just to mention that on the basis of the power prices estimates for 2023 today, and the changes in the parameter, the result of the regulatory assessment has ended up being relatively neutral.
Thank you, Arantza. Question number five comes from Fernando Lafuente at Alantra, and it says: "Have you considered a share buyback program, given the trading of the stock, which is not far from the IPO?" Let me answer that. Yes, indeed, we are seriously considering this possibility. There's obviously a very clear arbitration in terms of the fact that our megawatt i-in terms of the stock of, of stock buybacks would be valued at around probably below EUR 1 million, when, as you all know, there's has been transactions in the Spanish market very recently at EUR 1.8 million. It's possibly the cheapest megawatt we can invest in is our own, through share buyback.
We do, of course, take into consideration the liquidity factor, the commitment to the rating agencies to maintain the rating, the investment-grade ratings, and our investment capacity in greenfield megawatts, which is what we do for a living. Yes, indeed, it is a consideration taking very serious thought. Question number six: regulated generation, generation volumes hedging. Why do you still consider Spain, Spanish-regulated output within hedge PPA, given the strong volatility of results and cash flows recently? Could you change your hedging/regulated policy in this part of the output?
I'm not 100% sure of the nature of the question, but I think what it intends to say, Arantza, is that why would we consider regulated assets as within our hedge to our PPA, given the changes in the parameters and the volatility that creates?
I think I understand the question.
That I think is what it's meant, no?
Yeah, I think I understand the question the same way. I mean, we still think that regulated Spanish output should be considered contracted. It is true that given the volatility of the prices in recent years, especially last year, but this was a very exceptional moment. There are, like, huge changes in the P&L, but we still think that the regulated Spanish output should be considered as contracted, no matter what. It works as regulated, it gives us a floor, so, and very predictable cash flows, despite this very specific and special, extraordinary volatility environment.
Yeah, prices are around EUR 80 MWh to 90 MWh under these circumstances, so it, we believe it should be considered as regulated. Question number seven on Chile and Australia. Lower prices- Sorry, Oscar Najar, Sorry, I forgot to say that the former question on generation volumes and hedging was from Fernando Garcia at Royal Bank of Canada. The next question comes from Oscar Najar at Santander and Enrico Bartoli at Mediobanca. Chile and Australia, lower prices than in first half 2022. What is the situation in these two countries? What can we expect in the coming years, and what may the solution be for Chile? Rafael.
Okay, yes, in Australia, we had a very high last prices in the last year as prices at very record levels, due to the context of the Ukraine war. Today, the prices are more normalized, especially for wind, and today in Australia, we are offering wind profile PPAs at the level of close to AUD 100/MWh. Prices are being normalized, especially for wind, in a very high level. Going to Chile, Chile is living, as you know, a very complex situation, especially in the past year.
Better situation in 2023, given the grid congestion in the, in between the North and the Center of the country, especially because the delay in the promised investment in new transmission lines from the government and the excess of solar capacity in the North, saturating the nodes in the North. The situation was even worse in 2022 and at the beginning of 2023 because the high prices of the gas, because the, the war. Today, the government is, is knowing very well the situation, is working on the approval of the new law, the Second Time Renewables Law, that is going to modify the, the prices, split the prices in, between the different actors. The law is going to be approving at the beginning of 2024, and the situation will be mitigated and normalized in the future.
Australia?
Yes, doctor, please.
Yeah, and let me add that the law is already going to parliament, so it's a tangible promise by the government. On question number eight, Spain normalized output. What would be the normal output in a fiscal year basis, basis, with the current assets in Spain, in a normalized situation for hydro and wind? That comes from Santander, from Oscar Najar. Rafael?
Yeah, the, on the basis of existing capacity, today in Spain, and with the contribution from Renomar, and with the hydro that we have today, the, the total output is around 11.5 terawatts hour per year. This is the annual output. Respect.
Thank you. Now question number nine from Roberto Ranieri at Stifel: Can you give an update on the progress of the MacIntyre project in Australia? Why don't you, Quincho, head of construction, project construction, take that question? Quincho Antin.
Thanks, José Manuel. Yes, we are having very good progress according to our expectations in MacIntyre. We are advancing, I would say, in cruise speed in all the activities, so including civils, with foundations and platforms, tracked by erection. We have, as Rafael mentioned in his presentation, around 275 MW already erected, planning to finish with the 650 MW by the end of the year. And in parallel, with very good progress also in the evacuation infrastructures for the substations and the lines to evacuate. And we will expect to start the energization progress, process, sorry, as scheduled on Q1 2024. Good progress on MacIntyre.
Thank you, Quincho. question number 10, also from Roberto Ranieri at Stifel: Do you see grid connection as an issue for capacity, development, and operations? What are the main issues on capacity development in general? Rafael, will you take that one?
Yes, it depends on the market. The grid connection is obviously could be a bottleneck for the expansion in new capacity. It depends on the market. In the case of Chile, I said before, that is a big issue with the grid connection. It's not the case in Spain, not yet, because the grid is very robust. We are seeing other different issues that are affecting the capacity of development. The permitting could be an issue, especially because the permitting is being delayed because lack of staff in the different government bodies in order to approve the developmental permits, or even the social acceptance or the local acceptance could be an issue in some projects.
This is not affecting to us in our development because we are also having a very early and good approach to the new territories where we are going to install our projects as a new neighbor in the area and with long-term view of the, our stay there in order to improve the social and economical conditions of the area, getting the social acceptance from the beginning of the project. This grid permitting and social acceptance could be an issue in order to delay the capacity addition.
Well, let me add, however, that our capacity additions have our projected capacity additions have contemplated that the, that, that, that problem, and of course, we are assuming in the short run. In the long run, we don't know whether that is going to be. The process, the political process in Europe is to improve on that, on that fact. So there is new legislation being issued to facilitate the permitting process. We still have to see what the result of, the result of that legislation is. Question number 11, from JVCM, Jorge Guimaraes: Why the working capital consumption in ACCIONA Energía in H1 2023?
Yes. Approximately, we have EUR 200 million of outflow, of which almost half of it, as I was mentioning in the presentation, is related to paying back to the system the excess regulatory income that we have last year. You may recall that the regulatory income was cut last year, given the high prices that were seen in the market, but the final resolution didn't come until late, late in the year. We collected, so to speak, more than it was due, and we had to pay it back, and that is related to that. The rest is just the normal course of business movements. We expect, towards the full year, to improve the working capital figures compared to the ones seen at this point.
Thank you, Arantza. Next question from Fernando Lafuente at Alantra, is Renomar contribution in second half?
Yes. It could add another EUR 40 million to EUR 50 million of EBITDA in the second half, relatively to what we would have had on an equity accounted basis, which would be around EUR 15 million to EUR 20 million in the second half of the year. I don't know if I should enter into the details. I think that's what we should be getting compared to the equity accounted.
Yeah, we haven't got much time, so I think.
Yeah
... if Fernando wants more detail.
Yeah, we can.
We can-
- explain-
directly
... more in detail. Okay.
Question number 13 is: What is our strategy in green hydrogen and electrical vehicle chargers? How much resources, how many how much resources would be allocated to these activities? Why don't, José, you take this question?
Hi, good morning. The answer is we're dedicating significant resources to both initiatives. On green hydrogen, specifically, those resources are dedicated to two joint ventures that we launched. One, two years ago, and which is the joint venture with Plug Power, which has been making good progress. Another, which we announced at the beginning of 2023, which is a joint venture with, with Nordex, called Acciona Nordex Green Hydrogen. In Acciona Plug, the joint venture with Plug Power, we have built a significant pipeline of over 300 MW of electrolysis in, in Spain and Portugal, and that is progressing well, with one project moving ahead, at, at a good pace, which is a project in Navarra of 25 MW , which we expect to reach COD on in early 2025.
It's a project that we, as was mentioned previously, we think we can achieve reasonable levels of competitiveness even without subsidies. On the Acciona Nordex joint venture, that is an effort or an entity that seeks to develop large-scale off-grid projects in different parts of the world, in areas with exceptionally high renewable resources, with the objective of reaching the lowest possible levelized cost of hydrogen. We are making good progress in a number of places, particularly with projects in Chile, in the U.S., and in Morocco, and with significant interest or early interest from both partners and potential off-takers. Positive developments in both. Regarding EV charging, we are convinced that the electrification of transport will happen. Our efforts are focused mostly in Spain up to date.
The electrification needs to accelerate significantly to reach the objective set in the National Energy Plan, to reach the five million EVs that need to be on our roads by 2030. We are convinced that this is a, a growing industry and one that will already represents a, a good opportunity. We're investing still relatively modest amounts in 2023, around EUR 15 million, but we expect that to grow significantly, and we're starting to look at opportunities to internationalize that business and, and grow in other countries where we have an existing footprint.
Thank you. Final question, and to finish on time, is from Alberto Gandolfi at Goldman, who says, who asks, with some degree of skepticism, I believe: How can you end at 2.5 times net debt to EBITDA, if in first half you are at EUR 3.5 billion and if it is because CapEx is H2 in the second half, is, and it's, it's, it's lower in the second half, how can you head towards 1.7 GW to 2 GW annual additions if you CapEx is slowing down? Arantza.
Well, first you have to consider, and we have mentioned it through the presentation, that, some of the CapEx payments are front-loaded. Also, you have to consider that we have also the dividend payment. Second, we expect significant proceeds from the tax equity investors and partners on the second half of the year. Also, remember that I just mentioned that we also are expecting to have improvements in the working capital. That's why we will reach to that figure.
Let me reiterate that CapEx is not slowing down. It may just be lower in the second half than in the first half, but doesn't mean by any means that it is slowing down. Thank you very much indeed, and that's it for the Energía, for ACCIONA Energía. We will, in a couple of minutes, start the Acciona Group presentation and Q&A. Thank you. Estamos? Okay, hello again. Good morning, and welcome to the Acciona Group first half results presentation, for all those who weren't in the Energía presentation. Let me start by stating that our strategy based on decarbonization of infrastructures and services is gaining momentum and recognition. What was originally a matter of business ethics and has developed into ACCIONA's most valuable competitive advantage.
We have become the main reference in sustainable infrastructure solutions, with 99% of our investments aligned with the European taxonomy of sustainable activities. We do not believe there is another company with presence in nine different sectors: energy, infrastructures, water, mobility, wind turbine manufacturing, waste treatment, and other environmental services, real estate development, and asset management. Those are the nine, which is so holistically aligned with the European taxonomy and the SDGs. After 20 years of effort, I believe we can now safely say we are the world's most genuine sustainable infrastructure solution provider. Fundamentally, to the SDG number six, which is clean water; SDG number seven, which is clean energy; SDG number nine, which is infrastructure; and SDG number 11, which is sustainable cities. All SDGs, all sustainable development goals, which are infrastructure-related.
This strategic focus, while in the past some may have found idealistic, romantic, or even business unfriendly, has become Acciona's most differential asset, our most talent-attracting figure, and our greatest source of new business opportunities. Our solid balance sheet is based on the stability of the revenues of our renewable energy assets and our growing concessions portfolio, for which we are projecting rapid growth in the coming years. We are leading the investment in activities that are driving the new decarbonized economic model. In H1 2023, we accelerated our investment plans, reaching a record figure of EUR 2.2 billion, the equivalent of what we invested in all of 2022. 81% more than in H1 2022. That is, in 2023, 81% more than in 2022.
70% of this investment was focused on our energy business. Another key growth driver, often underweighted by the market, comes from our infrastructure business, which I will refer later. In Energía, just highlighting what we have presented in the ACCIONA Energía presentation just last hour. While EBITDA was down 25% versus 2022, mostly because of another ultimately untimely regulatory change in Spain and a 26% reduction in generation prices, still, our financial performance significantly exceeds what we and the market projected at the time of the IPO two years ago. Excuse me, just one second.
Our CapEx of EUR 1.5 billion, double that of 2022. We are on track to deliver 1.8 GW of installed capacity in 2023, an equivalent amount in 2024, and 2 GW going forward, based on organic growth, hence improvable with M&A. We have signed around 8 TWh of new PPAs in the last couple of years. By the end of this year, we will have added 3 GW of total capacity since our listing. In terms of our IPO, 20 GW target, we are catching up with a 12 to 18 month delay announced a few weeks ago, resulting from post COVID supply chain problems. We are now confident we can at least maintain a similar growth rate in the coming years, while maintaining our risk-return discipline and balance sheet strength.
All in all, over the last two years, ACCIONA Energía is delivering returns well above our IPO expectations, EUR 600 million above, and more than what the EBITDA projected in the IPO, and has invested EUR 3 billion, while only increasing net financial debt by EUR 1.1 billion, thus protecting our credit rating. As for future growth, we have significantly strengthened our presence in our core markets, Australia, North America, and Europe, and have opened seven new markets, seven new countries: Vietnam, Philippines, and Thailand in Southeast Asia, Brazil, Peru, and the Dominican Republic in LATAM, and our energy-efficient business in France. Our geographical base for future growth has never been better. We are also positioning ourselves in additional emerging technologies such as batteries, green hydrogen, or offshore floating.
I fear there may be some degree of disconnection between the reality of our company and market perception, and I'm convinced we will soon bridge as we continue to deliver healthy growth. Despite strong stock market pessimisms, pessimism with higher interest rates, higher CapEx, and energy prices past their peak, we believe the general context is highly favorable, as the ambition of the climate agenda and decarbonization through electrification is going exponential. As for infrastructures, our infrastructure business has experienced a very healthy first half, with simultaneous growth in revenues, which is up 37%, and growth in EBITDA margin by 14%, going from 5.6% to 6.4%, and also in backlog, now at a historic record of EUR 46 billion.
Unprecedented global infrastructure in investment plans present a historic opportunity that we are seizing through five key strategic lines of action focused on risk mitigation and margin improvement. Number one would be selective, a very selective approach to our regional footprint. Mainly, we focus on OECD countries with substantial investment plans so that there is scalability and, of course, a legal and reliable legal, a reliable legal framework. That would be Europe, North America, Brazil, and other stable Latin American countries, and the Philippines, Australia, and exceptionally, water contracts in Hong Kong and the Gulf countries. Number two would be risk mitigation strategies via new contractual models, such as alliance, collaborative- contracts and selective approach to clients and project profiles. We try to favor technically complex contracts with fewer competitors and lower clients' price sensitivity.
Number three would be a focus on concessions. Our global footprint provides us with a wide range of greenfield investment opportunities. More than EUR 1.8 billion investment over the next five years in equity has already been committed. We follow a plain vanilla strategy based on greenfield to brownfield, de-risking, margin compression, and asset rotation in the concession side. Number four would be technical excellence to compete in technically complex, sustainable infrastructure projects, mainly through digitalization of processes, very strong design and engineering, and other in-house capability and enhancement of our attractiveness as employer of choice for STEM talent. Finally, number five would be a differentiated approach to social and environmental positive impact.
What I was mentioning that initially could have been a romantic element is now becoming, a, an incredibly powerful commercial tool, and we make it a reality through sophisticated, innovative emission reduction, generative, regenerative, and positive social impact programs. A few good examples of this approach, over the last six months, would be, for example, the consolidation of our transmission line credentials in two major contracts in Australia and Latin America, the growth in the water sector by 9% in the first half of 2023 over 2022, both in EPC and service revenues, with key contracts signed in Italy and the Philippines, and very important strategic opportunities under negotiations in Brazil and MENA, and Middle East and North Africa, and Australia.
Another example could be the consolidation as the first non-domestic contractor in the Philippines and the development of urban services with the start of operations in NES, the NES project in the waste treat, waste-to-energy plant in the U.K., and various other contracts in Spain. Summarizing, our growing recognition as a leading provider of climate-resilient, environmental positive, and socially regenerative infrastructures is driving our business to unprecedented growth and significantly improved risk-return equation. Let me jump on to Nordex, where our 47.08 stake entails, from now on, a global consolidation. Here, megatrends have significantly improve, improved its growth prospects for the next decades.
European Net Zero, U.S. IRA, or Australian decarbonization plans, among many other plans around the world, decarbonization plans around the world, these being the key in our key markets, the most important are key markets. Together with our green, with green hydrogen demand, policy momentum, and improved pricing pressure are driving the wind turbine industry towards an undoubtedly brighter future. COVID-related supply chain, raw materials, and logistic headwinds are now turning around. Nordex is uniquely positioned to benefit from the energy transition, as it is the fastest-growing onshore wind turbine OEM outside China, and of course, the third global player and number two in the European market. Its highly competitive cost of energy-optimized product portfolio, its strong order intake momentum, together with the industry-wide tailwinds, make us confident of its future performance.
Going to our asset management business, Bestinver, the company has reached EUR 6 billion of assets under management, with a 15% increase over 2022. It has been so far a very good year for our traditional equity funds in terms of returns and growth. All those returns are high double, double digit and performing better than our benchmarks and most of the competition. This, of course, should lead to significant improvements in net inflows in the coming months. There's also significant progress in alternative funds, having reached our first infrastructure fund capital raise target of EUR 300 million, with 90% already invested in a portfolio of nine high-quality, diversified infrastructure assets.
similarly, we will soon be launching a first real estate investment vehicle, and we have reached an agreement with BlackRock, by which a new Bestinver BlackRock private equity fund will have privileged conditions to invest in BlackRock private equity fund's ecosystem. In summary, a very good, very good returns in our traditional products, and excellent progress in our product broadening strategy, leveraging on Acciona's know-how, footprint, and investment opportunities in real estate, and infrastructure, and on BlackRock's in BlackRock in private equity. As for real estate, again, sustainability attributes are, are differentiation based, are build to rent, build to sell, iconic buildings or residential products in Spain, Portugal, Poland, and Mexico.
It is worth noting that we certify 100% of our residential products, with 80% reaching maximum ratings, and that our office building ratings are among the world's highest scores in LEED or WELL certificates. In particular, within our circularity, recovery, and transformation of iconic buildings, strategy, it is worth noting our recently inaugurated headquarters in Madrid, from where I'm speaking. Originally, Banesto's headquarters, in 1956, Banesto headquarters, turned into possibly one of Europe's most sustainable, attractive, and employee-friendly in-town campuses. From a financial point of view, our real estate division is still in the build-up phase, but we are very confident that substantial P&L contribution, adding to a consistently, yearly growth in NAV, will soon be visible.
As for mobility, in an attempt to go beyond our conventional boundaries in profitable, profitably contributing to, and profitably contributing to sustainability, we continue to make progress in electric mobility. Under the Silence brand, we manufacture and sell 18% of Europe's electric motorcycles, over 14,000 projected sales in 2023, and are gearing up for the commercial launch of our microcar, Silence Zero Four, SO4, at the end of this year. Its convenient size, its price, and its extractable, exchangeable battery pack make it a uniquely practical, versatile, economically accessible, and environmentally friendly vehicle, urban.
We also see promising opportunities in the second life battery cycle as a competitive balance to renewable generation peaking, and through the recent acquisition of Solideo, the energy efficiency company, playing also an important role in the growing market of solar communities in Spain, through the Silence Home battery. To finish, as you can see, we have what appears to be another strong year ahead of us, while continuing to lay the basis for solid long-term growth with a combination of mature and emerging lines of business aligned around the sustainability as the, as has been recognized by all major global sustainability and ESG indexes. Thank you for your attention. I now give the floor to José Ángel Tejero, our CFSO, for further detail, we will take questions after that. Thank you.
Thank you, José Manuel. Good morning to everyone. I will make a short review of ACCIONA financial results in the first half of the year. Starting with the key financial highlights, revenues grew by 7%, and EBITDA fell by 13%, as a result of 25% fall in energy and 47% increase in the non-energy businesses. A very solid growth driven by infrastructure. The EBITDA of energy reflects the partial normalization of power prices in Spain, also affected by the impact of change of the remuneration parameters applicable in Spain in the 2023, 2025 regulatory period. However, achieved prices are still relatively high compared to historical levels. These results include the full consolidation of Nordex since April 1st, after having reached 47.1% of its share capital.
Nordex, Nordex has contributed EUR 1.5 billion of revenues and has reached breakeven point at the EBITDA level in the second quarter of 2023. Profits before taxes reached EUR 691 million, and attributable net profits reached EUR 467 million, a 132% increase versus the same period of last year. Excluding the impact of the change in Nordex consolidation method, attributable to net, net profit would have been EUR 206 million, a 2% growth versus the first half of 2022. We have invested EUR 2.2 billion in the first six months of 2023, 81% more than the first half of 2022, and net financial debt at the end of June stands at EUR 7 billion versus EUR 5.2 billion at December 2022.
The following slide, you can find the ESG highlights and key environmental and social performance metrics. Firstly, it's important to highlight that at this moment, Nordex data is not integrated in this semester due to both companies are using different measurement methodologies. However, we expect that by the end of the fiscal year, the financial information models will be fully integrated, allowing us to provide consolidating ESG indicators for the group. Moving on to ACCIONA Nordex, in the social aspect, it is worth noting that the increase in the staff has been utilized to significantly improve gender representation, particularly in managerial positions. We have managed to increase the gender quota by 1.3 percentage points, a notable achievement in a workforce of nearly 50,000 people.
Shifting focus to environmental data, as our CEO has already highlighted, we have achieved almost complete alignment to eligible investment with the taxonomy. While there might be a slight decrease in this figure during the second semester, we are confident it will remain well above our strategic alignment target of 90%. As noteworthy milestones for this semester, we established an ESG budget, enabling key projects to proactively track important sustainable management variables. Additionally, we have adopted a new sustainable and impact financing framework, recognized as the one, 1 of the most advanced and distinctive in the market for green financing. Going to the next slide, net debt evolution. You can see that the main cash flow items that explain the evolution of net debt in the first 6 months of the year.
The most important moving part has been the EUR 2.2 billion net investment already mentioned. Working capital outflow of EUR 459 million in the first half year includes EUR 207 million working capital consumption of ACCIONA Energía, of which almost half is related to paying back to the system the excess regulated income we collected this year. The EUR 252 million in the rest of the group consistent in the usual seasonality and growth achieved in by the non-energy businesses' revenues. As a result, we finished the first half of 2022 with EUR 7 billion 66 million of net debt. It is important to highlight that almost 50% of the total net debt corresponds to debt associated to work in progress related to renewable assets that have under con...
That have been under construction right now and will be EBITDA contributors once they are finished. In the next slide, we can see the investment by division, and we provide here the details. Aside from the EUR 1.5 invested in ACCIONA Energía, we have invested EUR 160 million in infrastructure, EUR 302 million in Nordex, EUR 103 million in other activities, and EUR 136 million in property development, which include the lands acquisition of EUR 54 million. The EUR 302 million invested in Nordex includes EUR 272 million shareholder loan granted by Acciona to Nordex that has been converted afterward in equity. The rest of it is Nordex own CapEx.
Going to the next slide, we provide some outlook for the rest of the year. Our current EBITDA expectation for the full year is a range of EUR 1.2 billion and EUR 1.3 billion in ACCIONA Energía, still above the levels we expected at the time of IPO, and unchanged solid double-digit growth in the rest of the activities, with a positive contribution from Nordex at the EBITDA level. In terms of net investment cash flow, we expect to invest around EUR 3.1 billion of consolidated CapEx, of which EUR 2 billion will be invested in energy and the remaining EUR 1.1 billion in the rest of the group. The expectation includes Nordex's own estimated CapEx of around EUR 170 million between April and December.
We expect profit before tax to grow a strong double digit with a positive contribution from Nordex. Going, going forward to the next slide, we go to the operating results of the different business. In energy, given that it just presented the first half results in full detail, and that the CEO has already given you some of the most important figures of the business, I'm not going to go through the specific lines. Just, if you can go straight to Acciona infrastructure. Moving to infrastructure, given that the CEO also has already presented the main first half figure, I will go straight to more detail details of the different businesses.
Going into construction, the performance of the construction activities of the first semester of 2023 have performed very positively, both in terms of revenues and EBITDA. Sales reached EUR 2,925 million, up 46%, driven by the good performance of the company, main countries, main projects in Australia and Brazil, which remain the main countries for the construction business. EBITDA rose to EUR 148 million, up 75% compared to the first half of 2022. It is worth noting that the significant increase in margins achieved from 4.2% in the first half of 2022 to 5% in the current year. This improvement in EBITDA margin is based on the growth in international activities and in the good pace of execution of capital-intensive projects.
I-in this way, works have started in the Sydney Western Harbour Tunnel, the largest contract in our backlog, while São Paulo line, the Line Six project, another major contract, is progressing well. If we go into concession, the next slide, concession business also performed well in the first half of 2023, with EBITDA growing significantly to EUR 31 million, which is 110% higher than the same amount, the same period of 2022. The EBITDA growth was driven by the good progress of the São Paulo Metro Line Six project in Brazil, which is already 32% complete. The first half of 2023 also saw our consolidation of the transmission lines market, where we have been selected as first-ranked proponent for the west, Central West Orana mega project I have just mentioned.
The contract includes the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of 250 km of transmission lines, including substation for 31 years. The total investment in the project is expected to be AUD 7.2 billion. Acciona has 50% stake in the construction consortium and 36% stake in the concessionaire. This week we have announced the award of our second concession project in the U.S., a contract to design, build, finance, and operate and maintain the new Calcasieu River Bridge for 50 years, part of the Interstate I-10 highway in Louisiana. The U.S. $2.1 billion project will include the replacement of an existing bridge, which is more than, say, 70 years old. The project construction will be executed by a joint venture between Acciona and Safir, while Acciona will have 30% of the concession.
These projects are good examples of the capabilities and synergies of our businesses, which allow us to deal with large contracts. Including them, we have $1.8 billion investment already committed in our current portfolio of concessions. Going to water rapidly, in the next slide, you will have the details of the performance of the water business, which has obtained EUR 610 million in revenues and a growth of 8.8% compared to H1 2022, and EUR 45 million of EBITDA. Going over the next slide into Nordex performance. H1 results have already been public, as the company published yesterday its results and held a conference call explaining them. I will go very briefly over the main magnitudes.
Nordex results has showed shown a very relevant improvement in the second quarter of the year versus the first one, with a 12.2% gross margin and breakeven at the EBITDA level. As Nordex management has explained, we expect a further margins improvement sequentially each quarter, with overall further improvement in the second half of the year. Yesterday, Nordex management reiterated its guidance for 2023 and mid-year, and mid-term strategic margin target of 8% margin EBITDA confirmed. Going to the other activities of the group, and one by one. In property development, the results in the first half has been affected by the seasonality of the business. With only 24 units delivered, we expect to deliver around 8,800 units in the whole year, and 95% of them will be concentrated in the last quarter.
The gross asset value has increased 12% versus 2022, to more than EUR 1.7 billion. With regards to Bestinver, the results reflect the lower average assets under management and the discontinuation of the Italian subsidiary. However, in the first six months of the year, the total funds under management have increased by more than 10% to EUR 5.6 billion as of the end of June, which is more or less EUR 6 billion as of today, with a 17% year-to-date positive performance of the three largest traditional equity and fixed income funds. Lastly, the number of electric vehicles sold by Silence in the first half of the year has been 9% lower than the same period of last year, consistent with the global decrease of the electric mobility sector in Europe.
We manufacture and sell 18% of Europe's electric motorcycle, and with the commercial launch of a microcar, Silence 04, at the end of this year, we expect to sell over 14,000 units in 2023. Thank you for your attention. Let me hand the floor back to you, José Manuel.
Okay. Thank you, José Ángel . Let's start with the Q&A. The first question would be for from Fernando Garcia, at Royal Bank, Royal Bank of Canada and JBCM, Jorge Guimaraes: What is our strategy with Nordex going forward, keeping our stake at this level or increasing and decreasing? Our strategy is to stay at this level. Basically, we have. I do not expect to move our position from the present from the present level. There's also a question from, I'm not sure who from, from who it is, but it, on working capital cycle for Nordex, and the fact that it's a different working capital cycle than the construction, and how do we manage that that difference, that different cycle in working capital?
I think the answer to that is, the Nordex has its own financing strategy, its own financing capacity, which is, at this stage, very healthy, and we do not need to participate in Acciona. We do not foresee the need to participate from the side of the shareholder, Acciona, in any further financial support. At this stage, things look very positive from the Nordex balance sheet position. Question number two comes from Fernando Garcia at RBC, at RBC: "Now, net debt stands at EUR 7 billion. Could you provide details of Acciona capital structure strategy?" I'll pass it on to Jose Angel, if he wants to add anything, but let me just state as a... This can be a very ample, very wide answer.
Let me give you the very short answer, which is: maintaining investment grade is the utmost objective, and that will guide all the capital structure strategy. Do you want to add anything, José Ángel?
No, I, I think that the only thing to add is that net debt, our expectation is that net debt, it stays more or less flat from here to the end of, of the, of the year, with more of that debt that is associated to assets that are under construction, passing into assets that are already operate, you know, into operation, and provided additional comfort and coverage to the, to the, interest charge and, and, and, and debt as a whole.
Good. Question number three from Fernando Garcia at RBC: "Could you provide details on the EUR 459 negative working capital at Acciona level? What do you expect for the rest of the year?
Well, as I think that I made a mention in my speech, but basically, the EUR 459,207 corresponds to energy. In the energy presentation, they have made the, you know, the projection that this will be coming down the second half of the year. The rest of it is EUR 220 to infra and EUR 33 for the rest of the group, and this figure reflects the usual seasonality.
The, the working capital that we expect for the, the rest of the, the 2023 year, it will be around EUR 200 as a whole, that we expect the energy can, you know, brings that EUR 207 up to around EUR 50 million, and the rest of the group will contribute around EUR 150 million.
Thank you. Number four, CaixaBank, from Flora Trindade and José Ruiz from Barclays: "Do you expect to see margins in construction to remain at this level going forward?" The very short answer is yes, indeed. Let me pass on the floor to Luis Castilla, our CEO in infrastructures to give you a little more color on the answer of that question.
Thank you. Yes, we, we expect to maintain a minimum of 5% of EBITDA in our business. This is coming from the good quality of the portfolio of the new awards that we have received, and in particular, from the increase on the collaborative projects that we are enjoying, in particular in our first construction market in Australia, where we have more than 60% of these, of these, collaborative projects.
Yeah, let me add that, that high-quality portfolio of, or, order backlog and the much improved risk profile of the contracts is a result of, in general, is a result of very, very high demand in this industry, with very significant investment programs around the world. Very important needs, social and environmental infrastructure needs that are, of course, pulling from the demand side. Giving the supply side, that is ourselves, particularly in companies with a very high technical profile, such as Acciona, giving us a great opportunity to be very selective in terms of clients, markets, type of contracts, type of projects, et cetera, et cetera. That is resulting in a very healthy, a very healthy backlog, a very large backlog, but still a very selective one.
Question number five on the property development from Flora Trindade at CaixaBank. Considering the weak first half results in real estate, do you maintain the 800 units for the year?
Okay. Thank you, José Manuel. Yes, the answer is yes. We maintain the target of delivering around 800 units this year. The first half results have been affected by the seasonality, only delivering 24 units. You have to bear in mind that according to our calendar of deliveries, 95% of the total units of the year are going to be delivered in the last part, in the fourth quarter, actually. Almost 100% of them are already presold, as is, is seen in our backlog of presales, which is more than 1,700 units. Andres, maybe do you wanna add something about this, or give some color on 2024 and 2025 expectations?
Okay, thank you. Andres Pan is the CEO of, as you know, our real estate unit.
Thank you. I understand perfectly the question because of the seasonality of our business. We have to achieve 800 deliveries, but 95% are concentrated in Q4. 45% are domestic, 55% international. Out of those, 97% of the domestic is already sold, and 100% of the international deliveries are already sold. Concerning next years, in 2024, we expect a number of deliveries close to 1,000 units. Out of those, 71% are already sold. And from 2025 onwards, the number of deliveries will be close to 1,500 units.
Thank you, Andres. Question number six from CaixaBank, Flora Trindade: Can you provide us with numbers on invested capital in the mobility segment and the concessions? José Ángel, please, push your button.
I'm sorry. Yeah. The capital invested that we have in the mobility segment, including, of course, Silence, is EUR 145 million so far. Going into concessions, what we have is invested so far, as of June, EUR 186 million. Let me add also that we have in water concessions an additional EUR 148 million. Obviously, that this does not take into account that we have an additional $1.8 billion commitments from now till 2028. Also, for this year, just to give you a little bit of light, the additional investment that we plan to do is in concessions, is mainly Line six and La Serena Hospital, and we plan to do an additional EUR 70 million.
Let me stress that, as I've said, in the next years, we have already committed, I think it's EUR 1.8 billion in equity infusions in our concession business, which should be a, a strong improvement, strong growth in that side of the business. Question number seven: This is from Barclays, José Ruiz: Do you see any sign in improvement in second half EBITDA for Bestinver? I think Quique Pérez-Plá, CEO of Bestinver, is here, so please take that.
Okay. The answer is yes, we do, and, we do, considering, considering good performance of our equity and fixing.
It was connected, so repeat, please.
Yes, sorry. Yes, we do, and we do, considering, first of all, the good performance of our equity and fixing confands year to date. Second, the increase in AUMs. As you said, we are very close now to EUR 6 billion, and especially, the increase in average AUMs. In H1 2023, we have been very penalized for that. Third, the contribution of the new alternative vehicles that we will launch from September, such as the real estate and the private equity. Finally, we expect a better contribution from our investment bank business in the coming months and in 2024. Thank you.
Thank you, Quique. Question from José Ruiz at Barclays: Do you plan any disposal to reduce net debt? No, not in the short run. As I have said, the guide, the guiding principle in our capital structure, i.e., in our debt-to-equity or debt-to-EBITDA ratio, is the rating, the investment-grade rating, and that doesn't seem to be at all at any risk at this stage, so no sale of assets will be done for that purpose. Selling and rotation of assets may be done for other purposes or for other reasons, such as in maybe a very high price being offered for a product, which, of course, for an asset, which, of course, will mean that we may consider it.
For debt reduction or leverage reduction purposes, we do not intend to sell any assets, because the position is comfortable at the present stage and going forward. Question number nine is from Alantra, Fernando Lafuente: Activity has been strong in construction, with raw revenues growing 46%. What do you expect for second half and for 2024? We expect continuity in the second half as for the first half. We expect to be at around the same levels, over 30% in compared to last year. Although this percentage-wise, last, beginning of last year was as low, was only starting to pick up because of the supply chain problems and all the problems that you know, and market tensions.
The comparison to last year is higher on the first half than it will be on the second half. However, the rhythm in construction continues stable in the year. From the point of view of the coming years, we do expect, we do expect double digit, 10% and over growth in the revenues in the coming few years, what we can foresee with the current backlog. That is the end of the questions. Thank you very much indeed, and we'll see you, we'll see you at the end of the year, if not earlier, for any questions or clarifications that you may require. Thank you very much.