Starting, I would like to remind you that once the presentation is over, as usual, we'll move on to the Q&A session. You can leave us your questions in writing under the heading of Zoom for Q&A, or you can call in via the telephone or raising your hand on the lower menu. Let's kick off with the presentation. We have Patricia Berjón, who's the Director for Corporate Development.
Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you very much for attending this call. With the results of the first quarter of 2024, as you know, we held our AGM yesterday, where apart from approving the results of the 2023 fiscal year, we approved the renewal of the members of the board. We also paid out EUR 50 million in the form of dividends.
Mikel Barandiaran, our CEO, also reviewed the non-financial information and our performance in the area of sustainability, and information that is becoming increasingly relevant for our stakeholders. He also took the opportunity to talk about our position, our solid position, in relation to activities connected to sustainability and to the transitions of our strategic plan. That is the energy, digital, industrial transition, that are transitions that are addressed by society and more particularly by our customers. But as regards the figures for Q1 that we published this morning before the market opened, we've seen that the quarter doesn't have major headlines as regards the evolution of the business. So we have continuous growth in organic terms, with clear improvements in terms of operational profitability.
In other words, we have organic sales that compensate or are even greater than the sales that we eliminated, that are very few, they make a very low contribution towards the margin. So this shows that our current roadmap is suitable to gear our businesses towards the most recurrent, profitable and resilient businesses or activities, so that we're growing organically with good profitability levels, and we have decreased inorganically in activities that are less profitable. But to correctly interpret the financial statement, we have to take into account several elements. On the one hand, we have this negative inorganic growth that we mentioned due to the restructuring of our retail business.
And as you know, this meant that we closed down the physical shops in 2023, which means that we have lower sales of our mobile devices because we reduced the sales platform, and this doesn't have any impact on the margin, because, you know, these devices produce practically no profitability, and the effect, the inorganic effect, has been about EUR 10 million. And secondly, during Q1 of 2024, we also had to address payments of nearly EUR 90 million. The most important was the payment of EUR 67 million to Incus in the month of January, followed by the disbursement of EUR 12 million for the purpose of our own shares.
In particular, it was in the month of March when we bought 2.6 million shares that reached the cover the other 1.5 million shares acquired in 2023 and 2022, and which will be purchased by the management team according to a plan that has been designed for a greater stake in the share capital of Dominion. So that means that part of the directors will become shareholders, which shows that they do trust the shares, and they are also fully in agreement with the strategic plan of this company.
But going back to the figures of the quarter, organic growth at constant currency of the business figure was 5.2%, while the total growth of the company has remained practically flat, +0.6% as a consequence of the inorganic elements that I mentioned previously, and the effect of negative Forex has been -1.2%. As regards margins, I'd like to say that the operational profitability of the business is improving, and this proves that this inorganic effect doesn't not affect the margins, but rather that the strategy and the strategic plan that was presented last year is correct. I would like to remind you that our strategy consists in focusing on activities and businesses that are more profitable and reducing those activities that have lower margin profiles with investments and divestitures.
We've reached an EBITDA margin over sales of 12.3%, and this means that we've gone beyond the barrier of 12% for the second consecutive quarter, and we've improved compared to the profitability reported in the first quarter of 2023. Amortizations remain stable compared to the same period of the previous year, about EUR 15 million, with the main differences that result from our renting business for mobile devices and the effect of IFRS 16. As regards financial expenses, they have increased because of the payment commitments of this quarter that I've already mentioned, because compared to Q1 of 2023, interest rates are higher. In this quarter, financial expenses reached EUR 10.2 million.
So this means that we have a profit in continuous operations of EUR 9.3 million and an attributable net profit of EUR 7.3 million, after considering the interrupted activities that refer mainly to the financial expenses of the Cerritos wind farm, which, as you know, is about to be divested. But let's move on now to the behavior of each one of the business segments, and we're going to start off with sustainable services that maintains a weight of 70% of the Dominion sales and has reached a business figure of EUR 194 million. And organic growth in this segment has been very positive. We're talking about 6% of organic growth, and therefore, this is above the target that was established in the strategic plan.
Even so, our sales are, are flat compared to the same quarter of the previous year, because it's in this segment where we can see this inorganic effect that I spoke about before. We expect it to reach the halfway through the year, and that's when we will have sales platform that compares to the one we had last year. As regards to the contribution margins for sustainable services, this quarter, we will reach 12%. In other words, it's a margin that is 7% higher than the one reported in the same period of the previous fiscal year. This improvement in margins is possible thanks to that approach from the company in terms of services with higher margins and in services that are more related to environmental services, and because of the decline in these activities with lower margins.
There's also been excellent behavior in the case of telecommunication service contracts, and they've behaved perfectly well in the last few quarters, and therefore, in this first quarter of the year, both in Latin America as well as in Europe, with Germany as a success case for the company. In the 360 degrees project segment, we've reached the sales of EUR 86 million, which represents a growth of 1.5% compared to Q1 of 2023, which is 3.2 in organic terms. As regards margins, this quarter, they stand at 18.7%, and they are somewhat more normalized, but they are far above the target established in the strategic plan for this business segment, which is 15%.
This somewhat more moderate growth is characteristic in seasonality, the seasonality that projects have when we look at an isolated quarter. In this case, we are dealing with a transitional quarter within the framework of renewable projects, because as we mentioned in the call of 2023, the execution of the parks in the Dominican Republic is being closed, and we are transferring the activity towards the European market, where we will start with an execution in Italy over the next few months. As regards the portfolio, on the closing date of March 2024, it stands at EUR 618 million, where renewables have remained practically stable and where most of the additions happen in the area of industrial infrastructures, with projects that are about to be put into motion.
We also have to underscore the successful execution in a record time in Chile as the design and construction of a data center, a project that could not only represent a major success, but also the fact that new similar contracts will be awarded. And finally, we have our stake in infrastructures that is still providing something about EUR 3.5 million in turnover and EUR 2.2 million in EBITDA per quarter. This is very similar to the figures reported last year, because we have the same wind farms in operation because of the global integration, because of the global consolidation.
And the 281, the 281 MW that are under construction refer to those wind farms that we said were made in 2023 in the Dominican Republic and which are right now undergoing a connection process, so therefore they are about to enter into COD. And then we have the other wind farm in Cerritos that is also about to be connected prior to be completely divested. And with this, so we've just reviewed our business and also the different elements of the financial statement. Thank you very much for your attention, and now we're going to be moving on to your questions so that we can answer them accordingly.
Thank you very much. Okay, we're going to start off with the questions. If you're connected via Zoom, you can ask in writing through the Q&A section, or you can raise your hand by choosing the button in the lower menu, and we will give you the floor. Should you be following the presentation via telephone, please press asterisk nine, and we'll give you the floor. And we're going to start off with the Q&A and giving the floor to the people that have raised their hands. And please make sure that your microphone is not silenced. Firstly, we have Enrique Parrondo from JB Capital.
Hello, good afternoon, everybody. Hello. Well, I have a number of questions I'll ask, too, and then, then I'll join the queue again so that I don't interrupt anybody. The first one has to do with debt.
I know that you don't give this information for Q2 and Q3, but, do you have any estimates? Do you have any leverage ratios? Is it 1x or 2x? I'm not sure if I'm getting things right or not in this respect. And the second question is, has to do with the calendar for the development of renewables. So when do you expect that these projects will be arriving, those that are advanced, those cases you have, for instance, in the Dominican Republic? When will they be included?
Thank you very much, Enrique. Well, debt is not something that we usually give you information on in this quarter, but as we've said, there have been a number of payments for the first quarter. It's about EUR 90 million to EUR 100 million.
Bearing in mind, too, that there have been no additional divestitures or any additional debt reductions. Another thing we have to bear in mind from a positive perspective is the generation of cash, which is very healthy, as you already know. It's obvious that our debt levels will be somewhat higher than what we had on the closing date of 2023. We'll see how this changes over the year. In the semester, we'll give you this detailed information, and then we'll be able to talk more specifically about what the debt is like.
But let's say that the dynamic is the one you already know, and that is that divestitures have to be made in some moments during the plan, that we could have more or less debt, and we would have to focus on reducing these figures throughout the entire plan. And then, as regards, as regards the renewables projects, what you were asking us about, I think had to do with the connections of these projects and the time schedule for those that had already been carried out in the Dominican Republic. Was that your question?
Yes, that's correct.
Well, okay. Well, as I said before, we have been working on them pretty intensely throughout 2023, and right now we have five projects in the Dominican Republic that have to be connected and that they are looking into it.
It's not that the, a nything has stopped, but these processes are continuing, business as usual, and these, it's these natural bureaucratic processes that mean that they will be connected sometime during the year. And I can't really give you any dates right now, because bear in mind that there are going to be elections in the Dominican Republic. I think, they're going to take place in the month of May, and this is something that could always produce some kind of uncertainty in relation to the specific dates. But in any case, we expect these projects to be connected in the next few months. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Enrique, for your questions, too.
Well, let's continue now with Carlos Treviño from Santander.
Can you hear me loud and clear?
Yes, perfect, Carlos.
Well, thank you very much for accepting my questions. Firstly, w ell, the first question would be: how can we transform into revenues these renewable projects that you're going to be initiating in Italy? Because, Patricia, you said that they will be initiated in the next few months. So are they going to join the Q2 projects, or is it something that is going to pick up more speed in the second half of the year? That would be my question. And the next question has to do with financial expenses, because this has been a somewhat special quarter, because we've had some very significant cash expenses. But what is your forecast for the next quarter? So in other words, these EUR 10 million you've had in the quarter, how many have to do with non-recurrent issues that should not continue in the next few months?
And the third question has to do with the interrupted actions, with a loss of EUR 2 million, and you told us that most of them had to do with the financial expenses of the Cerritos wind farm in Mexico. And I wanted to ask you how things are going. Has any progress been made in the last three months as regard to the final divestiture? And then we also have the business of tall metal structures. What is the current status of that business? And do you think that the divestitures will come to a close in that particular segment? Thank you very much.
Carlos, well, I'll answer your questions. Thank you very much, by the way.
Well, look, as far as the contribution made by the new operations in Europe, and in particular in the case of Italy with wind farms, I do think that they will start to make a contribution as from Q2 this year. But we are always going to try to adapt the execution of these new infrastructures with divestitures from the previous ones. Because when you start with the execution process, it means that you have to start investing in those projects, and we want to regulate things properly. And as we divest in the others, what we will do is speed up the rate of execution of the following projects.
And this, in any case, let's say that if we are thinking about the global figures of the year, if we're talking about project turnover or project revenues, this shouldn't have an impact, because in the same manner that we can adapt to the renewables operations when we started. If we start a little bit later with the execution of renewable infrastructures, what we'll do is speed up the execution of other projects, because you know that we are tremendously diversified, that we have lots of projects, and this allows us to offer security for our accounts or for the global year. You can have some quarters that are more or less intense, but from a global perspective, with regard to the year, the prospects are those that you already know.
As regards how financial expenses are going to evolve, yes, this is a quarter in which we have bigger financial expenses, not only because of the increase in interest rates, but also because we've had these payment commitments that mean that we have a debt position that is somewhat higher. What we expect is that this will continue in the next quarters. It will be regulated, but I think that we have to wait. We have to expect financial expenses at this level in the next quarters. As regards interrupted operations, or in the case of Cerritos, those EUR 2 million have to do mainly with Cerritos. Steelcon is not significant in that figure. I'd say that it's something like EUR 0.3 million. In other words, this is a non-significant part of the whole thing.
I'm going to start with Steelcon, and this is an operation which are on the closing date of the year, we put it on the back burner, on standby, but in any case, this is now going to be readdressed in Q2 of this year, and let's only hope that we will make progress, too, in the divestiture of this activity. But as I say, it's not significant to date. And as regards Cerritos, well, yes, this obviously mainly refers to financial expenses that have been brought about by the repayment of the debt for this infrastructure. Progress has been made in the connection of this wind farm.
We're talking about Mexico, and you know that things have to undergo certain processes there, and we are much, much closer to this final connection, which is a basic requirement to implement this divestiture, and it's something that we'll see in the next few months, because, yes, we have made progress in Q1 this year.
Thank you very much, Patricia. I have one final question, very quickly. Could you give us some specific figures for the backlog of the different segments?
Well, yes. The EUR 618 million of portfolio that we closed this quarter with would be divided, EUR 275 million for renewables. As I said, that's pretty stable because of the lower level of turnover we've had in this quarter. And then we have infrastructures, 119 million, industrial infrastructures, EUR 154 million, growing since we closed the year. As I said, there have been new incorporations in this segment.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Carlos Treviño, for asking the question.
Here we have the questions that have to be answered that are on the chat. If you were to leave any more questions, and now is the time to do so. So going to start off with the question from Miguel Rodríguez. He's asking us: What do we think about the renewables market after the slump in prices? Could this affect the business, and could this stop funding and investments?
Hello, Miguel. Well, I'm not an expert in the renewables segment, but I believe that you're talking about the slump in energy prices. And I think that, well, what we have to do, is we have to look at the market, and we're talking about the long term, and it's not only the current specific point in time, and in our negotiations, well, this is what affects us.
Bearing in mind our significant portfolio, where we have more than 2.5 gigas, we don't really think that this is going to affect our projects, mainly in the projects we're beginning out or the inclusion in the portfolio of these renewable projects. And this is not going to affect the negotiations that are underway right now. And we are closely monitoring what is going on, and we've included this in our negotiations and also in those executions that we currently have underway.
Okay, we're going to continue with a question from Juan Peña. He's asking us about financial expenses. Is it reasonable to estimate financial expenses of something like EUR 40 million in the year as a function of what we've observed in Q1?
Well, Juan, as I was mentioning to Carlos before, what I would do is make an estimate of financial expenses according to what we have seen in Q1. So as from half of the year, when we have more visibility and once we know what our debt position is like, and once we know what the interest rates, we will be able to give you an estimate for the data for the year. But this is the only thing we can give you for the time being.
Leticia Martarena is asking us: When do you think you'll be selling the Cerritos farm?
Well, it's the same as what I mentioned to Carlos. It's something that will take place in the next few months, and this depends on the final connection. Progress has been made, and it's getting closer and closer.
Miguel Medina is asking us about the construction of projects in Italy. Does this mean that we are about to reach an agreement with a European partner for renewables?
Well, without a doubt, yes, we are getting closer to the agreement with a European partner... Well, we would like this agreement to be reached as quickly as possible, and we know that these executions will be coming along in 2024, and they are starting in Q2 of this year.
Well, Enrique Parrondo from JB Capital has raised his hand again, so you have the floor again, sir. Well, I have another two questions, and one of them is that, do you think that you will be able to launch any guidelines in the short term, like you did, for instance, in 2023?
Or do you think that this should be aligned with the guidance you gave for 2023, 2026? And the second one, just to understand the mathematics of the buyback of shares and the remuneration to management, or perhaps we should this should be like an OpEx item, or is there going to be a buyback by the interested parties, and at what prices? Perhaps we can. Is this going to be execution prices, or is there going to be some kind of discount or premium for those people? Thank you very much.
Well, Enrique, as regards the guidance, well, we're not going to be delivering a specific guidance for the year.
We gave the specific guidance for 2023, because when we presented the plan, it was May, and there was visibility, and it seemed that it did make sense for us to establish the guidance for the entire plan in two segments: for 2023 and for 2024 to 2026. As regards 2024, we stuck to that guidance. In other words, we maintained the guidance and the plan with these compound growth rates of 5% in terms of turnover, 7% in EBITDA, and 9% as regards operating cash flow or free cash flow. Right now, we are not going to be giving any details. But as regards to the buyback program, the share buyback program, well, these shares are already in the company's portfolio, self-portfolio, because, well, they were bought.
They bought 2.6 million shares in March, and there were other purchases within the program of 1% that was carried out between the end of 2022 and the early months of 2023. It's 4.1 million shares that are going to be bought by these directors of the company. The terms or the prices at which this acquisition will take place, well, we will give you all the necessary information once this takes place. Well, it depends on when this happens, the premium will be higher or lower relative to the listed price. But in any case, it is a program, it is a program to reward the commitment of our directors so that this talent can be associated with the company and to the strategic objectives we've set ourselves for the next four years.
And what we want to do is we want our directors to form part of the company as shareholders, and we want them to benefit from the revaluation of the share, because we expect that the share will evolve perfectly well, and this will show the fundamental aspects of the company, and would also reflect the work that these directors are currently carrying out within the company.
Understood. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Enrique.
Okay, we're going back to the chat, and we have another question from Miguel Medina. If you want to ask any more questions, this would be the time to do so before we finish. He's asking us about Cerritos, and what he understood is that in the call of 2023, trials will be carried out in March 2024. But apparently, this has not taken place. Is that correct?
They're not carrying out any trials there. Well, I can't remember the details for the call when we closed the year, but I don't really think that we committed ourselves to getting this done by March 2024, because it's very difficult to give you an exact date, although we do believe that it was in the first part of the year. And I think that this is something that we did mention, but I cannot really tell you in which phase of the connection it is or if we've reached the trial stage or not. I'm sorry, Miguel. My apologies, but I'm sorry, I don't have that those details. So there are no more questions, and with this, we will conclude the presentation. Thank you all very much for participating.
Thank you all very much, and I hope to see you again in the half-year call. Thank you. Goodbye. Bye-bye.