Good morning everybody. Those of you connected remotely. I'm Miguel Coronel , I'm Capital Markets Manager for FCC. First of all, I would like to wish you a very warm welcome to these earnings, to this earnings presentation. The documents were sent to the Spanish CNMV and I will be reviewing the financial statements of the company for this second quarter. I would like to direct your attention to the partial carve-out that we carried out in November last year of the activities of cement and real estate. Because as you know, the lower part of our income statement cannot really be used as a component. Of course, the top line is comparable. The two periods are fully homogeneous. I wanted to mention this because we're going to be looking at the specific effect of all of this in a quantitative way.
I also wanted to mention that the guaranteed revenues which basically revolve around some of our contracts from the next quarter, we're going to be including also our concessions for infrastructure in this chapter which, because you know, it's 100% project-based activities. This is going to give you a better inkling into what we're doing. In July, the portfolio was in excess of EUR 44 billion, a mild increase of 2.8%. Guaranteed revenues still provide a very solid visibility to our activities. These are the two things I wanted to start off with. If we now look at the main figures of our income statement, as I was saying, our turnover rose to EUR 4.5 billion. I'm going to put on my glasses because I can't see very well. This was basically because of our increase in environmental activities here which we took over well halfway through last year.
We carried out some takeovers in the U.K., in the U.S. and in France. Also in terms of water, our integrated cycle and technology and network activity have also been very active with practically double-digit growth. In terms of consolidated revenues, activity that had the better performance was concessions which increased by 45%. Here this is because of a combination of different factors. First of all, inorganic activities, it is the beginning of new concessions and their contributions to our revenues. This was also supported by a very solid performance of passengers and vehicles and different types of concessions. The operational revenue, the operational result rose to EUR 675 million. This was the EBITDA, an increase of 11.3%. Here to explain that difference between revenues and EBITDA, I want to mention the greatest contribution of our processing activities. In addition to inorganic growth, organic growth was also significant.
This is what lies behind that positive rise in EBITDA, which grew by 5 basis points. At the level of the consolidated group, we practically reached 15%. At a consolidated level, you can see that our operational activities are still having a very strong performance aligned with the good evolution of our company that we already mentioned in the first quarter. If we go to our net earnings, let me repeat what I was saying about the partial carve-out last year in discontinuous activities. When we approved the carve-out, although it did not take place until November last year formally, until June 2024, the contribution of these two activities, which have already abandoned us, was EUR 93 million in 2024. As you know, these activities are not making any contribution anymore. This was the most significant impact at the bottom of our income statement.
There is another thing I wanted to mention which really did not have any impact on our cash generation. First of all, the strength in the evolution of the euro current rate, which has strengthened against most currencies. This left a trace in this first half of some negative exchange rate figures. This has no impact on our cash flow, but in the first half, to give you an overview, first half of 2020, it had a slight contribution of EUR 1.5 million. Across periods, this is also a very significant element. The third element I wanted to mention is a combination of asset value adjustments of different assets that we have, particularly in the participation using the equity method and some other participations related to activities in the environmental field for an amount of EUR 89 million. These adjustments, you can see them in the income statement.
They have come in terms of other operational results and the results due to the application of the equity method. All of these effects have resulted in a net figure that went down from EUR 80.7 million to EUR 172.6 million because of the effect I mentioned. There is a significant asymmetry between the operational evolution of our company and these effects that I have tried to outline, and I hope I made it clear that they have affected us over this period. Now, having said this, let me turn to the different business areas, the four business areas making up the group in terms of environment. Here the revenues went up by 14.7% to EUR 2.3 billion. As I mentioned before, waste collection and street cleaning is one of the most significant portions. It rose organically.
It grew organically in Spain, but also in France, where we bought ESG, a company called ESG, which is a company devoted to street cleaning. There was also a growth in our operations in the U.K. and in the U.S. where we also had organic growth. In terms of processing or treatment, the growth has been higher than waste collection and street cleaning. Here there was a significant effect from the acquisition of U.K. Urbaser together with the United States, to a lower extent, where there was integration of Health Recycling in Florida. I also wanted to mention, and you can see this in greater detail when you analyze the environment, there's the activity that we call others.
Here there's been a significant growth, the most important growth in the six months period related to our greatest sales of what we call secondary raw materials, including the sale of electrical energy. This is what we recover and things we give a second life to. In terms of geographies, there's four main platforms here. We already talked about the Atlantic concepts, but I'm going to break it down here. It comprises Spain, Portugal, and France. Then we have the U.K., Central Europe, and the United States. Now within the Atlantic platform, in Spain, revenues grew by 6.7% to EUR 1.1 billion. As I was saying, the most important thing is that the advancement has been quite homogeneous across our different activities: waste collection, street cleaning, treatment, and of course others. Others refers basically to the maintenance of gardens and green areas.
The second platform is the U.K., a significant growth, 26.4%, EUR 498.6 million. Here you can feel the effect of U.K. Urbaser. There was also a significant increase in treatment activities and some byproduct. Central Europe, where we operate in six or seven countries, where we are headquartered in Austria, had a growth of 5.3%. Here you know that the main core, relatively speaking, is Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. I want to mention what we did in the Czech Republic with higher prices, and in line with what happened in the U.K., we also did quite well in terms of secondary raw material. The last platform, last but not least, is Portugal and France and the United States, EUR 215 million in revenues.
Here there's a combination, which is still very successful, of organic contribution with the growth that we have achieved in terms of oil stains growing in areas where we are already present, piggybacking on the economies we already possess, and also the participation of Health Recycling Holding. I also want to mention that we carried out the acquisition of the first energy recovery plant in the United States in the area of Florida, in the southern area of the peninsula of Florida. This is going to start contributing to our results from the second half, and competitively speaking, this is going to also bolster up our American platform now in Atlantic, although it still has limits. We have Atlantic with significant growth, Portugal and France with significant growth, particularly because of the incorporation of ESG in France.
All in all, the EBITDA grew by 18.8%, so above the revenues, EUR 355.8 million. There's of course an effect related to the acquisitions, and the operational margin grew very significantly. The most significant figure for the whole group, 15.4% as compared with 14.9% last year. In terms of operation, the operational evolution of water activities, these are basically integrated cycle activities. Revenues here grew by 9.2%, EUR 965 million more here as compared with previous quarters, where the performance of the main activity, partial or integrated cycle versus the projects that we are working on in the networks that we exploit. This difference really was not that big in this period. In terms of geographies, Spain, which is still making a significant contribution, although its relative weight is lower and lower, still contributes over 50% of the revenues of the group. Revenues increased by 11.2%, reaching EUR 500 million.
Here we had an improvement in the cubic meters consumed as well as in tariffs. The experts in this area were telling us that we had the consumptions previous to the pandemic. We have gone back to the consumption levels previous to COVID, so the performance has been very salutary, both in terms of price and volume and technology and network. This is. The concessions that we explored also grew significantly in Spain. Now, in terms of Central and Eastern Europe, particularly our platforms in the Czech Republic and Georgia, these are assets that we own, not just exploit. The revenues grew by 4.4%. Here we had an increase in tariffs. You know that these are businesses that are regulated, but in addition, we are bound by some regulatory plans.
Those tariff increases related to the targets that we have in terms of operations and service levels have been quite considerable. They allowed us to compensate for certain reduction in consumption that we experienced in the Czech Republic. In Georgia, what we had problems with was with the currency rate, given the strength of the euro. We had a depreciation of -3.8% of the local currency. In the rest of Europe, revenues increased by 3.7%, EUR 55.7 million. Here I want to mention that we had an improvement in prices both in Italy and in Portugal, in spite of the fact that the effect of a more responsible consumption, the result of the drought, is still there, which is something that was not really the case in Spain. In the case of the Americas, with the transaction that we carried out in Texas, turnover increased by 12.7%.
Similarly, we had a good performance in both Colombia and Mexico in our BOT activity and network technology. Lastly, in the platform that we have in what we call MENA, Middle East and North Africa, our performance was similar to 2024, only 0.5% growth. Perhaps this is the only region where there was a combination because there was a greater activity in Saudi Arabia and less activity in Algeria because of a readjustment of tariffs related to BOT projects and to the models we have for pricing. The EBITDA in this area grew by 6.2%, EUR 196.3 million. As I was saying, I would like to mention and underscore that there's a reasonable combination of volume and price that explains it. Our margin remained at 22.7%.
That slight fall with respect to last year is due to the fact that last year we reached 23.3% because technology networks had a greater contribution. As you know, the margin in technology networks is lower this year. In the first half, the figure was 10% contribution. In the same period of last year, the figure was 7%. All the figures are included in the document. Now, in terms of construction, the construction activity, there's nothing really new under the sun, but I will break it down for you here. Revenues had a slight reduction to EUR 1.3 billion. There was a lower contribution of industrial projects, as you know here, there's a significant weight of industrial projects of all kinds, but particularly those linked to renewable energy plants. We're still securing new contracts, but this is the element that really explains the reduction in sales that we experienced.
In Spain specifically, the turnover went down by 5%, EUR 166 million. This is because two projects were completed. Both were in the south of the country. In other geographies in Europe, the growth was positive, the evolution was positive, 11.7%. We completed a significant motorway, which is very important for concession, a motorway in Wales, and also Motorway 9 in the Netherlands progressed very, very satisfactorily. There was another project in Romania. In the Americas in general, we grew by 5.1%. In the next few quarters we will see more about this, because our railway projects have really started off, particularly in Canada and Pennsylvania, in the United States. I want to mention the beginning of phase one of a large contract in the United States, a Scarborough contract which represented at the start more than EUR 1.8 billion. This contract will be developed in collaboration with the customer.
I just wanted to specify it. Another important area that we have is MENA. There was a significant reduction of 55%, EUR 68.4 million. This was due to the fact that the project, we already completed the Riyadh Metro lines and so this didn't make any contributions this year. We also had an early cancellation because the customer decided it, of the NIO project. This was a project the customer decided to put on hold. The evolution was positive and we are going to be on standby to see what the customer finally decides. That hasn't really created any problems for us. The contribution is too small. The beginning of the new contracts last year, particularly those in Australia, particularly the social housing project in Queensland, give us reason for help. All in all, in construction our operational margin went down to 5.6%. There was a slight reduction.
EBITDA reached EUR 75.8 million, 7.6%. Although, you know, within the evolution, the normal evolution of the division, both revenues and EBITDA progressed in a very predictable way. Now let me turn to concessions. The concessions area grew by 45.1% , reaching EUR 50.5 million. Here I would like to mention, apart from the underlying evolution of traffic, I want to mention the road project in Aragon, which contributed EUR 12.5 million in revenues out of a total of over EUR 50 million. To a lesser extent there's the revenues from the Parla Tramway. We acquired 100% of this concession in April last year. This is a very positive thing, although the contribution is lower than that of itinerary 8 in Aragon. You know that most concessions that we have are concentrated in Spain and where we invoice about EUR 48 million.
I just want to say that we had a fall in the contribution from other markets, basically Mexico and other areas, because in 2024 there was the exit of a small concession also that we had in Portugal. Now its contribution, if you look at the revenues in concessions, you will see that this is full, which is explained by this, because in Mexico we had a significant increase last year or last year we had an increase of 30%. The EBITDA in this concessions area rose to EUR 29 million. It's 26.8% more. The operating margin went down to 58% this year because itinerary 8 of the Aragon concession, while it is being developed well, the revenues are accounted for in the top line and the margin is lower. The mean concessions margin has gone down in the period.
This is an effect that you know very well, and it's only got a temporary effect. Before I conclude, I just want to mention something about the evolution of our operational performance in terms of cash flow and the balance of our cash position. The different blocks of the cash flow, starting with operations, was EUR 329.5 million year receipt. It went down by EUR 61 million with respect to the previous year. This was due, and we will see this in a minute, to the partial carve-outs in the bottom part of the income statement. If we look at the most recurrent part, which is the working capital, the outlay was less than EUR 300 million. Most of this money was concentrated in construction and to a lesser extent in environmental activities, in line with our goals.
In terms of payments and taxes, we had an outflow of EUR 26 million, slightly lower than what we had last year because there was a regularization in the first quarter of this year of the company tax, which was paid in 2023. As I was saying, in terms of our cash flow, I want to point your attention to the fact that this year we had an outlay of less than EUR 20 million, linked to the variations of provisions. Last year we had EUR 144.9 million more, which included the activities that were going to be carved out, cement and real estate. For that reason, we were obliged to reflect a different differential evolution. I would like to mention this to you so that you can analyze it properly. In terms of the investment cash flow, we had an application of EUR 319 million, lower than the EUR 750 million last year.
Last year we had a delta because this year we made fewer acquisitions. Last year we acquired Health Recycling, ESG, U.K. Urbaser in the environmental area. The investment effort is still going strong. Two thirds are recurrent investments and one third is still linked to the different activities related to development, which are still not contributing to our EBITDA. They will do in due course. Our investment efforts are still going very strong. Now, financing cash flow. We had an outlay of EUR 31 million, but there was EUR 50.6 million contributions. I just want to mention that there was a refinancing that was closed in June last year for water, for half of their financial debt. We captured hybrid debt because we resorted to the banking market to maximally optimize the financing cost. We refinanced a total of EUR 1.1 billion, which were to mature in July 2026.
We captured some money not just to refinance early, but to increase our average cost, also increasing our cash position in that business area. All in all, our cash flow had a slight variation. If we take into account what we did in terms of financing, we had a slight increase in our financial debt. In the gross financial debt of the group, EUR 5.2 billion after the deal with Aqualia. Two thirds were capital markets, one third is banking debt. Most of the debt is long term. As you can imagine, this was all very solid. The net financial debt, after the adjustments, was below EUR 3.2 billion. Essentially, I would like to mention, and we've said it, I would like to mention the operational flows and the effect of the temporary evolution of the expansion of current capital and the financial debt.
As you may have seen in the breakdown, it's 100% concentrated in our two activities, water and environment, and the headquarters with its perimeter activities. The net cash flow, EUR 915 million. That's about all I wanted to share with you. As you can see, the results still show a very strong evolution of the company. We grew double digits in terms of revenues and EBITDA, and the operational profitability still performed strongly. This second quarter was a little bit slacker in terms of that inorganic. The first quarter was a little bit slacker in terms of inorganic activities, but things have picked up in the second quarter. The group has really progressed in a very healthy manner. That's all I wanted to share with you. Thank you very much for your attention. Now we can turn to the questions and answers.
Total investments of the group were EUR 364 million in the first half of 2025. Can we expect a similar level in the second half? Thank you, Felipe, for the question. At level of maintenance investments and growth investments, basically current assets, especially environment, I would say yes. What you need to consider is the investments that we have already dispersed in July of our energy recovery plant in the south of Florida. What I would say is that you should estimate that all of those investments should be of a similar amount of last year's investments, close to EUR 900 million for the whole financial year. Next question. The operational margin of water grew by 0.5% in the first quarter and 0.8% in the second quarter. Should we anticipate a continuity of this trend with lower margins also in the second half of 2025? Not necessarily.
Just remember that here in water, as you can see, in the first half, 10% was contributed by technology networks, which is basically projects that we carry out that are hired by our customer, the public company, to, you know, improvements or repairs or emergency work. You should remember that we need to manage network diligently. Unless we are the owners, as we are in the Czech Republic, we're not really responsible of the final condition of the network. Having said this, we have a forecast for the whole of the year. It is true that technology and networks, if, for example, we are required to carry out a certain project and we have to carry them out instantly, things are difficult to foresee.
What I would say is that if we look at things, if you look at the breakdown, I would answer that in the integrated water cycle there could be a slight increase, while in technology and networks things will remain stable. If we combine the two, I would say that perhaps we should expect a similar margin in the second half of the year, although it is true, and now I'm going back in time, that things will improve as compared with the first quarter. In the second quarter we have higher consumption volumes because of the summer, our business is in the north and hemisphere south does the greater water consumption. If you compare it with the second quarter, and let me rectify what I said, margins will go up. If we compare things with the same period of last year, they will stay very similar. Next question.
Could you clarify why you made provisions for possible legal obligations in the U.K. related with environment? What kind of legal obligations are you referring to here? As I was saying at the beginning, we did two things. First of all, an adjustment in the value of the assets of a treatment plant that is under development in the U.K. because we wanted to be prudent and that's why we made this adjustment. This is a plant which will be in operation for many, many decades. Here we have used the equity methods for around EUR 30 million.
The rest of the provisions, although there's different kinds of provisions, it is true that our operating results include a significant amount in this year, which is basically linked to provisions for an investigation that is underway with respect to our treatment activities under environment, the way we process some of the waste that we deal with. Since this is an operation that is underway, we don't really want to give too many details. As I was saying before, we have applied a prudent criterion. Over this period this has no impact on our cash flow and we will see how things go before we make a decision as to how the process is closed. Next question. The working capital, was it aligned to the budget? Yes, Victor, we were in line with the budget. We will see how things go in the rest of the year.
I don't think there's going to be too many surprises. There's no further questions. Okay. If that's not for the questions, I hope you have the time to make a detailed perusal of our income statement. Thank you again. If you haven't gone on holiday yet, we wish you a very happy holiday. Have a very good day. Thank you.