Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tomas Ruiz, and I am the Managing Director of OHLA. In the room with me are Mr. José María Sagardoy, CFO, and Mr. Pedro Arellano, Head of Investor Relations. Before going through the operational results of this quarter by division in detail, I would like to share some key points regarding the group's performance during this past semester. Let me advance to you that the operational results are in line with the forecast to reach the final year objectives we have set. At the operational level, OHLA total sales amounted to EUR 1.7 billion, 21.8% higher than in the same period of the previous year. EBITDA stands at EUR 57.5 million, 13.2% above the figure of the same period of the previous year, with margins in the construction and industrial divisions of 4.2% and 4.3%, respectively.
This set of results demonstrates the good performance of the business and serves as a basis to continue working on the consolidation process of the company. These figures allow me to confirm that the company is in line with the business plan and the objectives shared with the market for the financial year 2024. EBITDA amounted to EUR 19.3 million, that is, +37.9%, driven by the group's main activity, the construction division. Apart from the good performance at the operational level, sales, EBITDA, and EBIT, especially important is the order intake achieved in the period, which has a direct link with the group's future production as they are converted into sales. In the first semester of the year, the order intake amounted to EUR 2.5 billion, a +62.4% higher than the order intake for the same period in 2023, which amounted to EUR 1.5 billion.
All the new contracts have been awarded on the three main regions in where we operate. With respect to the cash consumption for this period, the total activity cash consumption of the period is EUR 128.7 million. This means that the company has generated EUR 40.5 million during the second quarter of the year 2024, offsetting partially the first quarter cash consumption. This generation will help the company to deliver our target of being at a generation point before investment and divestment by the end of this year. It should also be highlighted that reducing the indebtedness deleveraging the company is still a high priority for OHLA. For this reason, during the period, we have carried out a mandatory redemption of the outstanding notes with the funds collected from the deferred payment from Old War Office Office.
As announced to the market, OHLA has reached an agreement in order to sell its stake in CHUM, the Montreal Hospital, which is expected to be concluded during the last quarter of the year. In addition, OHLA continues to work towards the sale of its non-core assets. Let's now go through the main operational results of the first half of the year in more detail, providing more explanations on the performance of the different divisions of the group. I will start with our core business, construction. Sales of the construction division total EUR 1.5 billion, 16.5% higher than in June 2023. Sales in the construction division represent 88.6% out of the total sales of the group, out of which less than 21% are made in Spain, with almost 40% being in the U.S.
Construction EBITDA reached EUR 64.5 million, a 5% more than the one obtained in the same period in 2023, which represents a margin of a 4.2% over sales. Construction order book totaled EUR 7 billion as of June 2024, higher than the value in December 2023 and representing 26.7 months of sales. Out of the total construction order book, roughly 42% of it corresponds to North America, 38% to Europe, and the remaining 20% to Latin America. Related to the industrial division, this one has registered sales of EUR 176.2 million, a 94.9% higher than in June 2023. This demonstrates the positive effects of the reorganization of the industrial division to focus on renewable energy projects that support this division's return to profitability. Altogether, the EBITDA figure in the industrial division totaled EUR 7.5 million, more than doubling the figure for the same period of the previous year.
In the industrial division, the EBITDA margin was 0.43%, which again further expands the division back to its values. Before starting the Q&A session, I would like to highlight a few key points. First, the performance at the operational level confirms that the ordinary activity runs according to the guidance provided to the market. As we just released today, there has been an improvement in margins at the operating level in the construction and industrial divisions. For OHLA, this is our main priority, and the improvement of margins at the operating levels is the key to boost the group's profitability. Second, at the same time, it should be noted that OHLA has generated EUR 40.5 million during the second quarter of the year 2024, resulting in a year-to-date cash consumption of EUR 128.5 million. Third, the deleveraging of the company continues to be a priority for the group.
During the second quarter of 2024, OHLA has carried out a mandatory redemption of the outstanding notes with the proceeds collected from the deferred payment of our office. Additionally, OHLA has announced to the market that it has reached an agreement to sell its stake in CHUM, the Montreal Hospital. The company is expected to receive a total of EUR 54.9 million from this transaction. These proceeds will be used to further reduce leverage. On June 26, 2024, the company has announced a capital increase of around EUR 100 million in order to strengthen the balance sheet. OHLA continues working towards the rotation of the service division. The main target of the company is to strengthen the balance sheet, and this is where we stand today with a clear focus on the leverage reduction. Thank you all for your attention. We can now start the Q&A session.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session starts now. If you wish to ask a question, please press Star 5 on your telephone keypad or send your questions through the webcast platform. Questions received by phone will be answered first. Thank you. Now we have the first question coming from Ethan Garber.
Hi, this is Ethan from Imperial. I had one question I had already submitted. I'll just ask that now as well. You had mentioned in your comments that you started a mandatory redemption of notes. Is that related to asset sales, and are you referring to the 9.75% notes that are partly due in March of 2025?
Yes, that is correct. We are referring to the rotation of assets. Particularly in this case, it's a deferred payment of the Old War Office. We also announced in June 2025 the closing of a deal to sell the Montreal Hospital that will be executed by the last quarter of the year.
This is Pedro Arellano from the IR Department. It's only to resume what Tomas just said. Yes, the mandatory payment was carried out during the first half of the year, taking into account the OHLA's outstanding last redemption. The last one is a small reduction of, I think, if I'm correct, EUR 7 million split in the old notes that we had at that point. And the second one is the transaction that we have already announced to the market related to CHUM, which is expected some figure around EUR 50-something million that we just explained, and you have the readout in the Spanish regulator. So basically, it's that. Okay?
Sure. Thank you. Are you saying that the €54.9 million proceeds from CHUM will 100% be used against the 9.75% notes, or just some proportion of that?
No. According to the terms and conditions of the notes and the integrated agreement that has reached with the noteholders and the banks, it's the waterfall; it's the designated assets proceeds, in which 80% of that will go automatically to reduce outstanding notes. And this is the intention of the company today. If something has changed, we will announce it. But for the moment, we have to stick to the documentation that it's already in place.
Great. Can I ask one other question that was already in the submission?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sure.
Is the one that you asked regarding the New York City contract?
That's correct. Yep.
Yes. We received your question via email. I have to tell you that I have to check it. I have no information regarding any problem in New York City. I will check it, but believe me, today, the feedback that I have and I have here seated with Tomas and José María is that there is no problem with any contract in New York City that is a red flag or something like that. But I will check it for you, and I will contact you in the next coming days. Okay?
Great. Thank you very much.
Right. So there seem to be no more questions by audio in the call. So we are now open for your questions via webcast platform.
Okay. Give us some seconds because we have received some questions via the webcast platform. Give us some time, please. Hold on.
Ladies and gentlemen, please hold on the line just for a few minutes. Thank you. In a few minutes, your questions asked via webcast platform will be answered. Please stay on the line.
Hi. I've checked the 20 questions that we have received. Please, if you had any other questions, we will try to answer them live. So basically, the first question that we received some of them is related to the capital increase. When is the company expected to announce the price of the rights? When is expected to accomplish the capital increase? And basically, I'm checking now, but this is the résumé of the different questions. Okay. Here, what I would say is that we're still in negotiations to close and formalize the major amount of underwriting of the capital increase that we can achieve. That's why we are still talking to the potential investors that have shown interest in such underwriting. So we believe that this should be closed and executed at the latest by the end of the year.
We are still analyzing with our advisors not only the proceeds, but also the price at which the new shares will be issued. All of these will be notified to the shareholders and stakeholders in the call for the extraordinary general meeting.
Yes. Related to this, we have received another question related to that. If the company will make any ROTSO, any Investors Day, any capital market day, something, I don't know the adjective, but regarding these kind of topics.
Yeah. I mean, the answer is yes. We are planning that once they find the transaction and its structure, we'll be getting in touch with the market through some sort of Investors Day or ROTSO. That's for sure.
José María, we have received some questions related to the guidance of this year, if we stick or we maintain the guidance of this year, and also related to the losses that we just released on the CNMV. I have to tell you that in case something is pending or any detail, I will be available to answer the questions. But José María, I don't know if you want to.
So in relation to the losses, I would say that those losses shouldn't be a surprise because if you remember, the first quarter results of the company showed losses bottom line. Apart from those losses accumulated as of 31st of March, it's true that in the second quarter, what we have had is a negative effect of the exchange rate against the Colombian peso, plus the impact of EUR 8 million of the agreement signed with IFM. So those two things have increased a little bit the losses accumulated by the first quarter. That in relation to the results of the first quarter. In relation to the guidance, I mean, we still maintain the guidance we provided to the market when we did the presentation in the month of February.
Because, as you have seen in the numbers, the performance of the company in terms of sales, EBITDA, backlog, are in line with internal budgets of the company and, of course, in relation to this guidance.
So the short answer is yes, we stick to the comments that we maintain the guidance. We have received some other questions related to cash generation regarding the guidance, delays in the capital increase announcement. Just cover that. There is another question related to the delays or yes, the question is delays regarding the investment plan. If we see there any red flag, anything that we want to raise today.
Well, I would say basically that the rotation of assets, of non-strategic assets, is still a priority to deleverage the company. The only reason why the sale of the services division was postponed last year is because we were in negotiation directly with one potential buyer who at the end did not make a reasonable offer in our view. So we decided not to sell it at the price that was offered and open for a competitive procedure, which is now going on. So we have, in principle, the intention to continue with the process, and the selling of the services division should take place next year.
I think the ones related to potential asset sales of Canalejas, Services and these, we already have covered them. I'm checking right now the different questions. We have received plenty of them. I don't know if I'm missing some of them or any of them. If something is pending, I will cover. Oh, here I see one of them. We have received one from some of the noteholders saying that it's expected that the company will contact advisors to start conversations to attend the maturity of the debt. Basically, is that the question?
Well, that I would answer in two parts. First, I would say that as part of our day-to-day business, the company engaged numerous advisors. However, for confidentiality reasons, we are not permitted to disclose the name of them. The second part of my answer would be that, as we have announced, we are carrying out a capital increase to strengthen the company's equity. That's our main goal. However, in the ordinary course of business, we are continually analyzing alternatives to maximize the company's value. And so the possibility of contacting the bondholders is still on the table.
Let's see. I mean.
I do not see any new questions. I think we have covered all of them. Again, I have to repeat that in case something is pending, you want any other detail or something, the investor relations team will be available for you and attend the questions. If you take some holidays, enjoy them this August summer. Firstly, thank you so much for your attention today. I'm trying to nudge this call, but there are no other questions that we are receiving. Thank you so much all. Have a nice holiday in case you take it. We will be available from the company to attend your next details, questions, or whatever is needed. Have a nice day. Bye. Thank you very much.
Thank you.