Good morning. I'm Manuel Manrique, Chairman and CEO of Sacyr. Joining me today at this presentation, as usual, is Carlos Mijangos, the company's CFO. Thank you all, dear analysts, media representatives, and investors, for attending this presentation of Financial Results of Sacyr for Q3 2024. Before starting this presentation, I would like to extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who passed away due to the deadly flash floods that hit Valencia and Castilla-La Mancha, as well as a small town in Málaga. I would also like to express our solidarity with those who have been hit by the disaster. Sacyr, like other companies, is collaborating with authorities in the reconstruction work that we hope will start shortly.
Sacyr's results up until September show the purely concession-oriented profile of the group that has been enhanced quarter after quarter, in line with the targets of our strategic plan for 2024-2027. The results that we are presenting today, in our opinion, are really very good, and for that reason, we are highly keen on letting you assess and understand the parameters that are so important and that need to be considered when talking about a concession company like ours, so that you can also agree with us in this positive assessment. Over the past 12 months, we have reported a 65% growth in terms of operating cash flow, reaching EUR 805 million against EUR 487 million one year ago. This significant increase is mainly due to the significant commissioning of new concession projects over the period.
Another significant piece of data is that the conversion factor, that is to say, the operating cash flow EBITDA ratio, accounts for 85%, which entails a significant increase of 50% compared to the prior year. This shows the financial robustness of our businesses. I would also like to underscore that there's no other company like ours in Spain, and most probably in the world, there are not so many that is a company with our asset typology profile. For that reason, it's very important for us that you can understand the key financials of these activities. Over 90% of our EBITDA comes from demand risk-free concessions, or else from concessions that have demand risk mitigation mechanisms that are classified as financial assets for accounting purposes.
Therefore, EBITDA, when commissioning projects come down every year, whereas cash flows grow every year, this concession-oriented company has a clear-cut driving engine when it comes to the distribution of dividends from our 70 assets, which will exceed EUR 16 billion during the concession terms. That is to say, six times more than our current market capitalization. And here we are not taking into account EUR 505 million that will come from three awards after our investors' day. We will be able to reach close to EUR 17 billion in aggregate. As you know, Sacyr is a big process development platform for concession projects. In 2024, we were awarded four new concessions, and the dividend of these concessions will add up to future growth. These projects include the Turin Health Park with more than 1,000 beds, EUR 517 million in investment, and for a term of 25 years.
Also, the Anillo Vial Periférico project, running along 34.8km with an investment of EUR 3.131 billion and for a contract term of 30 years. Also, the Northern Chile Airport Network that accounts for EUR 260 million in investment and for a 26-year term. And then the Itata Road in Chile, running along 96.1km with an investment of EUR 516 million and for a contractual term of 18 years. With all these four projects, we have been able to deliver on the target under our strategic plan, whereby we are going to be awarded at least three or four concessions every year. As a matter of fact, the success coming from new concessions has increased our backlog, reaching a record high, totaling EUR 10 billion, 67% corresponds to concession projects of EUR 2.25 billion of new awards over the period, 74% corresponds to these kinds of projects.
That's where we are heading up to, according to our strategic plan and as we announced during our investors' day. As a result, we will be able to deliver on the targets that we set ourselves at the time. The concession backlog over the past year went up by 66% from EUR 4 billion and something reported last year, all the way up to EUR 6.73 billion. We made a strategic decision to promote the water division, and it's also rendering some fruit. We have been awarded the extension projects concerning desalination plants in Spain in 2024. We are also working effortlessly in order to increase our business in Australia, Chile, and Saudi Arabia, among other countries. Our integrated platform shows that we are also the company with the greatest number of concession infrastructures being commissioned.
In 2024, and with some operating cash flows already, we commissioned the Central Railway of Uruguay and the Pamplona-Cúcuta highway in Colombia into operation. I would like to send a warm hug to Francisco Javier García, the General Manager of the Pamplona-Cúcuta project during the construction and commissioning of this project, who worked so dearly with us and who unfortunately passed away a few days ago after a very sad illness. Over the past months, we also completed the financial closure of the construction contract and the concession of the I-10 highway in the United States. We're talking about the issuance of bonds consisting of four tranches amounting to $1.333 billion that, together with equity that will be contributed by the consortium and other state funds, will make it possible to invest $3.3 billion all in all.
This bond issuance has been given a rating of triple B by Moody's. In order to expedite this growth even further, as part of our ordinary activity, we are making steady progress in the setup of Voreantis, the company that will bring together most of our operational concessions and that will have a minority shareholder or partner stepping in. We are already working with financial, legal, and tax advisors to prepare all the necessary documentation to go public in the Q1 of 2025, thus following our roadmap and after having observed great interest expressed by potential investors. As for our sales processes in Chile and Colombia, they remain in force, and we are assessing different alternatives since the macroeconomic situation in the region has improved due to the fall in interest rates and therefore of discount rates. The latest AGM held in June to scrip dividends were resolved.
The first one was carried out in September, realizing one new share for every 40 old shares, which accounts for EUR 0.79 per share, and that, in addition to the realization carried out in January, in which case one share was realized for every 50 old shares, that is to say EUR 0.62 per share. As a result, these two scrip have given a profit close to 5% for shareholders. That is 72% higher than the dividend paid out back in 2020. We fully trust in the Sacyr project, and as a result, we have been carrying out different share-related transactions concerning the company in order to show such trust, and we will continue doing so since the current share price does not actually reflect the true value of the company. As you very well know, in May, we carried out a capital increase.
Therefore, we now have the necessary funds in order to deploy our strategic growth plan until 2027. As for the valuation of our concessions that today total EUR 3.551 billion, we'll continue to grow thanks to an extraordinary cash flow generation capacity and also due to the award of new projects, such as the four that we have already been awarded to date. With regard to sustainability, we should highlight the rating that we have been granted by Standard & Poor's. We have been ranked as the fourth most sustainable company in our sector in the world. On the slide, you can see the key financials for this period, some of which I have already explained. Revenue remains stable since we continue to apply the highest prudence to construction projects focusing on concessions in order to keep risks low.
The return is in line with our strategic plan guidance, and therefore operating margins also remain high, reaching over 29%. Therefore, and in line with our strategic plan, these key financials show a record period in terms of operating cash flow, as well as in terms of EBITDA cash flow conversion ratio as a growth factor and as a value creation factor. Now, Carlos Mijangos will provide you with more data about success results and each of our business lines.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We are now going to analyze the company's financial evolution. This is net debt over the past nine months of the year. Net debt has gone up by EUR 191 million, EUR 170 million corresponds to the financing of projects, and EUR 19 million corresponds to recourse net debt.
If we now take into account the different line items concerning this debt, debt has been positively affected by operating cash flow. In this case, I would like to highlight that the working capital occurs in our concession projects because we have more inflows than what we are accounting for as income in our accounting records. Here, we are adjusting projects during the construction process, and therefore all this contributes to EUR 805 million, as you can see. Then we have financial results that you can see here, EUR 147 million. There has been a reduction compared to 2023 due to two reasons. Corporate debt has come down slightly over the past year, and also, as for project finance, since we have several operational assets, we are now beginning to fulfill annual amortizations arising from each particular project. Net investment amounts to EUR 537 million.
We are going to close the year close to EUR 900 million, as it has been the case over the past six or seven years. You can see EUR 220 million in capital investment. And then the exchange rate effects. In this case, we should talk about treasury shares and dividends coming from our concession companies and some minority shareholders. This is the evolution of net debt with recourse that stands at EUR 19 million over the period. We had EUR 31 million coming from concessions. In this case, I would like to highlight that there have been some working capital inflows amounting to EUR 4 million. As you know, this is a highly seasonal sector, and over the past quarter, this data will improve slightly, as well as concession distributions.
Q3 is normally a period when no distributions take place, and usually there is an increase in this regard in December, where we expect to receive most of the dividends. Finance costs amounted to EUR 15 million. We net investment amounting to EUR 27 million. We paid EUR 5 million in terms of scrip dividend to the shareholders that requested so, and then there have been some small adjustments of EUR 3 million, and thus we reached EUR 215 million in recourse debt.
Let us now analyze each business area or each line of business. Let us start with concessions. Revenue went up by 5%, as you can see. We should draw a distinction between operating income from concessions that went up by 10% due mainly to the commissioning of the Ruta del Este commissioning in Paraguay, as well as the other projects such as the airport projects in El Loa, Chile.
There are other financial results that have contributed to our P&L accounts, such as the Velindre project in the UK and also the projects in Colombia. As for construction, the opposite occurs because we have completed most of the relevant projects, with the Pamplona-Cúcuta project being one of the highlights. In this case, you can see the progress made in construction, such as the Velindre hospital or the I-10 project. EBITDA margin remains stable at 64%.
I would like to highlight that we have reported EUR 1.627 million in totally invested equity, 80% corresponds to equity that is already operational. That's why we have these cash flows, and that's why our risk profile is decreasing. We have invested EUR 125 million so far. The Hospital de Velindre, this is a project that was awarded this year, and then the I-10 highway, that's another project that was awarded to the company in August.
In terms of EBITDA, in the concessions line of business, this is accounted for in the engineering and infrastructure division. But you can see that the five most important countries that contribute to the company's EBITDA are Italy to begin with, Colombia with EUR 215, Chile with EUR 144 million, Italy with EUR 204 million, and Uruguay with EUR 81 million. That accounts for more than 80% of the EBITDA that relates to this line of business. Regarding the engineering infrastructure line of business, revenue went down by 1% in line with our approach to reducing risk, and EBITDA went down by 11% due to the same reasons. But in this case, we should nuance this fact. There has been an increase of our backlog, reaching almost EUR 10 billion, 74% of the backlog corresponds to concessions. This backlog already accounts for a significant amount of activity.
Taking into account our engineering infrastructure activity, revenue reached almost EUR 1.9 billion, with a significant margin of 4.8%. The Pedemontana project is a financial asset that will record less EBITDA and revenue compared to 2023. As for the Pedemontana project, this is something that was commented on in Italy last week. We are now talking to officials in order to obtain the financial balance for this contract because we are coming close to the first year of operation. This kind of process is normally carried out when dealing with virtually all projects, and this is the very essence of our concession-related projects, so the better the conditions are granted to us, the better the profit that we will be able to carve out from the project. We also completed the Belfast project.
This is a transportation exchange hub accommodating 20 million travelers, and we have also completed another project in Huesca. Now, with regard to the key awards, let us start with Europe. We have the Velindre project in Wales, also the maintenance of another project concerning the railway in Ireland, and also the A23 highway in Spain, different real estate development projects amounting to EUR 240 million, and also the extension of the Bilbao port accounting for EUR 39 million. Let us turn over to the Americas here. We have the I-10 highway amounting to EUR 968 million, then the Anillo Vial Periférico in Peru. This project totals EUR 822 million. Other projects have not been fully factored in, but this is going to happen shortly for accounting purposes. Let us now analyze the water division performance.
Revenue and EBITDA went up by 5%, with an increase in terms of EBITDA margin as well. We were awarded several projects over the period, such as the Torrevieja desalination plant, which is the largest in Europe, the Carboneras project in Alicante. Also, another Torrevieja desalination plant. In order to increase the capacity to 80m³ , we have also been granted a drinking water plant, and we have other similar projects in Australia and Chile. We have also signed a strategic alliance in order to foster active management to reach a positive water footprint. In brief, we keep on making steady progress in delivering on our 2024-2027 strategic plan. There are some key messages that I would like to convey. We were able to increase our operating cash flow by 65% with an EBITDA and cash conversion ratio reaching 85%.
We have a big project backlog that we are working on in different geographies where we operate. Over 67% of the construction backlog corresponds to sector concessions, and as for Voreantis, we continue to make steady progress according to our guidance. I now give the floor to the Chairman.
Thank you very much, Carlos. We shall now be at your disposal in order to answer any questions that the analysts may have.
Good morning, everybody. As usual, we are going to start with the Q&A session. We are going to start with the questions coming through the conference call, and next we shall read the questions coming through the webcast. The first question is by Luis Prieto from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please, Luis, go ahead.
Good morning, everybody, and thank you very much for your time. I have two questions. The first question is concerned with the current share price that might lead to a share buyback. Could you please give us some color on the scope of such potential buyback? Are we talking about direct purchases or forward contracts? And then the working capital that you showed for Q3 that is positive. Could you please let us know how you think it's going to evolve in Q4 and also going forward in 2025?
Thank you, Luis. Please, we're going to use a few minutes in order to answer the question. La primera pregunta. As for the first question concerning the buyback program, it's going to be along the same lines as in the past in terms of type and amounts, and it's going to take place in the short term. As for the second question, Luis, well, this activity is highly seasonal, and therefore Q4 tends to be the best in terms of performance. We recovered a significant amount of working capital. Last year, for example, in January, we received several collections, but we believe that by December there will be significant improvements in terms of working capital, and that would certainly have a positive impact on our accounts.
This next question is by João Safara from Santander Bank. Please go ahead, João.
Thank you very much. I have three questions. The first question is a follow-up on Luis's question. I understand that it's difficult to provide any working capital estimates at this point. For clarification purposes, from a dividend perspective, referred to dividends coming from concessions, I believe that that remains unchanged. The net recourse debt will mainly depend on what you can recover in terms of working capital. So that is just a follow-up on Luis's question. I have two additional questions. What about EBITDA performance or evolution in your business lines in the coming quarters? In Q3, there has been a drop in 4% in concessions. These are financial assets. Perhaps they are not pure financial assets such as Pedemontana, but all the same, I would like to ask what we should expect.
There has been a quarter-on-quarter drop. I would like to know whether that should be stabilized or whether you expect it to be stabilized in the coming quarters. And in connection with this question, I would also like to ask whether EBITDA will remain stable or how you expect this 85% expectation to go up, reaching 100% all in all. This question is concerned with the EBITDA to cash conversion ratio that you expect. And then I have one last question about Voreantis. We have in the news that Spain, Italy, Chile, and Colombia might be included within the scope of Voreantis. The chairman has just said that Colombia and Chile, as a result of the said process, might be included. Do you know exactly, as of today, which Voreantis' scope will be?
Thank you, João. We will come back to you in a minute. Sí. Well, regarding your first question or thought, expected dividend for this year will be in line with our forecast. There will total EUR 225 million, approximately, in concessions. As for EBITDA evolution, during my presentation, I have tried to explain this, but I see that there is still some doubt. We showed a presentation during the Investors' Day showing that when EBITDA will be growing with financial assets until commissioning, then going down to zero. Maybe you have heard that 80% of our concessions have already been commissioned. Therefore, EBITDA is coming down as a result.
So much so that we can have EUR 150 million of cash flows and EBITDA zero as a result of a given concession. This is very important to understand the results of this company. We will devote as much time as necessary in order to explain this. Otherwise, it's confusing. So you can have EUR 100 or EUR 200 in cash flow and EBITDA zero, but after the commission of projects, this number comes down. If we have 80% and already under commission, EBITDA will go down. That's logical. As for the scope of Voreantis in Chile, there are many things in the pipeline, many more concessions in the pipeline, but we have not yet fully defined the scope of Voreantis.
As soon as we have a clear picture about this, we will let you know, but this is work in progress. As for the EBITDA to cash conversion ratio, yes, of course, it can be above 100 for the same reason I explained before, and that is key. It's very important for everybody to understand this clearly. Otherwise, we are not going in the right direction.
The next question is by Fernando Lafuente from Alantra. Please go ahead, Fernando.
Good morning. I have two questions. The first question, three questions rather. The first question is about construction. If we do not include the Italian asset or Pedemontana, we can see that you reported some strong results, but the margin has come down slightly. So what do you expect by year-end in terms of margins in the construction line of business, and how do you think it's going to evolve in the coming years? You have announced a drop in this activity in order to reinforce your focus on concession. I would like to know whether this is going to be your baseline scenario going forward.
Next, I have a question about working capital because this question is for Carlos. Over the past year, there has been a worse evolution compared to the earlier results. I believe that this is due to a slowdown in the construction activity. When do you think this effect will come to an end and therefore reach a stable working capital figure? The following question is about Voreantis. Let me clarify this. The fact that right now you are planning to sell the business in Colombia, or if you include Colombia in the Voreantis scope, does not mean actually that you're not going to sell your minority stake in this operating asset in Colombia. You could all the same include Colombia in the Voreantis scope. I'm asking this just to make sure that this is what you're planning to do.
Okay, thank you very much, Fernando. We will answer shortly. Okay, Fernando. As for the contribution of the construction line of business to the quarter's results, we should take into account that we have included the maintenance activity. I'm talking about road maintenance activity, accounting for EUR 60 million in revenue and EUR 3 million in EBITDA, with a 4.8% margin.
Therefore, this is not actually too significant to date. Over the past quarter, there has been an improvement in construction. Therefore, margin will reach nearly 5% or perhaps will exceed that amount. Now, regarding the stability of revenue margins going forward, we mentioned this. We want to reach EUR 2.2 billion or EUR110 million in EBITDA in the construction line of business. Now, 70% is our target, and this is concerned with concessions. As for our forecast or our guideline for concessions, it is 5% and EUR 2.2 billion in activity and 5% in terms of margins. Now, with regard to working capital, this year has been quite a peculiar year because last year and the first half of this year, there has been a drop in the construction activity, but now it has actually stabilized fully.
We believe that we're going to recover a significant portion by the end of the year. We're talking about an estimate of EUR 34 to 50 million by the closing of this year, so this will lead to a significant recovery in Q4 2024. As for the question concerning Voreantis, actually, what you are stating makes sense. We believe that there will be a controlling stake in Voreantis.
Okay, we have some questions coming through the webcast. The first question is Julius Nickelsen from Bank of America. He's asking whether we can give any color on the equity that we said that we're going to invest, that is to say EUR 300 million in future growth. How much to date, based on the projects that have been awarded, has already been committed? Second, when do we expect to give an update on valuation, taking into account discount rates or the fall in interest rates? How frequently are we going to do this going forward?
And the third question, I believe that this has already been addressed partially, is the following: What about the net recourse debt by year-end, taking into account the distribution of dividends coming from concessions and the recovery of working capital? Julius, we will get back to you in a minute. Thank you.
Te contesto. Okay, let me answer. Julius. Okay, out of foreign concessions, total contribution to equity accounts for EUR 350 million. Therefore, after the Investors' Days, we are talking about EUR 200 million from all three projects. We are to reach another EUR 150 million. Thus, we have been able to cover our equity commitments with the award of the new projects, according to our strategic plan.
But these outflows will take place over the next three, four, or five years, depending on the formalization of the different contracts. As for the Anillo Vial project, the first payment has been made. Then we have to see when the other contributions will be coming in. This will depend, therefore, on the evolution of the investment. As for the second question, we carry out valuations at least once a year. It is true that we are experiencing a fall in interest rates, but all the same, this should continue to be enhanced during 2025. We are going to wait and see when it's the best timing to update the value of our portfolio, but we will do so once a year at least. As for the net recourse debt, it's difficult to provide any accurate data in this respect.
Whether we're talking about EUR 30 or 50 million, we're talking about a difference of EUR 10 million. But it is true that we are going to deliver all the ratios that we announced in our strategic plan, where the net recourse debt and the recourse EBITDA and distributions will be below one. So the company's debt ratio should be kept under control to 100%.
Thank you very much, Carlos. Alberto Navarro from Bestinver has three questions. The first question is concerned with the Pedemontana project. He's asking about how the project will be financially rebalanced. This perhaps could be done with a front payment or with increased revenue over the life of the concession. In the case of this taking place over several financial years, could this have a negative impact on your estimated cash flows? And next, the question is about traffic.
Latin American figures show that there has been a drop in traffic in the early months of the year. However, this is sometimes offset with extended terms. Could we expect lower income due to these circumstances? Then there is a question about Colombia. The question is whether an investor has expressed any interest in order to buy a minority stake in these projects over the past quarter. We will get back to you in a minute.
A ver, Álvaro, respecto. Okay, Álvaro. With regard to the Pedemontana question, rebalancing the finance of a project requires some negotiation with officials. And of course, this includes a front payment. This could also include extended terms or a change in profile. Will this have a negative impact on the Pedemontana project? The answer is no.
After we attain that financial rebalancing and once we attain the same IR, we are going to have this figure by combining all three tools. As for traffic volumes in Latin America, it's true that they're coming down, but it's also true that most of the assets concerned have some tranches that are still under construction. Sometimes this has been affected by some roads that went through other circumstances during 2023 and 2024. Additional traffic was reported in 2023 and 2024, perhaps a little bit higher than in 2024. But we do not have any demand risk as a result of these concessions. So given the characteristics of the contract, we believe that we are absolutely ready in order to offset any potential drops that might occur, and this therefore will not have any impact in terms of revenue.
Regarding your question concerning Colombia, the chairman has already answered that question. We keep on working, and of course, we are working to sell assets in Colombia, but this is not incompatible with including other assets in Colombia as part of the scope of Voreantis.
Miguel González from JB Capital Markets will ask the following question concerning net debt performance and working capital and financial adjustments reporting negative figures over the past quarter compared to prior ones. Could you please explain the reasons behind that? What do you expect for Q4? Are you going to surpass EUR 1 billion in operating cash flow in 2024? The second question has already been answered and is concerned with the sale of assets in Colombia. The question is whether any interest has been expressed by investors. The chairman has already addressed that question.
Concerning Pedemontana, we'd like to know whether you have spoken to the auditing firm already, and whether any provisions have to be allocated for payment availability should that process be realized. We'll answer in a minute.
Okay, this is a highly technical question, but you're absolutely right. As for net debt evolution, we say that EUR 805 million were generated, and you can see two blocks. On the one hand, working capital inflows, because as I said before, these projects receive more cash than what we account for in our accounting records. Then you have to make some adjustments in terms of financial assets. Therefore, finance income is not accounted for as cash flow. So every quarter, this depends on what the projects that you are commissioning and the evolution of your financial assets. EUR 535 million accounts for a small variation.
We don't know how this will end or how it will play out at the end of the year, but I can tell you for sure that we are going to surpass EUR 1 billion in operating cash flow generation. As for the Pedemontana question and the question concerning the auditor, well, the auditor is cognizant of the report that has been issued by the relevant committee. They are also updated as they know how we are planning to obtain financial balance, and we believe that no provisions need to be allocated and accounted for in our accounting records.
I'm going to read some final questions. Filipe Leite from CaixaBank asks about the slight drop of EBITDA in the construction division over the past quarter, but I believe that Carlos has already answered that question. Another question is about the EUR 200 million in dividend that we expect to receive. The chairman has already answered that question too. There's another question as to some key projects that might be awarded to Sacyr that might be in our pipeline in the medium or short term.
We have many projects in our pipeline in Chile. We are now engaged in three highway projects apart from the 68 highway project, the same as in the United States, in Canada. In Australia, we have a desalination plant and a drinking water treatment plant in the pipeline. In Portugal, the high-speed railway. Also, another project in Bogotá. We are certain that we are going to be awarded some of these projects. Thank you very much. Now I give the floor back to the chairman.
There are no further questions. If there are no further questions, thank you very much for attending this financial results presentation. We look forward to the next presentation in February when we will be presenting Sacyr's annual financial results. Thank you very much and have a nice day.