Good afternoon and welcome to the conference call organized by Vidrala to present its 2024 first half results. Vidrala will be represented in this meeting by Raúl Gómez, CFO, and Iñigo Mendieta, Head of IR. The presentation will be held in English. In the Q&A session, questions will be also answered in Spanish. Nevertheless, it is strongly recommended to post questions in English in order to facilitate understanding of everyone. In the company website, www.vidrala.com, you will find available a presentation that will be used as supporting material to cover this call, as well as a link to access the webcast. Mr. Mendieta, you now have the floor.
Good afternoon to everyone, and thank you for the time that you dedicate to attend this call. As announced, Vidrala has published this morning its 2024 first half results, and additionally, we have also published the results presentation that will be used as supporting material to this conference call. Following these documents, we will dedicate, as always, the first part of our exposition to briefly explain the figures released today, to devote afterwards as much time as necessary to discuss the business performance in the Q&A session. So, starting with the main magnitudes, in the first half of 2024, we have achieved as most relevant business figures: revenues above EUR 830 million, an EBITDA of EUR 225 million, and a net income equivalent to an EPS of EUR 3.75.
Net debt at the end of the reported period stood at EUR 433 million, which is equivalent to a leverage ratio of 1.0x the pro forma EBITDA, which considers the contribution of the last 12 months from Vidroporto. Turning to Slide 4, we look at the top-line performance, analyzing the annual variation of revenue broken down by concepts to arrive at the reported figure of EUR 830.4 million. As it is shown in the graph, this figure is the result of a 0.7% growth at constant currency and comparable scope. Volumes were up +9%, almost fully offset by negative price mix effect. Scope, which aggregates the combined effect of the incorporation of Vidroporto's 2023 year-to-date results and the exclusion of Vidrala Italia since March 1st of 2024, contributed an additional 2.8% to revenue growth.
Following the order of key business figures referred to at the beginning, we analyze, with the same breakdown, the variation of operating income. 2024 first half EBITDA amounted to EUR 225 million, reflecting an organic year-on-year variation of - 2.4%, which was more than compensated by the scope contribution. These operating figures resulted in a solid margin EBITDA over sales of 27.1%, which remains roughly stable versus the previous year. In this slide, we present the distribution of sales and EBITDA by business unit under the new perimeter, that is, including Vidroporto in 2023 figures and fully excluding the results of Vidrala Italia in 2024, although, as you know, it has contributed to reported sales and EBITDA in the first two months of 2024.
And since March, it is reported as discontinued operations, contributing exclusively to net profit until the sale became effective at the start of July of 2024. So the graphs show still a weaker performance in Iberia, negatively affected by price adaptations and still soft demand context. Results in these divisions should progressively improve as comparison basis becomes easier towards the second half of the year. The U.K. continues to do well, supported by new demand for glass containers we are creating through the filling business and the integration of The Park. And Brazil experiences the second round effects of the recent capacity expansion project in the Southeast unit in operation since mid-2023. Finally, we analyze free cash flow generation in detail with the help of this chart that reconstructs the cash conversion accumulated year-to-date.
So starting from an EBITDA margin of 27.1%, we have dedicated 9.1% of sales to investments and another 7.2% to the aggregate of working capital, financials, and taxes. As a result, free cash flow generation stands around 11% of sales. Net debt at the end of June 2024 closed at EUR 433.4 million. Nevertheless, on the 4th of July, we announced the closing of the sale of Vidrala Italy. So after the proceeds from this transaction and the payment of the corresponding extraordinary dividend and the July complementary dividend, net debt should be around EUR 320 million at the end of this month, at the end of July, considering also the cash generated across the month. And now, before turning to the Q&A session, I pass the word to Raúl so that he can extract main conclusions or make some highlights or comments that he considered appropriate.
Thank you, Iñigo, for your presentation. Thank you all for your time in attending this meeting today. We really appreciate your interest, particularly today that we are in our traditional time. Well, our results published today are a good proof of the strong business profile that we have created. Under quite modest demand conditions, I mean, and in a period where demand is not recovering as expected from last year's drop, our solid numbers prove the strong reason behind our strategic actions and are mostly driven by our internal corporate movements. We are today not only stronger than ever. Vidrala is today a much more different company. Let me recap in that point that over the last five, six years, we have divested from our operations in Belgium. We have acquired a large bottling operations named The Park in the U.K.
We have entered Brazil, quite a relevant movement for us. We have finally completed the sale of Italy under respectable conditions. All along this period, we are intensively investing in improving our manufacturing sites, our industrial footprint. Hope you can see as clearly as we do the strong focus and the solid rationale behind our strategy. Vidrala is today a different company, more diversified, diversified across three different strategic regions and units that creates a great business combination. Our financial position is today more solid than ever. This is the background. Behind these are the reasons why we are today reiterating our guidance in the two more relevant indicators to monitor.
Despite, as we said before, demand conditions are, I will say, globally softer than initially expected, we still do see our EBITDA for the year 2024 above EUR 450 million, and we see our free cash flow for the year 2024 above EUR 180 million. More relevant, in conclusion, our financial position has improved, and the business, and we leading the company, remain fully prepared to respond once our demand recovers, something that will happen soon. That means that in our conclusion, hope you agree with me, with us, that we are and we remain particularly well-positioned for the future. Thank you.
Thank you , Raúl and I'll give way to the Q&A session.
[Foreign language] . Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session starts now. Questions by telephone will be answered first. If you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from the line of Francisco Ruiz from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hello, good afternoon. I have three questions. The first one is, Raúl, if you could comment a little bit on how you see the second half in terms of volumes in continental Europe mainly. Because you are reiterating the guidance that we all agree with me that the visibility is still low. So what's your visibility in order to be so firm reiterating this EBITDA of EUR 450 and EUR 1,600 in sales?
The second question is a question that I made in Q1 as well. We've seen that Brazil is skyrocketing, or at least your numbers in Brazil, that you are working practically at full capacity. So are you taking any initiative to see some growth for next year, or probably we should expect similar levels of growth in the Brazilian operation for 2025? And then it's more a modeling question. Working capital this semester is still growing EUR 50 million. You could give us an idea of what you see working capital at the end of the year as well as CapEx? Thank you.