Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon from Athens. I am Alexandros Benos, the CFO of Cenergy Holdings, and I'd like to welcome you to today's live webcast on our company's 2025 Q1 financial results. Allow me to share some data that will help our presentation. So, here we are. Give me a couple of seconds. Great. So I believe that everyone can see the presentation. Of course, this presentation will also be available on our website after the end of that teleconference. So, without further ado, let's see how—what are the main points on this first quarter 2025? First of all, this has been a very good quarter, a very good start for the year, and it sets a positive tone for both segments, as we have achieved, as you will see, double-digit growth both in the top line and in the operational profitability. So I start with the revenue numbers.
The revenue reached almost EUR 490 million, 23% higher than the corresponding quarter of 2024, mostly due to the gradual entering to production of our new capacity in the submarine cables factory in Corinth. In a sense, the cable segment showed a more than 30% increase in top line for the quarter, year on year, whereas steel pipes were at a much lower single-digit growth number. Operational profitability, adjusted EBITDA, reached EUR 76 million, 39% higher year on year. If we allow for the one-off metal lag, this gives us an EBITDA of EUR 78 million. It is due to a favorable product mix for the cables and for the steel pipe segment. They have achieved keeping last year's projects mix with the very good margins that you have observed in 2024. Our order backlog is stable, around EUR 3.4 billion.
So, in a sense, what we earned and signed in Q1 more or less equaled what we executed in the first quarter. The prospects are very good for the rest of the year. I'll give you some more information on that later on. Our consolidated net profit rose to EUR 41 million, 74% year-on-year growth, with earnings per share being at EUR 0.19. And, of course, all of the above allow us to confirm our guidance for the full year 2025 for EBITDA between EUR 300 million and EUR 330 million. So let's see together some numbers on the five financial figures that I mentioned before. Top line. Top line is higher by 23% quarter year on year. Sorry. Five out of six insulation machines, what we call CCVs, in Fulgor factory are now fully operational.
The sixth one will be also in full mode by the end of June, which means that the production capacity for the submarine cables is now double what it was at the end of 2023. The capacity expansion that started in 2023 was completed in the end of 2024, and now it is fully in operation. That higher sales of 23% translates into a 39%-40% increase in operational profitability to EUR 76 million, with the margins jumping up by 177 basis points. This is due, really, to the product mix for CPW remaining as favorable as it was in 2024, and the increased production in the submarine cables facility contributes, of course, to higher margins for the whole cables segment.
The EBITDA, so including one-off results like the metal price lag, the metal result, gives us a little bit higher EBITDA at EUR 78 million, and it is mostly contributed—that change of the 24 million that you see there from EUR 54 million to EUR 78 million—it is contributed, of course, mostly to the cables segment, with EBT, earnings before tax, and earnings after tax following suit since the financial charges that are affecting profits before tax have decreased due to lower interest rates. Working capital and net debt, although we do not give specific numbers, I would like to give you some flavor on those, are now normalized. You remember our December 2024 numbers were very low due to the cash that we had received from our share capital increase in October. Now we are back towards the expected levels, both for steel pipes and cables.
I remind you, a working capital steady-state level is around 10%-12% for steel pipes of revenue. I mean, for steel pipes, and below 8% for the cable segment, with the net debt expected to be at the end of the year around the level of one times EBITDA for the fiscal year, for the full financial year 2025. Now, for our backlog, the backlog is still around where it was in December 2024, meaning what new projects we gained in this first quarter equaled what projects were executed, more or less. Nevertheless, I would like here to point out a couple of crucial points, crucial observations that differentiate Cenergy and its two segments from competition. The first point here is that our backlog is diversifying in two dimensions, both in geography. It's clear that most of the cables backlog is European-based.
The U.S. exposure is not significant, although we have been awarded a project that you see on your screen, the Silver Run Project in the U.S., which is a 230kV subsea export cable project, but it still occupies in our backlog less than 3%. So the geography is mostly European for the cables, and the geography of the backlog for steel pipes is really global. So we do not have a large exposure in one single country or even in one single continent apart from the European exposure of cables. Secondly, the second dimension where we are also diversifying is product diversification, application diversification in a sense. What do I mean by that? I mean that the backlog of cables, which is around EUR 3 billion for March, is really divided almost equally in four different applications.
First, the land connections approaching 25%-26% of the backlog, some subsea interconnections, so we're talking about interconnections that need submarine cables, another 30%. 30% is really related to offshore wind farms, and the rest are other land projects, meaning that we do not see our backlog be challenged by any slowdown in the renewables sector. Secondly, the second point I would like to stress here is that there is a large potential for further increase of our backlog in 2025. The interconnector market in Europe is very strong, so it gives us good prospects. Let me just mention that the expectations for an interconnection market, so we're not talking about submarine offshore, submarine cables or offshore wind farms. We are talking about interconnection projects.
The expectations and the estimates that most market players have for the years 2025 to 2027 are around 16,000 km of cables. So this gives us a very good prospect for the two years ahead. Also, very strong prospect in Greece and the Mediterranean, both for TSOs, so transmission operators, and DNOs, distribution operators. And you all, we also see that the tendering is very strong. So the expectation for 2025 for tendering activity in cables, I mean, the whole tendering market doesn't mean that it will be executed in 2025. The tendering market in cables is close to EUR 9 billion, and it is really centered around the U.K., Scandinavia, and Germany. And at the same time, for CPW, there is a very good demand for natural gas networks in the U.S. and Africa and for CCS networks in Europe.
So the strong commercial relations and the tier one position of CPW in the market gives it a very good prospect for strengthening its backlog even more. Now, what does that leave for the rest of the year? In cables, we see a strong offshore wind market in Europe, some slight slowdown in the short term, but as I said, the interconnection demand is very strong. This is really due to the notorious Spanish blackout, which showed the need of all European countries to enhance their international grids, so to be able to balance demand and supply of electricity, especially when this supply comes out of renewables. And the increase of the share of renewables in the electricity generation of the EU creates the paramount need, the crucial need, I would say, for strengthening grids between European countries.
As our capacity now comes into operation, I talked about the sub, the new submarine capacity in Corinth that is already under operation. The new land capacity will also come into play by the end of this year in Thiva and Eleonas plants. So that gives us some good service for the offers that will come in the future and for those that we already have in our backlog. Furthermore, the U.S. plant is on track. We have completed the coastal revetment. We have ordered long-term equipment for delivery in the end of 2026. We have done some soil surcharging and the utility connections, and now we are selecting contractors and signing all supporting contracts. So the actual construction will start in H2 of this year. So that plant is going as expected, as planned, as designed. All of these factors make us quite optimistic about the future.
Of course, we are following closely all market developments given the fluidity which exists right now in the international markets, not only in the energy market, but more generally in all international markets, commodity, financial, and so on. As for steel pipes, there is favorable demand right now for large diameter projects, especially linked to natural gas. CPW, as I said before, is very well positioned in this market and for this demand. There are new reserves of hydrocarbon fuels being explored and exploited in the U.S. and the rest of the world, which means that gas will remain central to our strategy in the medium term. The CCS demand is very strong in the European Union. Our Porthos project is really evidence to the ability of CPW to execute a very challenging and sophisticated work.
I really urge you to watch the video from the installation and closure of the pipeline that was uploaded in our LinkedIn page and in my personal page in LinkedIn. It's really hard to believe your eyes that when you see that steel pipe, which is made to pipeline made of steel pipes, 14 m- 16 m in length, coated first in polyethylene and then in concrete for the weight, since they are then laid down at the Port of Rotterdam. The concrete weight coating was actually executed in our new CWC facility in Thisvi. You see that steel pipeline being bent and reeled like a cable in an S shape from a ship to the bottom of the Port of Rotterdam. The technology and the sophistication that the project that our engineers and our staff in Thisvi have achieved is really commendable.
And I would like to thank all of my colleagues for such a great project. This, of course, gives us, opens very wide a door for more CCS projects like that in Europe. As on the other hand, the hydrogen infrastructure in the European Union is slowing down. Timing and volume are still fluid, but that I mentioned that in my previous, presentations with you, that the hydrogen market is a longer term, event and not an event for the medium term. So we expect that to start being active at the end of this decade. All of the above gives us a very positive market outlook for steel pipes. And so we are confident about both 2025 and 2026. The backlog of CPW allows us to have a visibility of a year and a half.
We again remain cautious on the repercussions and the indirect effects that the geopolitical environment might have on our figures, but it's clearly a very good year, at least for 2025 and for the years to come. All of the above, of course, make us quite confident in confirming our guidance for EBITDA for 2025 between EUR 300 million and EUR 330 million. I close this short presentation with our financial calendar. First, in the, around the end of June, there are the dates related to the dividend distribution of EUR 0.14 per share. This was actually approved yesterday by the General Assembly of Cenergy Holdings. And then in mid-September, we will have our H1 results. This concludes my short presentation. I now turn to our operator to guide you through the Q&A session. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to inform you that you can place your questions in two different ways, either by raising your hand or by submitting it in writing using the button with the indication Q&A. You can find both options at the bottom of your screen. Thank you.
So we don't have any questions. I cannot see any hands, as we're seeing in school. Sorry, Marios Bourozanis has raised his hand. Okay. Marios, I can, you know, I'm ready for your question, please.
Okay. Good afternoon and thank you for your presentation. I hope you can hear me. Yep, just two questions from my side. The first is, you know, I was wondering if you could comment on the performance of the high voltage cable segment during the quarter. From what we understand, the margins were quite strong and came in higher overall compared to prior quarters. I was just wondering if this was just the result of the new capacity that you mentioned that started to be fed in, or did you also see, you know, improved pricing overall in the projects under execution?
Okay, let me just answer that. No, it is. You're right. It is related and it is linked to the new capacity coming in. So there is more execution of submarine projects. These entail higher margins by construction, you see, by themselves in a sense, and that increases the margins that we got in the cables, in the cable segments. So we haven't seen any increases in prices.
No, actually, I was referring to, you know, if the projects that you, you know, that you undertook were actually priced better, comparing to previous quarters.
N o, the projects that we undertook were more submarine projects, which means that we have better, you know, it's that weighted average effect that I've talked before, right? It's a weighted average effect. It's the fact that you have more submarine projects in the total projects portfolio, and the total projects portfolio is now more than the products part. So it, you actually increase the weighted, you know, the weight of the high margin, the high margin works, the high margin projects unit.
Okay, that's very clear. And the second question, if I may, this is on the product side, the cables products. So you also mentioned that demand was quite strong in the EU and that you are still growing revenues there at quite a satisfactory rate. And I was just wondering if you noticed any turbulence in terms of replenishment over the course of the quarter and how you see the underlying momentum for the remainder of the year for the products line.
No, we are okay. The products line still is working satisfactorily. It is true that we had very good margins in 2024, in a sense, you know, extraordinarily good, if I could say so, linked, of course, to the fact that most of the cables producers put a lot of effort into the projects part, into a high voltage, into the non-commodity market, which means that there were not enough products in the market. And with the booming of 2024, there was a lot of demand, which means that you can price better your commodity products. The first quarter of 2025 is running nicely. It doesn't run at this, you know, high prices that we have seen before, but it's still running at a very satisfactory margins for a commodity product, okay?
And it is right now serviced by our Eleonas plant as far as it is expanding and by the Romanian plant. We have good results for Central Europe, for Southeastern Europe, for a lot of countries where we're present. Nothing, you know, special to take home about, but there's no slowdown in that demand. Of course, it's a cyclical demand, you know. It's a business cycle. It's a procyclical demand, but up to now we haven't seen any slowdown there.
Understood, that's clear. Thank you very much.
I see that there is a question by Mr., let me read his name, by Lambis Michalopoulos, if I'm not mistaken. So he's asking what are the reasons or factors that do not let you envision the amount, that amount of EBITDA in the future. Well, I do not really envision that amount of EBITDA margins in the future. No, we do believe that the margins will stay there for 2025. We are not saying something else. Now, 2026 or 2028, at least for the projects that are already in our backlog, the profitability is more or less calculated, okay? The visibility of the cables backlog right now spans more than three and a half years, which means that the projects that are in the cables backlog have set prices and set profitability margins as well.
Being in the conservative part, as a conservative, a conservative company, we wouldn't like to say that these margins will increase. And the reason is very simple. The cable projects that are in our backlog are, of course, in a sense, locked, but we do have projects that are not yet attributed, and we do have also our products part, and that may affect the weighted average or the average margin that we will get in cables. Therefore, I will not, I'm not ready to promise margins that will go and be increasing for 2026 and 2027 and 2028, margins around, you know, 16%-17%. What I can say is that 2025, which is clearer and more secured in a sense, will keep the margins of cables around 15%-15.5%.
For CPW, as I said, the 2025 projects and a part of 2026 are also secured, so we can be optimistic about keeping that profitability, but we are not sure how the rest of 2026 and 2027 or 2028 will develop. There is a question by Mr. Chatzidakis, Manos Chatzidakis, if we have any indication from potential tariffs impact in the U.S. market. Mano, thank you for asking this question because it allows me to clarify something which is also written on our press release. The exposure of our cables market to tariffs is minimal, and it is minimal because we are right now not exporting any cables to the U.S.
The projects that we have signed with and will be, will be sold, will be delivered in the U.S., like Silver Run that was shown in our backlog, are a small part of our backlog, and their profitability already accounts for possible tariffs. The steel pipes is another question. Steel pipes is another question because CPW, Corinth Pipeworks, does bid and does get projects in the U.S., but they get projects which no one else from the U.S. producers can produce. This gives to CPW a very strong competitive advantage and a very strong negotiation advantage, meaning that they can actually include whatever tariffs are now running, for example, on steel, the 25% tariff on steel, which is running right now and which is not part of the Trump tariffs.
So it is not part of the moratorium which was announced for European projects until July and so on. The 25% is active. This is already included in our invoicing. So from the moment of time that steel pipes for the projects that we execute right now and for the projects that we have earned and been awarded in the U.S., from the moment these pipes arrive to the U.S., the client will pay us in an invoice what is due to us and what is due to the U.S. government through tariffs. So it is included both contractually and in the terms and conditions.
What will be the indirect effects of tariffs to that market is, of course, an open question, but again, I would like to clarify and to make clear that the projects that CPW is bidding cannot be awarded to the U.S. producers because they do not have that technology and those references. We're talking about difficult waters, deep water projects, and so on. Therefore, we are confident that when those will be awarded, we will be able to use that same negotiating power for the new projects in the U.S. But still, CPW is a global company, Mano, so it tries to get a diversified portfolio from projects, some in the U.S., a lot in the European Union, for example, the U.K., Holland that I mentioned, the Porthos one, some in our backyard, the Mediterranean, and all of those together are not really touched by tariffs in the U.S.
Now, you also ask a question on leverage. I was, I think I mentioned that in my presentation. So we expect the debt to go back to the normal levels if you take out the cash effect of the share capital increase and be around one to one and a half debt leverage rate, one and a half times of the EBITDA. CapEx, as I also repeated a lot of times, is on a slowing down pace. I exclude the CapEx for the U.S. plant since all CapEx for the U.S. plant will be dealt with through the share capital increase funds. So that does not affect our debt levels, our leverage, and does not affect also our generation of free cash flow. So I leave that out. Slowly but steadily, the CapEx that is outside the U.S. plant is slowing down. Okay.
There is another question, I think, towards the CapEx that is asked by Mr. Mantzras. The CapEx of 2025, as I said, Paris, will be, if you exclude the U.S., lower than what it was in 2024. Now, let's talk about the U.S. plant. The U.S. plant will cost us, at least that is the budget, around $200 million. Out of those $200 million, I would say that the part attributed to 2025 is less than one half. So it is more weighted towards 2026 than 2025. I will not give you exact numbers, but you see the trend. So you have a little bit less in 2025, the rest, the majority part in 2026, and a small part in 2027, the first quarter, as we expect the plant to be operational by June 2027.
The question of Madame Sophie Tinta, I think was answered on by my discussion on the tariffs and on the mix effect for submarines. So we expect that this percentage of submarines will slowly increase in the total top line, which means that there will be a positive effect on margins by that increase of the percentage of the, of the share, the, of the share of the pie that is occupied by the submarine cables in our top line, in the cables top line. Are there any other questions on either the chat or the Q&A? So I believe that was quite a short presentation. I believe that, you know, we have a very good first quarter. We expect the rest of the year to go at the same pace. The backlog that we have allows us to be quite confident on reaching our targets.
Of course, more information about how the year evolves will be given in our H1 financial results presentation in mid-September. It's been a very good quarter for Cenergy. Cenergy is really developing and growing in a cautious way, with good rhythm, without large steps, but with good rhythm ahead. And I am sure that the end of the year we find both our companies, our subsidiaries stronger than before. So I would like to thank you for your attention this afternoon and to wish you a very good afternoon for the rest of the day. Thank you.