Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Yeli, your call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Cenergy Holdings conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the full year 2023 financial results. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Alexandros Benos, Cenergy Holdings CFO, Mr. Konstantinos Savvatis, General Manager, Hellenic Cables, Mr. Ilias Bekiros, General Manager, Corinth Pipeworks. Mr. Benos, you may now proceed.
Thank you, Yeli. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Thank you for joining us on this sunny afternoon in Athens for a presentation of the 2023 fiscal year financial results released last evening. I'm very happy to have with me the general managers of both segments. Mr. Savvatis on the right, representing the cable segment, and Mr. Bekiros on my right, sorry, on my left, Konstantinos. And Mr. Bekiros on my right, representing Corinth Pipeworks, the steel pipes segment. The agenda of today's presentation follows our usual path. We will start with the group key financial figures, then give you a short overview per segment, and then my colleagues will take over and present their outlook for 2024 and later. So let's start with the highlights of our financial results.
As we released yesterday, the profitability for 2023 exceeded even our own expectations, with a strong cash generation and very solid sales. The revenue was above EUR 1.6 billion, a 14% increase annually. The operational profitability is EUR 214 million, an increase of 56% from last year. This is due to the improved margins that we had in almost all product lines. That operational profitability translated into a EUR 73 million net profit for the year, and it is, of course, backed by a very strong backlog, which stays above EUR 3 billion. It is actually EUR 3.15 billion for the 31st of December 2023. The profitability is there and produced EUR 76 million of free cash flow. That helped us to decrease our net debt. And together with the great outlook that we expect for 2024, it allows the company to do two things.
First of all, to propose to the ordinary general meeting of the shareholders at the end of May the distribution of a dividend of EUR 0.08, 60% higher than what we distributed last year, and secondly, an estimate for Adjusted EBITDA for 2024 in the range of EUR 230 million-EUR 250 million. Let's see now together some details of these financial results. I start with the revenue. As I told you, there was an increase in revenue in almost all product lines, with the exception of steel pipes products, which, as you will hear, Mr. Bekiros later, is not really our focus point for the next years. But going back to projects, cable projects increased their sales by 26%, steel pipes by an impressive 42%, and cable products by a moderate 4%.
All of them had better margins, and this is what helped us to achieve the operational profitability record levels that we have for this year. These sales are, as always, geographically dispersed. The Greek and European parts stay rather stable, with a downward trend for Greece since 2021. But what is more important is that the rest of the world segment of sales increases, and it now constitutes 14.6% of the total. The strong margins of sales meant that an increase of 14% in turnover led to a 56% increase in Adjusted EBITDA, with an average margin of 13.1% from a 10% in 2021 and 9.6% in 2022. The Return on Capital Employed, of course, followed. It is more than 500 basis points higher than it was last year. The important engine actually driving this growth is our backlog.
It reached, as I told you, EUR 3.15 billion from EUR 1 billion two years earlier, and it is a backlog which is balanced, especially for the steel pipes. It is very geographically balanced between Europe and the rest of the world. The Americas right now for steel pipes do not play the role that they were playing a couple or three years ago. On the other hand, the cables order book acts more towards Europe. It's important here to note two big awards, one each for the two segments. On the one hand, the 50Hertz EPCI award in Germany by 50Hertz, which is a German TSO for the connection to the grid of the Gennaker offshore wind farm that had a total amount of over EUR 450 million.
For the steel pipe segment, the two Chevron projects in the Eastern Mediterranean with a total length of steel pipes of more than 270 kilometers. These awards are, of course, coming together with many others that you will hear about in the meanwhile, but these awards give us confidence about the future since they provide us with visibility until 2028 for Hellenic Cables and the end of 2025 for steel pipes. On the other hand, they help establish both segments as major players in the international market of energy transition, and they offer a leading position to our companies in certain innovative technologies. Because it is important to note here that this backlog actually goes towards demanding applications.
If we look a little bit at the application distribution of the backlog, which is expected to be executed in the years to come, we see on the one hand for steel pipes a backlog which is acts towards demanding, difficult, sophisticated offshore gas fuel applications, but also with an important percentage in hydrogen and CCS, Carbon Capture and Storage applications. On the other hand, cables is much more balanced between interconnections and offshore wind. This breakdown of the order backlog is expected to remain as it is for the years to come since the focus of both segments is not a specific market segment, but mostly value-added projects and services. The backlog helped us achieve a profit before tax of over EUR 95 million.
The major impact, the major positive impact for that PBT was, of course, the gross margin, the margins of both segments balanced, so EUR 39 million more in cables and EUR 42 million more than last year in steel pipes. On the other hand, we all know how far the interest rates have risen and that created a gap of EUR 37.5 million increase in net finance expenses. Our policy on personnel retention and fair payment has also increased our SG&As by EUR 10 million. Overall, we achieve a net profit of a PBT of EUR 95.4 million, which translates to a net profit of over EUR 73 million.
I would like here also to talk a little bit about the provision that we took on expenditures in the U.S. that were deemed to be non-recoverable anymore, so they were passed from our asset side to the P&L since our planning for an investment in the U.S. concerning a cables factory are continuing. The most important part, however, of the financial results stays the strong free cash flow generation. To summarize the figure that you have in front of you, I would like to share with you a very simple calculation. Our yearly EBITDA was almost EUR 200 million, so disregarding the one-off charges and costs. These EUR 200 million came together with a decrease in working capital. This has to be noted because usually when sales increase, working capital also increases.
In our case, our sales increased by 40%, as I mentioned before, but our working capital totally decreased by EUR 85 million. So we had EUR 285 million available to spend in order to cover three major costs. First of all, our CapEx payments of more than EUR 130 million. This CapEx, as my colleagues will explain in a while, concerns capacity expansions, modernization, and automation of all our factories, and they are indeed a very important number, which is not comparable to that in the previous years. So that part was covered by our cash flow generation, plus the considerably high interest and related costs of EUR 68 million, plus tax payments. And there was money left to repay a part of our gross debt, around EUR 55 million, pay an almost EUR 10 million dividend distribution last year, and in the end, increase our cash position by almost EUR 17 million.
So the generation of value from the group is indeed very strong. The operational profitability and good inventory management allows us to cover increase in CapEx, increase financial costs, which are extraordinary for the time being, payment of taxes, decreasing net debt, and paying out dividends. And it leaves us with an increased cash position at the year end. The work done on working capital is very clear. You see that last year it was above EUR 200 million at group level. Now it is EUR 100 million less. This working capital level is indeed sustainable for the cables segment since it represents around 77% of the sales. For CPW, it is even lower than that. It's 6% of sales. And I would say that in the long run, we would go towards a more sustainable low double-digit level of 10%-11%. net debt decreased by EUR 61 million overall.
It's the decrease of gross debt plus the increase in cash position. And that gives us an extraordinary leverage ratio for the year, which is below two. You may remember that two years earlier, our objective for the leverage was to be below three. In 2023, we achieved a level which is below two. Going now into a little bit more details per segment, I don't want to take much of your time. I would like here just to highlight a couple of things for cables. First of all, the increase in EBITDA margin to a level of 14.4% for the whole year due to both a very good margin for products, but also a very good product mix in the projects executed. That gave us EUR 150 million of operational profits.
And at the same time, working capital and consequently net debt decreased considerably, despite the fact that there were increased capital expenditures for the capacity expansion in the submarine cables factory in Corinth. Something similar happened in steel pipes. It is actually more impressive in terms of percentage since their operational profits more than doubled from last year. It's actually four times more than the operational profits of 2021. They reached EUR 64 million with a double-digit margin. Comparing those margins to the margins available, the margins we achieved in 2022 and 2021 give a very good result for the story of turning around and actually of full recovery for Corinth Pipeworks. At the same time, CPW was able to decrease also its working capital through a very good capital management in 2023. Now I would like to turn around to my colleagues, first of all to Mr.
Savvatis, to talk to us about the short-term and medium-term future of the cable segment. Costa, you have the floor.
Thank you very much, Alexandros. Good afternoon also for me. As far as the cable segment is concerned, in 2023, we achieved an excellent performance in terms of order intake, progress of capacity expansions, execution of key projects that resulted in a record high revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and historically high backlog. Reflecting on the backlog evolution, we see more than a five-fold increase since 2020, providing us with greater visibility for the future. The accumulated backlog is distributed in the next four years, and our key priority is the flawless execution. For 2024, we anticipate full utilization of our manufacturing plants across both subsea and land cable businesses, which will foster robust profitability for the year ahead.
The expansion in our submarine cables facility that we initiated last year is progressing according to plan. We expect to have the additional capacity available within Q1 2025. In addition, we continue creating value in the Thiva plant through investments in insulation lines and equipment, which will be operational by the end of next year. And on top of that, we are transforming our recently acquired facility in Eleonas into a center of excellence for low-voltage cables. The segment momentum continues as demand for cable products is strong and the cable projects portfolio is growing. The electrification and energy security megatrends are very high on the agenda. It seems they will remain for at least the next decade, and they are expected to further fuel the order book of the segment.
Projections show that the offshore wind will triple on a global scale by 2030, while interconnections in Europe are expected to add significant gigawatts in support of the 15% interconnection target of EU countries, and let's not forget that power grids will need to be upgraded and expanded to meet increasing needs for electricity and renewable energy, as countries worldwide will need to double their investments in transmission systems. Therefore, we expect the demand to remain strong in the years ahead. As said at the beginning, 2023 was a year with high order intake as we were awarded several projects, including Baltic 2 and 3 by Equinor and Polenergia, Thor by RWE, Baltica 2 by Ørsted, Gennaker by 50Hertz, and others. We see high and intensive tendering activity across all segments, including both contracts as well as long-term framework agreements.
Such activity, combined with our positioning with key customers and diversification across different market segments, offers sufficient certainty over the future performance. In conclusion, we would like to highlight that the market remains buoyant. 2023 has been a record year. We have high confidence and expect our strong performance to continue for the year ahead, while we are determined to continue operating with uncompromising focus on value creation. That was from my side, Alexandros. I will now.
Thank you, Costa. So here is now to Mr. Bekiros for the future outlook of the steel pipes segment.
Thank you, Alexandros. Good afternoon also from my side. Indeed, 2023 was a landmark year for the steel pipe segment, and we cannot be happier than that if we compare our results and our numbers during the COVID era, which was the most difficult period for the company. Right now, Corinth Pipeworks has consolidated its strategic position as a tier one supplier in the conventional hydrocarbon business, but also we made further progress as a leader in the sector of the energy transition pillars, such as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. As Alexandros has mentioned, 2023 results reflect a very strong performance, a record performance in our history, both in terms of revenue and profitability, profitability which more than doubled compared to 2022 and quadrupled in 2021 compared to 2021.
Of course, this is based upon high utilization of our manufacturing facilities and the successful execution of a number of very complex and high-profile projects with high margins. We built a record backlog of more than EUR 650 million characterized by orders from a wide range of geographies and the full product range. Just examples we've mentioned already: Chevron's Tamar and Leviathan projects in Eastern Mediterranean, but also major offshore gas export lines in Australia, OMV Petrom Neptun Deep water gas pipeline in the Black Sea. And of course, not to forget the expansion of the onshore gas transmission pipelines, such as the project that we've done with Snam, with DESFA, all of which are hydrogen compliant, and they have a focus on the increased energy security in Europe. Now, our global presence continues to create opportunities beyond the traditional core business regions.
It has been mentioned already that our footprint is global. Therefore, our effort is to expand in various other regions, such as South America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. Very attractive markets, not only for natural gas, but also for hydrogen and carbon capture. It is exactly the energy majors that give us this strength and this optimism for the future. Our relationships, very strong relationships with all the big ones like Chevron, Exxon, Shell, Equinor, Total, amongst others. These are the relationships that give us optimism. And of course, they are the ones presenting the market outlook, which is very positive on a global scale. We are focused on extending our business cooperation with them and participating in their projects and their development plan for 2024, 2025, and beyond. We should not forget, of course, that we continue our focus on cost optimization plans. We've been there before.
We are not spoiled by the increased margins. We have a continuous focus on becoming and staying competitive with cost optimization and targeted investments, of course, on productivity, performance, digitalization, automation, and of course, focusing also on the development of our workforce with full priority and compliance in health and safety and ESG policies. Looking ahead, very strong energy demand remains the main driver for us and for the economic growth on a global scale, supplemented by all means on new technologies and clean forms of energy. Our wide range of products, our strong focus on the latest technology, and the track record we've built for successfully delivering challenging projects is the thing that makes the difference from our competition and gives us confidence that our business will retain a leading position across global offshore and onshore markets.
In summary, Corinth Pipeworks has a very positive outlook not only for 2024, but also for 2025 and beyond, and expects strong performance and profitability growth based on increased visibility supported by our current backlog. We are well prepared. We trust our people. We trust their knowledge and commitment to stay at the top and to maximize the benefit for all. All these positive factors, of course, allow the group to estimate an Adjusted EBITDA for 2024 in the range of EUR 230-250 million. Given the levels that we have achieved in 2023 of EUR 214 million, the estimate translates as a yearly increase between 8% and 17%. Closing out the presentation, we do know that Cenergy Holdings is fully committed to decarbonization of its production. We cannot be a green energy enabler if we are not targeting to be green ourselves.
Thus, both segments have set targets for 2030 in greenhouse gas emissions. First, we aim for a 50% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions for cables until 2030 and a 25% reduction of Scope 3 emissions until the same year. Looking further ahead for 2050, the cable segment has a target of reducing 90% all Scope emissions given a base year of 2020, so with regards to the levels that it had in 2020. A similar target is also set for steel pipes. For steel pipes using 2022 as a base year, the objectives are the same: 50% reduction of Scope 1 and 2 emissions and 25% reduction in Scope 3 until 2030. I would like now to close the presentation by updating you on our financial calendar.
The first point that will happen at the end of the month of March, on the 28th, is the publication of our annual report for 2023. Then, in the end of May, we do have both the ordinary general meeting and the trading update for 2024 Q1 results. A day later, we will have the conference call on these events. Then, in mid-June, 25, 26, and 2027, follow the dividend-related dates. I remind you that the board of directors will propose to the ordinary general meeting a distribution of a dividend of EUR 0.08 per share. Finally, mid-September 2024, on the 18th of September, the half-yearly results will be released with a conference call for the following day. This concludes our presentation for the 2023 fiscal year results. Thank you for your attention, and now we are open for your questions.