Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Mota-Engil Half Year 2025 Results Presentation. At this time, all participants are in a listening-only mode. After the presentation, we will run a Q&A session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press *5 on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand over to Pedro Arrais. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good afternoon. Thank you all for attending this call where we will present the first half of 2025 results. With me, I have here Carlos Mota dos Santos, the Chairman and CEO, and Mr. José Carlos Nogueira, the CFO of the company. As usual, the CEO will start the presentation with some key highlights. Then I will present the bulk of the presentation. Mr. Carlos Mota dos Santos will present the final remarks and outlook, and at the end, as usual, we will have all the time available for you to put all your questions. Please, Carlos, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Pedro. First of all, welcome. Good afternoon. Welcome to the first half 2025 results from Mota-Engil. I would like to start by slide number four with the key highlights of this early new release and stating that we had a record turnover during the first half of the year. Even though the increase year on year is slightly positive, 0.5%, I have to mention that this was done in a very challenging context. First of all, with the decrease in Europe due to the effect of the sale of the Polish operation, and after that, also with the decrease of Latin America, that was the expected effect of the finishing of the high-speed train project in Mexico.
Even though we were able to maintain or slightly have a slight growth with the increase of Africa, not only of the infrastructure engineering and construction segment, but mainly with the industrial engineering, namely the contract mining, in which we had an increase of 87%, being able to maintain the same EBITDA margin of 30%. We had a solid backlog of EUR 14.7 billion in the first half, even though this does not account for EUR 1.4 billion of contracts that in the meantime had been awarded and signed. If we would account for these contracts, we would be around EUR 16 billion. We would be with a new record in terms of backlog. More important than the size of the backlog is the quality of this backlog. We've been able to achieve and contract new contracts with higher profitability and margins, as we are showing with the results of this first half.
Moving to the EBITDA, we have a record of 16% in the first half of the year. This is the biggest EBITDA margin that we achieved during the first half of the year. That is always characterized by some more difficulties in the beginning of the year. This is the proof not only that we've been achieving higher levels of profitability, but also a proof of the quality of our backlog. Regarding net profit, we achieved almost EUR 16 million with a very solid growth of 20%, also increasing the net margin to 2.2%, paving the way to the 3% that we announced to the markets that was our goal for the end of 2026. In terms of financial figures, not only in terms of net debt, but also in terms of gross debt, we presented reductions when compared with the end of 2024.
We improved the goals that we've been stating to the market, that is to always belong to 2x in terms of net debt over EBITDA and always below 4x in terms of gross debt over EBITDA. Actually, in terms of gross debt over EBITDA, for the first time in the recent past, we achieved to be below 3x . In terms of CapEx, as mentioned in the guidance at the end of the year last year, we decreased significantly the CapEx when compared with the first half of 2024, with a decrease of almost 40% and in line with what has been the guidance of 7% in terms of turnover. We increased also our cash flow coming from operations in almost EUR 1 million when compared with the first half of last year. In terms of the ratio of equity over assets, we maintained the 10%.
That was the same ratio that we presented in the first half of last year, being able to do it in the context of dividends distribution in this first half of the year. Moving on to the next slide and looking at the main events since the beginning of this year, we've been awarded several contracts in our main strategic markets, not only here in Portugal with the high-speed train that was signed already in July and is not accounted in the backlog that we presented for the first half of the year, but also several other projects in other important markets for us, that is Brazil, Mexico, and also in the industrial engineering and contract mining that we've been awarded a new contract for one of the clients that is one of our main clients in this sector.
In terms of financing, I would like to highlight the issuance of sustainability-linked bonds here in Portugal of EUR 95 million with a very high demand. This was done in May. I would also like to highlight several other operations, namely the one from African Development Bank. That is the first operation that this institution does with a private company. Also, the finance that was agreed with IFC from World Bank that is already been approved in the Board of Directors of IFC and is to be now disbursed during the second half of this year. In terms of sustainability, we issued the first annual report last year that is compliant with the directives. We've been certified by the first Rainforest Alliance in our mammal land project in Africa. We've just been awarded the best place to work in the infrastructure and construction segment by a new ranking.
I would like to highlight two other things. First, one of the things that has been already announced in the past was we acquired the 50% stake that we had in ECB, that is our main vehicle in Brazil. That is, let's say, the proof of how Brazil is going to be important for us in the next years to come. There has been a very strategic market for the group, and it's going to be one of the drivers for the future. I would like to highlight that just recently, last week, it has been published in ENR 250, in which Mota-Engil achieves new records. Namely, it ranks number two in Latin America, is number six in Africa, but is the first one non-Chinese company. We've been listed at number 11 in Europe, increasing from position 14, and 66 worldwide from 79 last year.
Also, in terms of the most international company, we've been ranked number 24. That also was an improvement when compared with the year before. Moving on to slide number six. As you can see, like in December, in the first half of 2025, the company is being able to capably assure a sustainable growth, focusing on profitability and in cash flow generation and achieving that with the execution at record levels of turnover, EBITDA, and net profit with the preparing of the upcoming cycle. This was the best ever first half in terms of turnover, but also it was the best first half in terms of EBITDA and net margin with an improvement in terms of cash flow and also an improvement in terms of the debt ratios, like I mentioned before.
We are paving the way to the 2026 goals in terms of all these dimensions: profitability, turnover, and also the cash flow improvement, and also the improvement of the ratios of the balance sheets. We are now preparing the new strategic plan that, as I mentioned before, we are going to announce in the first trimester of next year. That is going to be the new strategic plan until 2030 and preparing the company for a new cycle that the main issue or the main driver will continue to be the profitability. I'm going to pass now the presentation again to Pedro, and I will finish the presentation with the final remarks and also the guidance for 2025. Thank you.
Thank you, Carlos. We will move now to slide eight to see the breakdown of the P&L in more detail. I would like to start to highlight that the company achieved not only the record level in turnover and EBITDA, as already said by our CEO in the first half, but also the EBIT level showing that the company is being capable of extracting added value from its operations. Regarding the financial results, here we can see the impact of a higher amount of financial costs related with the investment made in the recent years and also a low figure regarding the contribution from associates reflecting the early stage of some concessional assets.
At the end, the company proved to be able to increase the net margin and achieve the best ever result in the first half, achieving an increase of 20% year on year in net profit to a record amount of EUR 59 million. Moving to slide nine, and here the detailed performance by each business unit, we can see here in Europe, we must consider in first hand that without the contribution from Poland that last year had a contribution of EUR 79 million for the turnover and the operation was sold last September. The turnover here and related only with the Portuguese market, the performance shows an 11% growth year on year. Nevertheless, it is important to comment that the company considers that the recent elections in Portugal promoted some delays in the tenders and the signature of relevant contracts that impacted the dynamic of the Portuguese market this year.
Without any doubt, we expect a significant growth of public investment in Portugal starting next year in terms of execution and in a region with stable margins that improved in the case of Mota-Engil in the first half of 2025 to 8%. Africa presented a very strong performance with 59% growth year on year in turnover and 77% in EBITDA, impacted by the very positive performance in the industrial engineering, a specialized segment in which Mota-Engil is nowadays, important to mention, the leader in Africa and top five globally, supporting the continuous improvement of EBITDA margin that achieves 24% in the region in the first half of 2025 and with also a positive contribution from the core markets like Nigeria and Angola.
Regarding the performance in Latam, this is perfectly expected and in line with what the company explained at the beginning of the year after the conclusion of relevant projects in Mexico and with Tren Maya as the most relevant example. It's also important to comment with you the very positive performance of the environmental business with double-digit growth, both in turnover with 15% and in EBITDA with an increase of 20% year on year. At the end, it's worth to mention that the OpEx EUR 50 million, that I would like to remember, that is an internal program focused on cost reduction and has the target of OpEx reduction of EUR 50 million in 2025 and more EUR 50 million in 2026, is having very positive results, mainly impacted by a higher scale of the procurement procedures that we are managing.
Moving to slide 10, we can see here the company is being able to maintain the renovation of record levels of backlog, but relevant to highlight that the company, where you can see here at the left, that the company has EUR 1 billion more comparing to June of 2024, and that will be even higher reinforced with relevant contracts amounting EUR 1.36 billion signed after June with the first stretch of the high-speed train project in Portugal as the biggest contract with EUR 800 million, guaranteeing a positive outlook for 2026 and beyond, with the Portuguese market increasing its importance in the next years. Moving to slide 11, I will not elaborate on that, but we can see here the major contracts in 15 different countries with the industrial engineering segment increasing in the recent quarters, representing roughly EUR 4 billion of the total backlog of the company.
The slide 12, here you can see the CapEx that the company made in the first half of 2025 with a total amount of EUR 194 million, representing a 37% reduction year on year, with a very selective criteria for new investments allocated in the segments of higher margins with industrial engineering in Africa as the most relevant example. Here you can see also the full alignment with the targets of CapEx for the full year of 2025 that I remember that is achieving a 7% ratio of CapEx to turnover, something that is for the company a top priority to maintain the second half of 2025 and to continue to increase the cash flow generation and focusing on debt reduction in 2025 and beyond.
Moving to slide 13, and considering that historically the company achieves every year the best performance in the second half, not only the company, but I would say the industry, and considering the impact of seasonality, we can see here that in the first half of 2025, the company sustained the positive trend regarding the reinforcement of the balance sheets, reflecting the results of the strategy of focusing on cash generation and a strong commercial discipline. Moving to slide 14, I would like to highlight the positive increase of 22% year on year of operating cash flow to EUR 536 million.
To explain in more detail the waterfall graphic that you can see here in this slide, each caption is aligned with the positive performance in the first half of 2025 regarding the operational performance combined with the financial discipline reflected in the reduction of CapEx, and at the end, that allowed the company to achieve a debt reduction of EUR 64 million, this including leasing factoring cover. In conclusion, we can see here that the cash flow generation is being reinvested in the business units with higher margin and with the debt at control levels as established in our strategic plan and as our CEO mentioned for the first time with the gross debt to EBITDA less than 3x .
Moving to slide 15 and looking in more detail at the debt levels, we can see here the reduction of EUR 37 million in the net debt without leasing factoring and confirming, with consistent improvement of both ratios in net debt to EBITDA and gross debt to EBITDA, better in June than the targets established in the strategic plan that I remember is below 2x and 4x respectively. Moving to slide 16, here we can see the liquidity position of EUR 895 million that surpassed the non-revolving financial installments due for over the next three years. From the debt with maturities in less than one year, the company established recently several financing operations described here that allowed the company to increase the average debt maturity to 2.8 years.
Regarding the average cost of 7.6%, this figure reflects the mix of local currency debts in Africa and Latam with higher rates compared to Europe and with the expected reduction of the interest rates expected for the second half and for next year, globally speaking, in this average cost. Now, looking to the business units and moving to slide 20 to make a brief overview and outlook from each business unit and starting by the European division in engineering and construction, we can see here that without the effect of the Polish operation, we increased 11% year on year in Europe and improving the margin to 8%. That I would say a positive performance from the Portuguese market despite the delays promoted by the unexpected elections already commented that impacted the schedule of the tenders and the award of relevant projects.
Looking to the future, we are optimistic with the Portuguese market considering the strategic projects that are in pipeline with the new stretches of high-speed train, relevant projects in ports and logistics, and new hospitals like the Algarve as an example. Of course, the expected award in the recent tender for the Violet Line, a tender of EUR 600 million, in which Mota-Engil presented the most competitive proposal. Moving to slide 22 and flying to Africa, we can see here a growth of 59% in turnover and 77% increase in EBITDA. Important to mention that Nigeria, Angola, and Mozambique, the core markets in the African division together, represent 47% of total turnover in Africa and 53% in EBITDA, with industrial engineering showing a very impressive contribution, namely with the 87% increase with a 29% EBITDA margin, allowing the region to achieve globally an impressive margin of 24%.
With the higher backlog ever in the region with EUR 9.4 billion, Mota-Engil is nowadays, as we mentioned, the leader of the segment of contract mining in the African continent, a region where Mota-Engil was recently appointed as the main European construction company in all the African continent, showing in this sense the long-term commitment from the company with the development of several African markets where the company started almost 80 years ago and is a very recognized and considered reliable brand and partner in Africa. Important to mention that we expected to resume the LNG project in Mozambique in the next until the end of this year, and that is a very relevant project for the development of Mozambique.
For last, also important to comment as a recognition of several financial institutions that Mota-Engil signed very different kinds of financial with financial entities in Africa, different frameworks with some of the most reputable multilaterals and with some operations having the curiosity of being the first non-sovereign agreement of African Development Bank that was made with Mota-Engil on the financing agreement also with IFC allocated to projects of Mota-Engil. In slide 23, we can see here the contract in a total of EUR 3.8 billion. That is the total amount of the backlog in this segment with all tier one clients and an average extension of five years with expected renewals and extensions of the contracts considering that the company is executing in several cases the first, the initial contract, guaranteeing for medium and long-term predictable cash flows after the initial investment.
Moving to slide 25, Latin America, we presented in the first half of 2025 a decrease in line with the expected turnover considering the conclusion of some relevant contracts in Mexico with Tren Maya as the major flagship project, as I commented before. In this sense, Mota-Engil expects for the near future to increase the activity in other markets with Brazil as the main focus for business development in 2025 and already with good news with the recent awards by Petrobras, a work being coordinated by the Deputy CEO, Manuel Mota, to compensate the delays on the Mexican market due to the global uncertainty related with tariffs and the first year of the mandate of the Mexican president.
Moving to slide 27, in the environment, the turnover in EBITDA was up 15% year on year with an increase of 20% in EBITDA and with the margin increased to 22% impacted by the positive performance in all the segments between waste collection to treatment and the international companies. Important to mention that after a very challenging new regulatory period of 2025-2027, we expect with EGF a foreseen increase in activity for the next years. The slides 29, for last, we can see the contribution from Mota-Engil Capital, MEXT, and Energy with EUR 61 million of turnover and a stable margin, EBITDA margin of 6% with the usual activity related with the development of real estate projects in Portugal and new projects from Mota-Engil Energy that are only in the beginning related with the biomethane production to start.
Important to highlight here the investments made in diversification in new projects, namely in concessions, as a good example with the new Lisbon hospital that is already starting the construction and the projects regarding the first stretch of high-speed train in Portugal that was awarded to the consortium of Portuguese construction companies led by Mota-Engil. In pipeline, Mota-Engil will be active in the Portuguese markets, preparing the tender for the second stretch of the high-speed train that we expect to be tendered in the second half of 2025 and the concessional program that includes ports and logistics with Porto Ports at [5 + plans ] in Portugal, a new hospital in PPP scheme in Algarve to be tendered also in the second half of 2025, and the two Tagus River connections to be developed in the upcoming years.
At the end, as comment with you, I will pass to Carlos Mota dos Santos to the slide 20 to the final remarks and the 2025 guidance.
Thank you, Pedro. As final remarks, we can say that we've been walking the talk. Basically, we've been delivering what has been our guidance in the last years. We did achieve an overall stable activity with Africa delivering a significant growth and being able to overpass the reduction that was already mentioned by me and by Pedro in Europe and also in Latin America. More important than that, overpassing that reduction and being able to have this stable turnover was the fact that we did this increasing the profitability, not only in terms of EBITDA, but also in terms of net profits, as was in the guidance and the goals that we've been establishing.
I would like to stress that this was done with the increase in industrial engineering, namely in contract mining. As was stated in the previous call, we expected to double the turnover of contract mining, maintaining the same levels of EBITDA, and that was done in the first half. Also, we've been increasing the profitability from our waste treatment projects from our environmental units. I would also like to stress that it's foreseen a very ambitious plan for next year in terms of the investment in Portugal, and that we'll find here a window of opportunity of renegotiating the contracts that we have in our waste treatment concessions. We have a very solid backlog that recently has been reinforced with the announcements that we made. This not only secures strong 2026, but also the years after that.
More important than the volume, like I stated, is the quality of this backlog. Projects with a bigger dimension, projects with a bigger profitability profile, and also with a more positive cash profile, that is one of the things that we've been looking to. We can continue our very selective commercial policy in trying to secure more and more contracts with this profile. We have a positive cash conversion during the first half, driven basically by not only the profitability, but also by a reduction on CapEx, as we announced, and an improvement on the working capital. The debt profile remains well controlled, not only with the net debt over EBITDA below 2 x, but also the gross debt over EBITDA below 4 x. As I mentioned, the first time since a long time ago, that has been below 3 x.
We expect to have an upside from some revision in interest rates in the next few weeks, and also with the extended maturities and these new financing facilities that we just announced. Concerning 2025, what can we expect? A stable turnover. We are not going to grow this year, as we've been announcing. This is still very dependent on the impacts of some projects that have been delayed, namely here in Portugal and also in Mexico, due to different reasons. Here in Portugal, as you know, we face elections this year in May. That was unforeseen in the beginning of the year. That did not only impact the award of new contracts, but also impacted the signing of these contracts, like the one of the high-speed train that's just been signed one month ago.
This has an impact in what was foreseen for this year in Portugal, and we hope that we can recover during the first half of the second half of the year. In Mexico, as you know, there's a new government in place. The new president took place on the 1st of October of 2024. We already foreseen a decrease in this market. What we didn't foresee is the impact that this tariff war or tariff policy from the United States had in the delaying of some investments, namely investments that are linked to nearshore phenomenon. Even though I like to stress that we feel now in Mexico a very positive interest coming again from American investors, namely with this nearshoring theme with the decoupling from China.
The investments that we expected, not only in terms of industrial investment, but also the investments that are related with this for the energy capacity, energy production, and energy distribution, we expect now to be fully spent in the next months to come. One positive thing about also Mexico has been the award of this new contract of railway. That is the first contract of public investment in this new government. We can expect the EBITDA to remain around 60%. We want to increase it. More important than that, or as important as that, is the improvement of net margin by the end of the year. As you know, we had the goal of 3% net margin by the end of 2026. We'll continue to pave the way to reach the 3%.
We are not going to reach 3% at the end of this year, but we are paving the growth to achieve the 3% by the end of 2026. We'll continue to have this discipline in investments policy. We can expect a CapEx of around 7% of the turnover that will positively affect our cash flow and also our debt profile. We'll focus on the free cash flow generation and also maintain the commitment of being below 2x in terms of net debt over EBITDA and below 4x in terms of gross debt over EBITDA. Also, as you remember, we have a goal to achieve an equity-to-asset target above 15% by the end of 2026.
That is going to continue to have a steady and positive progress to achieve that goal by the end of 2026, driven by the improved profitability and also a more and more optimized asset management with some policies in terms of asset restations to be done during the second half of this year and also in 2026. Overall, a very positive outlook for the end of 2025 and preparing what is going to be the next strategic cycle that is going to be foreseen in the new strategic plan that the main focus, again, will be profitability and improvement of our balance sheets and our debt profile. Thank you very much for attending the presentation, and we are now available for your Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session starts now. If you wish to ask a question, please press star, followed by five on your telephone keypad. The first question comes from the line of Jorge Guimaraes from JP Capital. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. I have two questions, if I might. The first one is related with the working capital evolution in the first half of the year. If we exclude the EUR 209 million of delayed payments from Q4 2024, effectively, there was an outflow of EUR 95 million, if I'm not mistaken, in the first half of the year. This compares with an inflow of EUR 95 million last year in the same period. Should we expect a change in the working capital profile of the first half of the year going forward, or was it simply a one-off phenomenon in the first half of 2025? The second one is if you can quantify the upside for the backlog of the project that you mentioned in Portugal, namely in the construction backlog. Thank you very much.
Jorge, thank you. Thank you for your questions. If you allow me, can you again rephrase the second question? I'm afraid I didn't quite understood.
No. If you can give us an idea of all the pipeline of potential new works in Portugal, what could it represent in terms of the construction backlog?
Okay. Thank you, Jorge. I'll answer the second question, and then I'll ask José Carlos to talk about the working capital. As I explained, the backlog that we announced doesn't have within some contracts, namely the contracts in Portugal. That was the high-speed train project that we signed one month ago. If we can, let's say, have a projection for the end of the year concerning Portugal, I'm very, let's say, very positive of being awarded still some contracts by the end of the year. Namely, we are very positive in the Violet project in the metro of Lisbon. As we know, as it's been announced, has been publicized in the media, we presented an offer. It's, I would say, the most competitive offer that was presented. We are very positive of being awarded that contract. That is around EUR 500 million.
We expect the second stretch of the high-speed train project to be relaunched to tender next month, next September. We are very much focused and very committed with this project, as you know. We are going to be present, and we're going to give an offer that will be very competitive because we have the advantage of being awarded the first stretch, and we can have some upsides of having some synergies between the two stretches. Alongside with these two projects, we expect also that, as has been announced recently, the launch of the new tender of the Faro Hospital in Algarve. That will be through a PPP scheme, very similar to the one that we've been awarded in Lisbon. Also, some other projects, namely the ones related with the ports plan that was just recently presented.
I would say, I don't know if the second stretch of the high-speed train project is going to be awarded this year, but one thing that is for sure, we're going to be present and we are going to be very competitive. We are very much positive, not only to be awarded the project that I mentioned about the metro of Lisbon, but also some other private building projects. Also, one very important industrial project that we are working already in that. That is a plant of electrical batteries in Sines that we are already working the preliminary works, and we are going to present an offer for the rest of the project. That is the CALB Plant that, as you know, is a multi-million euro project that is going to be done in the next years in Sines.
I don't know if I answered your question, but I will ask José Carlos to answer about the question that you made about working capital, okay?
Thank you, Carlos. Thank you, everyone, for being here today with us. Good afternoon. Thank you, Jorge, for your question. Regarding the working capital evolution, I would say the following. First, it's true that without the inflow of EUR 209 million from the Nigerian project, the figures would be different, but it was part of our operations, like we stated in February. It's true that the working capital would be EUR 63 million, excluding the new investment on this milestone-based event that we have regarding the rolling stock contract in Nigeria. I would say as well the following. You know that, or we all know that, it's not only for Mota-Engil, it's for the sector that typically the first half of each year is more challenging or demanding in terms of public investment and even budget execution everywhere.
We can see more pressure, we can feel more pressure typically in Africa first and Latam as well. Even having the same pressure that we typically used to have in the first quarter, we can see it very positively. If we can, I would say, transpose or transform this EUR 63 million into days, it would be an evolution of less than a week. It would be four days of working capital without the Nigerian effect, which in reality, it occurred. In terms of perspective, what can I say is that we, it's a, I would say, a golden rule of the group, a main principle for us to still continue to improve our working capital evolution. We've been consistently being during the last periods below 10%. We improved now for 7%.
It's the guidance that I can share with you that our perspective, our goal, our aim is always to be below, I mean, maximum 10% of the turnover regarding the working capital investment or needs. I would say in a nutshell, in fact, we improved our working capital. Without Nigeria, it would be an impact of four days increasing. In the end, we are always talking about the first half, always very demanding in terms of budget execution, namely from our severance and public compounds.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Filipe Leite from CaixaBank BPI. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, hello, everyone. I have three questions, if I may. The first one is actually a follow-up on the working capital question. Just to understand, is the EUR 32 million that you mentioned related with the milestone-based impact, if it will be collected in the second half of this year or not? The second question on the environmental services, because after the breakup of assets with Urbaser, the idea or the goal was to speed up the international extension of this unit. It was something that was not witnessed yet because international activity is still below 30% of the unit. Are you still betting on the international opportunities of environmental and services activity? Should this be done by new contracts? M&A, basically to understand where are these international opportunities and why it takes so long to materialize. Last one is on industrial engineering, the mining activity.
If you can share with us your strategic view for the unit, do you see the close to EUR 4 billion backlog as a stabilized level for this unit? Now you will be focused on perhaps profitability, cash flow generation, extension of current contracts, or do you expect additional awards, additional contracts for the future? If you are already looking at something in the short term. Thank you.
Filipe, thank you for your questions. Good afternoon. I will answer the second and third questions, and José Carlos will do the follow-up questions on the working capital. Beginning by the last one about industrial engineering and focusing on contract mining, our goal now is to focus on profitability and to focus on the, let's say, the synergies that we can have from every contract and to improve the procedures and to improve our performance in each and every contract. We are not focusing on having new contracts, even though we can have new contracts because nowadays, as we've been mentioning, we are today the biggest African operators in terms of contract mining. What is happening is that the clients are seeking us and not us seeking the client.
I'm not saying that we'll not have more contracts in the future, but for the meantime, we have these 10 contracts with the clients that we are working with. Our focus for the remaining of the year and for next year is to extract more value coming from these contracts, not only in terms of profitability, but also extracting more value in terms of being able to get new awards or to renegotiate the contracts in order to extend the period of the contract. As you know, and as I may we already explained, we believe that the biggest value within these contracts is in the second life of the contracts. In the extension of the contracts, for that extension, even though we need to negotiate the price, we don't have to do the same amount of investment as in the beginning of the contract.
Basically, with 10% of the initial amount of the investments, we can have an extension for another five to seven years. That will allow us to have much bigger profitabilities. Also, because these are very cyclical activities, that's why we call it industrial. Along with the cycle of the projects, we can gain from efficiency of this process of performing the contracts. I would like to mention that also in the industrial engineering, we have this contract mining, but also we have some other activities, namely activities related with oil and gas, in which we are pursuing those opportunities in Brazil. As was mentioned in the presentation, we have been awarded several contracts in Brazil, namely with Petrobras. We are looking to expand those activities and those opportunities in other markets, namely in Africa and to be more focused in Nigeria and also in Angola.
Concerning the second question that you asked about the environmental, it's true that when we did the operation with Urba, one of the things that were underneath the strategy was to grow in our international activity. We are still pursuing that. One of the things that we had underneath that strategy was to extract more value coming from this operation. We are already doing that. We just announced in the presentation that we have five projects here in Portugal of biomethane units. These projects are financed through the CRR. These projects are related with our own activity of the waste treatment because these projects are to purify the biogas that comes out from the waste treatment process in order to convert it to biomethane or to methane.
With that, we also want to be part of the commercial part of the business that is to sell this biomethane to the industry, namely the R2 of 8 industry, that is the glass industry, the cement industry, and the metallic industry. When we did this transaction with Urbaser, there were two main drivers.
One is the international part that we are pursuing, and the other one is to extract more value that we are also pursuing, not only with these energy projects that are related with the waste treatment activity, but also with the thing that I just mentioned in the presentation that is with this new investment plan that is foreseen for next year's Portugal to pursue the goals for 2035. There is a window of opportunity to renegotiate the concession contracts that will allow us, hopefully, more time, more extension of the contracts so that we can pursue these investment plans. Of course, that will lead us to an increase in the activity and also in the profitability. In terms of the follow-up question about working capital, I will ask José Carlos to answer the question that you may.
Okay. Thank you, Filipe. Regarding the EUR 32 million that you were asking regarding the milestone-based event, just for us to remember what is it about. We are talking about a supply and implementation of rolling stock trains in our main contract, [Camarin Engil ]. What happens in this kind of contract is that we need to pay to our supplier in China, which is CRRC, to produce the trains on a recurrent basis. The contract that we have with our client has a different way of being invoiced and collected. It is marked by milestones. When we achieved the first three wagons, the first four wagons, the first this or that, we are able or authorized to invoice. This is what causes this mismatch between what we have to pay into our supply, China supply, CRRC, and what we are collecting from our client based on that milestone scheme.
Regarding this EUR 32 million in particular, what happens is that it's correspondent roughly to one month of the new milestone that we are now executing. The first one was roughly EUR 210 million corresponding to six months of production. We are expecting in particular this EUR 32 million to be collected, but it doesn't mean that if at that time, when we close the accounting or in September, if we are in the middle of another production stage, which can be more or less relevant in the end of the year, it will depend on the speed of construction from our supplier as well. We can have the same effect, which can be half of a month. It can be a month. It can be a month and a half. It will depend. It's not up to us with regards to Mota-Engil.
It's to pay on time to CRRC in order for us to meet with the timing on the requirements of our main contract. Since we achieved the milestone based on that scheme, we are able to invoice and to collect from our client. To conclude, this EUR 32 million for sure will be collected in the next cycle, which will be for sure in 2025. We expect, because we are knowing better the cycle and we're adjusting with the supplier as well, the expectations and the rhythm, we are trying to fine-tune and to be able to be more, I would say, quite serious and more keen to adjust the timing of production with our defects on our main events in terms of accounting.
Perfect. Very clear. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star, followed by five on your telephone keypad. We appear to have no further questions from the conference call at this time. I'll hand back to the management team. Thank you.
Thank you. Let me thank you again for your attendance during this conference call. I want to say that our Investor Relations team is always available to answer any further questions that you might have, not only regarding this first half of the year 2025 results, but also any other information that you might want from us. Thank you again for attending, and hope to see you soon and talk to you soon. Thank you.