Good evening. Thanks for being present at this meeting of presentation of the Annual Results 2023 of Eiffage. I commend the members of the management, the directors who are with us today. I choose to start this with this video which is really showing some highlights of the 30 past years of the group, 2023 marking the 30th anniversary of the brand Eiffage. As you have seen, the history is really full of major projects or major acquisitions that enabled us to change our dimension. This required to move the collective success under the banner of the group as a priority. This video, we choose it to illustrate our new employee brand, summarized by Esprit de Famille, Family Spirit. 2023 is an excellent vintage on all of the KPIs.
Once again, growth of activity was supported by an increase of the results in Contracting as well as in concession. Generation of free cash flow is very significant and enabled important investments of growth in Contracting and in concession. We experienced an order intake exceptional thanks to the attribution of civil engineering of the two EPR2s of Penly and Line 15 East of the Grand Paris Express, outcome of three years of intensive work of our technical and commercial lines of business. Those projects mobilizing all of us are structuring for the pursuit of the development of the group in the decade to come. We were already strong with a beautiful visibility in works. It has amplified.
The global performance of our activity of commercial property in all the business lines delivers a stability enabling us to roll out ourselves on projects more important on long term, dozens of millions EUR at Eiffage Énergie Systèmes and Eiffage Route, over EUR 100 million with Eiffage Construction and Eiffage Métal, and several billion EUR at Eiffage Génie Civil, sometimes mobilizing several business lines of the group. For Eiffage Construction, 2023 showed again the resilience of our model builder promoter with beautiful contracts won and an improvement of our profitability Contracting enabling to offset the decrease of the contribution of real estate to our results. While maintaining good levels of profitability, real estate is facing a decrease of 30% of the reservations.
The ramping up of activity of renovation of buildings that I alluded to in past semester is confirmed, as well as beautiful project of public equipment in a decision of sobriety and energy transition without forgetting a certain amount of important industrial projects. Eiffage Construction won the contract for the design and implementation of the site regrouping the National Court of Right of Asylum and the Administrative Court of Montreuil, renovation of an existing building and building of two new buildings. Beginning of 2024, Eiffage Construction was awarded the contract of heavy renovation of the Cristal East project in Paris, including three buildings for a total surface of over 25,000 square meters.
The continuity of a certain amount of tertiary operations for the account of Covivio. Eiffage Construction and Goyer also won the contract for the building of the extension of close to 38,000 square meter of the Thales Helios campus at Vélizy-Meudon. Our teams will implement two of the four batches of new construction of the project of the reconversion of the former Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Hospital by the City of Paris in Eco- neighborhood, 600 housing units, places devoted to social and solidarity economy as well as public and cultural equipments. Eiffage Construction started the works of the future building devoted to innovation and ecology, 25,000 square meters for Kadans Science Partner within the Grand Parc Villejuif campus.
Our teams are finalizing two iconic buildings of the sports event that will be held in Paris, the restoration of the facades of the Grand Palais and the Athletes Village in Saint-Ouen. In real estate, we have signed with the CCI Hérault a contract for the future Campus Cambacérès in Montpellier, a new neighborhood composed of three buildings for a total surface of 30,000 square meters, regrouping the School of Management Montpellier Business School and the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Highlighting also the beautiful development of real estate in Poland, on screen you see two operations, Postępu in Warsaw, 430 units for a Scandinavian fund, and Marcelińska in Poznan with 136 apartments sold by batches.
In Belgium, the group, who is globally the second player in Construction, is rolled out in a certain amount of iconic projects like the new headquarters of the Belgian television called Media Square. The future building with a surface of close to 40,000 square meters will meet the evolution of the activities of the Belgian television and will have a high energy performance. Our teams delivered also a new station of buses positioned on the roof of the train station of Namur in Belgium. Since March 1, 2023, it offers a secure and comfortable space for the users while avoiding the traffic jams around. The road also saw a growth of activity of works with an order intake robust. For some years already, business is changing with a ramping up of works in terms of soft mobility and urban design.
Eiffage Route reduces its dependence on public investments and electoral cycles. Activity is thus more resilient. Beautiful example on screen with the design of the Château of Caen in view of its millenary, 1,000 years that will be celebrated in 2025. Innovative solutions are interesting more and more our public order givers but also our private customers. Innovation is always there with the first use at large scale of the EcOasis solution Belleville-en-Beaujolais, a solution that is adding to the permeable plant coating and a reservoir road system as well as a suitable vegetation in order to reduce urban heat island phenomena. In Spain, the dynamic is strong like the project you see on screen, a highway junction on the A334 delivered in September 2023.
Eiffage Génie Civil has a very good visibility with major projects of Infrastructure of transportation awarded in 2023 in France but also in several European countries. A good example, the two batches of the third line of the metro of Toulouse awarded in February and March 2023 for which we shall reuse three of the tunnel borers that were used to dig some of the lines of the Grand Paris Express. You can see the site for the reconditioning of those tunnel borers that will dig the 12.7 kilometers of the future C Line . The smooth running of our first Norwegian contract on motorway E18 enabled us to strengthen the second phase of the project that you see part on the screen to EUR 600 million. 2023 saw the materialization of the new contract in Norway allocated by the second state structure which is developing and supervising the road network.
It is a major turnpike on the urban motorway E18 E39 at Kristiansand, the implementation of 12 works, rebuilding of 1.5 kilometers of railroad, and the redevelopment of the ferry terminal existing already. We remain totally mobilized on HS2 in the UK representing this year over EUR 640 million of activity globally for Eiffage. And we are already at 64% of progress on the major projects of A3 implemented in PPP for Eiffage Concessions in Germany. The last of the eight parts, the delivery is foreseen in two years from now. Like during the first half year, Eiffage Métal enjoys a very strong growth in its activities of industrial buildings, works of art, and of course structures in servicing the wind farms.
The traction of Eiffage Métal with more than 40% of growth remains supported by the wind farms offshore in all of the European seas but also with some export contracts in Asia and the United States. October 2023, Eiffage Métal through Smulders won the contract for the manufacturing of the 76 pieces of transition for Baltic Power, the first offshore wind farm in Poland. This will be supported by the Belgian, British, and Polish factories that I described last semester. On screen on the Rhine River, the new bridge of Leverkusen in Germany inaugurated February 4, 2024. In the line of the iconic buildings signed by architect Frank Gehry like Fondation Louis Vuitton, the envelope of the LVMH Art -Talent- Patrimoine will be also made by Eiffage Métal.
Before discussing our multi-business projects, a glimpse at our façadier Goyer, delivering the greatest project of its history in Poland with the bridge in Warsaw and the greatest project of its history in France with the envelope of The Link, the future headquarters of TotalEnergies at La Défense. Having delivered successfully in 2023 the first part of the gigafactory for the production of car batteries for the joint venture ACC in Douvrin, all our business lines are mobilized for the phase two of this factory. Following the works of civil engineering that we have led since 2014, either on the extension on line 14 north and south, the bundle 2B of line 15 and the tremendous project of line 16 will remain mobilized in the support of the additional batches allocated directly by the Société des Grands Projets, major projects.
Line 14 is extended and the major station of Saint-Denis-Pleyel will be key Infrastructures for the Olympic Games of this summer. The most important part for the group in 2024 will be the full production on the batches of stations for Eiffage Construction and Eiffage Énergie Systèmes and the 10 contracts of technical batches, all technologies for our businesses in energy. Now let's move to Énergie Systèmes branch. 2023 confirmed the very good tractions for several years now. The order book is full thanks to the commercial property which is doing very well, Grand Paris Express data center, industrial investment, also the program of investment for hospitals in the cities of Lens, Tours, Monaco, or even Nantes that you see here on screen.
Without any doubt, the traction of the Energy Systems in all of our implementations in Europe will be supported in the short-, medium-, and long-range by all the investments necessary for the digital transition and environmental evolution of the energy mix, like for instance the charging of electric cars, things in the solar energy, and the performance representing growth relays on all markets. French Train delegated to us the rolling out and the operation maintenance of charging stations for its fleet. We shall install 5,000 points of charge on all of the territory within four years and then six years of maintenance. For several years, our strategy of external growth within Eiffage Énergie Systèmes is a lever for growth in the branch. The acquisitions of small size entities enable it to increase its territorial coverage and strengthen its expertise in Europe.
The business line realized in 2023 11 acquisitions, EUR 500 million of activity, 10% in France, 90% in our target countries in Europe, and over 2,400 employees were joining us. One acquisition slightly more significant in the Netherlands was finalized recently. The Van den Pol enables us to cover all our expertise on industry and tertiary. In 2022, its sales was of EUR 75 million and it has 250 employees. Mainly as we wished, we led an acquisition, structuring acquisition with 51% of the Salvia Group in Germany. This company covers all of the cycle of the technical life of buildings and specializes in electric, climate, energy, civil engineering as well as in maintenance. 1,600 employees implemented sales to the tune of EUR 350 million in 2022. Thanks to its 28 locations, it is on all the German territory, especially in the tertiary and industry sectors.
Beyond Europe, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes follows its development in export mode. As you see on screen, two magnificent projects of electrical station in Senegal for over EUR 50 million and the ongoing implementation of the line 400 kilovolt Abidjan for close to EUR 30 million. In Spain, Eiffage Energía Sistemas goes on with its very strong growth, supported especially by its leader position of installation of sun farms and first network, maintenance of the network needing very strong investment to guarantee the production of renewable energy which is in strong growth in Spain.
To conclude this 360 degrees of highlights, it seems mandatory to get back about the exceptional order intake for 2023, enabling us to conclude the year with a visibility without any precedent since our order book is to the tune of EUR 26 billion, a growth of EUR 7.5 billion compared to the end of 2022. We made the choice to present the book showing the flow on one plus two more years. The same presentation will be picked up by Christian in the slides line by line of the financial presentation. As you see on screen, the visibility was very good by the end of 2022, and it changes its dimension by the end of 2023 for the years 2026 and beyond.
Indeed, the order book that will be on the 24th and 25th is slightly growing by 3% compared to the previous year. For 2026 and beyond, this is essentially the commercial successes with the two exceptional businesses that are the Line 15 of Grand Paris Express that will mobilize all of the lines of the group and the civil engineering of EPR2 in Penly with over EUR 6 billion of this horizon are an illustration of this change of visibility in the long run. On screen, the Line 15 project for an amount of EUR 2.54 billion, 70 km of tunnel, 15 servicing works, railways, installation of high level electric current and low current, and electromechanical equipment implementation of six stations, and the civil engineering contract of the two first EPR2s in Penly in Normandy for over EUR 4 billion.
Beyond this order of EUR 26 billion, we have also, as I said half a year ago, the equivalent of EUR 2 billion of Contracting that will go into the book when they will be delivered and only a small part of it was performed in 2023. In itself, the Nové contract represents EUR 200 million of activity in 2024 and over EUR 400 million in 2025 just for the line Construction which is an asset given the situation of housing in France.
Beyond those contracts in several years which are significant that will get into the order book on the go, we have disclosed recently on two major projects, Rail Baltica in Latvia where studies started and should lead to phases of work as of 2024 for amounts of EUR 200 million each and our last success A412 in Haute-Savoie supported by Eiffage Concessions and the implementation will be made by Contracting. We started exclusive negotiation with the Ministry of Transport in France for this new motorway link over 16 kilometers between Thonon and Machilly and a concession for a period of 55 years. Okay, let's move to concessions. Beyond the success of A412, 2023 was also very important with the implementation of a certain amount of major contracts awarded in 2022 and the pursuit of development of our portfolio.
You see on screen our traditional spreadsheet that I have added to the one I have presented at half year. It integrates the Marina of Toulon and the A412 that I just alluded to. You see on screen a view of the Marina of Toulon. With our partner Sodep orts, we became an important player for the management of marinas thanks to the attention by the delegation of public service for 30 years of the 10 ports, Marina of Toulon and the spaces which is 3,500 places of parking for yachts. This project is an additional to the one of Marina Baie des Anges in Villeneuve-Loubet where the works have started representing 500 parking spaces. UCPA Aqua Stadium Mérignac has opened its doors to the public in February 2023.
After a record year in 2023 with several concerts and the World Cup of Rugby, the teams of Decathlon Arena Stade Pierre-Mauroy are ready to welcome the 36 matches of female and male basketball of the games of 2024, plus 16 matches for final phases of handball. So that's 52 matches, 45 days of preparation, 15 days of competition 24/7, a real challenge for our teams. The traffic of our two airport concessions is rising by 10%, over 10% supported by the opening of new lines international like Qatar Airways and Air Canada in Toulouse. Traffic is now 82% of the one of 2019. Since last summer, we were holding 100% of the concession society of the Viaduc de Millau until 2079. We are very glad about that.
You know our attachment to this project which is part, as you have seen in the video at the opening, of the iconic works of the group. A work that we shall commemorate the 20 years this year in a nice way since the Olympic flame will be passing this viaduct in May and in September we will organize the seventh release of the Eiffage Race of Viaduct de Millau. We went on with our rising in the capital of Getlink and we hold now 20.55%, 20.55% of the capital and two directors. This is a pillar of our capacity to keep in the long range our balance between concession and works. On motorways, 2023 was rather dynamic in terms of traffic, especially for the light vehicles with a global increase of 2.5%. This was also the year of the Free Flow on ALIAE.
Eight million clients went through our gates enjoying a reliability and a service level of quality. We have to support the less comfortable clients with the new technology, simplifying even more their path or their way, but we made the essential to start this technology on the national territory and become a reference. The very beautiful activity of the service area of Bourbonnais designed with the territory which has registered sales to the tune of EUR 10 million this year. 2023 was also the year of the first anniversary of fully our brand encompassing also the surfaces of mobility. In addition to the 850 stations of charge, high power charge for the cars, we are focusing on the charging stations for electricity and hydrogen for HGVs.
In relation with the concession, 2023 started well with the signature of the investment plan of EUR 410 million, example in a small scale of what should be done for an ecological transition of road transports with EUR 200 million for the return of concession of the 20 km of the A6 and the total renovation. But it has been totally different. I cannot but talk about the attack we experienced in our motorway concessions due to the will of our governments to implement a new tax in spite of their commitments to ensure the fiscal stability of our contracts. 2024 year will be intense in our will to have our rights recognized and to ask for compensations facing this new tax. Regarding our carbon climate strategy, we committed to reduce our direct releases, i.e., our consumptions, especially of fuel and gas representing 80% of our releases.
Beyond our own releases, we have to help our customers to reduce their emissions by being an example of exemplary solutions in terms of low carbon but also in biodiversity. Since 2023, we roll out our strategy of circular economy by supporting the ramping up of businesses of renovation, selective demolition, and improvement of the practices in terms of management of waste. Those businesses are pioneers to be in favor of the development of reuse and recycling. All our efforts were recognized by the SBTi who validated our path of reduction of our greenhouse gas release for horizon 2030. To be reliable in our strategy regarding our customers, we have to be an example.
We signed the charter of commitment for the sobriety of the tertiary buildings with the French Ministry of the Energy Transition, but we carry on our investments with the renovation of our real estate and the implementation of charging stations and installation also of sun farms wherever possible. We are building new headquarters according to the best standards like the headquarters Eiffage Énergie Systèmes in Longvic that you see on screen, low carbon containers made by our subsidiary B3 Ecodesign. To sum it up, 2023 has been a very good year, performing from many points of view. The growth of our sales is always there, noticeably by an increased growth in Europe and on the businesses very dynamic on Eiffage Énergie Systèmes and Eiffage Métal.
This development in concession and in Contracting has been supported again by an improvement of our results and with the growth of our underlying earnings stronger than the one of the sales with 8.6%. Net result group grows by 13.1%, enjoying also for the first year of the equivalence of about 20.55% of Getlink and reaches EUR 1.013 billion. Thanks to the very good operational performance, but also to the good position of the cash flow, we have a free cash flow reaching a historic level at EUR 2.3 billion. Net gearing decreases by EUR 250 million while we went on with our investments and the plan to strengthen our portfolio of concession and the pursuit of the strategy of external growth and Contracting, especially in the energy systems branch.
As said previously, our order intake is growing by 40% thanks to the two major contracts of the Line 15 East and the civil engineering of the two EPR2 of Penly, offering us an unheard-of visibility for 2026 and beyond while making sure that 2024 will still be growing in a more moderate way. Our Contracting activity will be rising in 2024 with, however, an organic growth less sustained than in 2023. The activity of our concession is also expected to be in growth in 2024. The results in Contracting will be in progression. Those on concession will be strongly impacted by the new tax on the transport Infrastructure. Hence, the net profit Group of 2024 should be more or less the same as in 2023.
Thanks to this very beautiful year, we shall propose, suggest to the General Assembly of April 2024 a dividend of EUR 4.10 per share for 2023 and increase to the tune of EUR 0.50. Thank you for your attention and I leave the floor to Christian Cassayre to give you a detailed explanation for the financial part.
[Foreign language] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to give you the financials of the presentation. First, we're going to look at a business review. 2023 was yet another year of steady growth, +7.4%. There was +7.1% in Contracting and 9.2% growth in concessions. Concessions benefited from three new operated assets: Nové, A79 on a full-year basis, and Sun'R, which was acquired at the end of 2022. Three assets that contribute 3% of the 9.2% in growth in concessions. On the right, you have the strong buoyancy of our European markets outside France, +16.4%. We have chosen to now show you the numbers over a period of five instead of two years, which really gives some outlook to what I'm saying because the yellow part is up +60% over a four-year period before our last two acquisitions in Germany and the Netherlands.
In Contracting, well, I need to say two things first. On the left-hand side, you can see the average growth, 7.1%, but there are strong pluses and minuses according to business lines with two business lines that benefited from buoyancy as described by Benoît, whereas Construction was hit by the new housing crisis, but it didn't really dip that much. And on the right, you see that the share of Contracting outside France is now 37% of the total versus 31% three years ago. And the share of the business outside Europe, once again, shrank. So first look, let's take a look at our margin in Contracting. Significant 4% growth. Profit from recurring operations up EUR 19 million, 13.9%. In other words, two times faster growth than sales, which was 7.1%.
In concessions, the drop in margin that was already seen in the half-year was due to the dilution generated by the operation of three new concessions, the ones I mentioned. On a constant scope basis, the margin would be 47.5%. Also, there's an increased amortization at APRR due to the commissioning of a few large investments. We're looking at EUR 49 million in additional amortization. Now, regarding the holding company, there is an additional expense with the group savings plans following a new calculation method following a change in policy in France. This is a non-cash expense that we also mentioned on the 30th of June. In spite of the last three items I mentioned, operating margin for the group was slightly up, 11%. In Construction now, the dip in the business in France, -4.5%, is due solely to the drop in sales in property development, 27% less.
Construction only in France was stable, +0.3%, given the diversification of the business line in segments other than new housing. In Europe, Belgium, and Luxembourg fared well. Business picked up in Poland, and altogether, the rise is 5%. You see that the margin showed 3.7%, which is good. This owes quite a lot to a very selective policy when it comes to picking up business. You see that the order book doesn't really increase that much, and the share to be done a year later is slightly down. We have to take Nové into consideration there. The solid performance of real estate with a 7.1% margin, but of course, the business was dropping. Real estate contributes EUR 59 million of profit from recurring operations versus EUR 83 million in 2022. The drop is offset by a better performance in Contracting.
In Infrastructure now, the stable business in France conceals pluses and minuses according to the business lines as seen here. The drop in civil engineering, 11.9%, can be accounted for by the EUR 340 million drop in business in the Grand Paris Express projects, EUR 517 million in 2022. Roadworks showed resilience in spite of a drop in tonnage in industry with more urban development and private markets. And the exceptional growth in metal, +41.8%, was boosted by wind energy. Similar figure in international operations, +45%, actually. In civil engineering, our subsidiaries in Germany experienced double-digit growth due to good progress of highway A3, a PPP right there. Our projects in the U.K. and Norway are in full production spring. The operating margin rose to 3.2%, up 30 basis points owing to the increased contribution of metal, but also to the increased margin in civil engineering and roadworks.
I will come back to the log book, which was commented upon at great length. Energy systems, well, here we're looking at solid 11.6% growth, and this has become a constant double-digit growth over the past three years. The contribution of acquisitions is 3.6%. The contribution was 4.1% in 2022, and it will be even greater in 2024. So there again, we have a constant. The contribution of external growth is recurring, and it does materialize. The growth rates by geography that you can see here may be surprising, but bear in mind that in France, at the end of 2022, we integrated Réseau Mobile, a company that we acquired from SNEF. So international sales are low due to the termination of transportation lines in Germany in 2022 and to another 6% drop in non-European business.
Operating margin was significantly up, 5.4%, owing to market buoyancy that was mentioned and that allowed us to remain selective. We look at added value in our offerings, and of course, volume has stepped up somewhat. You can see that the log book gives us greater visibility. Of course, there are the acquisitions that were finalized in January, stating the obvious. Over the past 10 years, Eiffage has been supporting athletes through a performance compact. So this is a compact time between the state companies and athletic organizations to help and support high-level athletes. Since 2014, we've supported 30 athletes across our business lines. So we're looking at BMX, boxing, judo, fencing, hammer throw, high jump, paracycling, rowing, and paraswimming. That's for our Contracting line. In concessions, here you have this new chart for you.
It gives you our main assets, and some of you have requested this information. Here it is for you. On the right, you see the contribution to sales over a five-year period, which helps you understand, especially if you look at the bottom, the ramp-up of new assets in three different sections. First of all, we have a certain number of new highway concessions shown in red. This does not yet include ADELAC, concession holder of A41. Sales will be consolidated in 2024. Sales amounted to EUR 68 million in 2023. You have the two airports, which we operate. You have other assets, especially in PPP. You must bear in mind that these are assets that we consolidate and for which we have a different economic interest.
On the bottom, we have an average of 75% versus 52% of APRR. Of course, these figures do not include our 20.55% stake in Getlink, which is consolidated on an equity basis. So what about the profitability? Regarding APRR, this is the usual financial indicator chart for you. You have A79 right there, and it does show it's a mirror of the consolidated financial statements of APRR. Traffic was robust in 2023, and the EBITDA margin rose 20 basis points in spite of the dilution with the startup of A79, 20 basis point dilution. Apart from that, we were up 40 basis points if you consider APRR AREA, that scope only. In other words, about our non-APRR highway concessions, and let me come back to airports. And here you have the contribution to EBITDA and margin levels.
You see EBITDA over 72% on average for highways, most recent highways, good performance there. Regarding A79, we are a direct operator, and we integrate the EUR 10 million in sales of the service area, which is a major contributor to result, but it's dilutive in terms of margin, of course. The Lille Airport was awarded through call for tenders, not much capital employed so far. On the right, you have the contribution of all these assets in terms of profit from recurring operations. The other PPPs are shown here, EUR 96 million on the whole, including EUR 68 million for BPL. The other PPPs are Nové, smaller PPPs in Construction, and the corresponding maintenance business. So much for our consolidated concessions. So this does not include Getlink, which has been consolidated on an equity basis since 27th of April, 2023.
On the right, you have the key 100% numbers, historically, the sales, net result, because it's a share of the result that we integrate in our results, of course. We integrated EUR 25 million in net profit based on Getlink's EUR 296 million result. This is the Bloomberg consensus that was released a few days ago. Final numbers will be published tomorrow. We took into consideration an amortization of goodwill, EUR 13 million on a full-year basis. All this has been prorated since April 27 based on the level of our stake. So much for our operating performance according to our concession assets and according to the various BLs in Contracting. Concessions also support high-level athletes, para table tennis, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, and race walking. We do hope that everyone will be qualified this summer. Some of these athletes were already competing in Rio and Tokyo, by the way.
So let's take a look at the financial statements. The consolidated statement of income and the operating expenses and income items, EUR 51 million. First, I must point out a revaluation of profit because of the ADELAC control, now EUR 74 million, and a non-recurring expense of EUR 47 million due to the discounting of the calculation parameters of the provision. These two elements do not have any impact on cash. There is a share of minorities. The cost of financial debt increased EUR 41 million, including EUR 32 million for APRR and AREA. The other income and expense items include EUR 33 million in profit from Getlink, which is now in the consolidated scope, non-cash, already recognizing the accounts as at June 30th. Income tax, EUR 544 million. The rate is 26.7%, identical to 2022. Net attributable profit, EUR 1,013 million.
Net EPS, EUR 10.65. So debt is shown as usual here. EBITDA is greater than in 2022, EUR 350 million, greater almost. Change in working capital requirement once again generates cash, EUR 359 million. All of this in Contracting. And the four-year total is over EUR 1.1 billion. Evidence of the robustness of our Contracting performance over all these years. The evolution of the indicator is provided in the appendices. Interest and tax already paid out increased EUR 110 million, including EUR 85 million for taxes, which makes sense. Operating investments in Contracting increased EUR 654 million with more energy, renovation, great examples that Benoît showed you. And there were industrial investments in metal to follow the growth of offshore wind energy. So this is where we invest quite a lot, I must say.
In concessions, investments are down, but the 2022 number, mind you, included EUR 222 million for the aid of the Construction of A79 highway. The following flow shows the payback of debt payables in PPPs, that is. Free cash flow, EUR 2.2 billion, up EUR 271 million due to the increase in EBITDA, the drop in working capital requirement, and the drop in investments in concessions. We were able to finance EUR 541 million in acquisitions, including the 49% purchase of the stake in the viaduct, the ramp-up in our stake in Getlink, and the smaller acquisitions, especially in energy systems. The latest acquisitions of Salvia and Van den Pol were cashed out in January 2024. Nevertheless, we invested precisely EUR 2 billion in external growth over the last 24 months, which is quite substantial.
In other variations, you have the net debt of ADELAC consolidated, EUR 636 million. And also, we decided no longer to include our purchasing options in our financial debt. I'm talking about that, which we have with our minority shareholders. This was under other liabilities, EUR 166 million at the end of 2022. Capital-based transactions, we have the dividend that Eiffage paid out in 2023, EUR 351 million, dividend paid by APRR to its minority shareholder. And we have the reinforcement of our treasury stock, 4.1% at the end of 2023 versus 3.4% in 2022. Net debt amounted to EUR 9.9 billion, down EUR 250 million, EUR 900 million before the consolidation of ADELAC's debt. Our debt is broken down between non-recourse debt for concessions and the cash of the Holding and Contracting.
Non-recourse debt is shown in black for Contracting and increased a mere EUR 130 million in spite of the takeover of ADELAC's debt. The Holding's cash and Contracting's holding in red benefited from the good operating performance of Contracting in terms of profit and working capital requirement, and it closed at nearly EUR 1 billion, same number as at the end of 2021 in spite of our investing EUR 2 billion over the two years in external growth. Strong performance of our model in terms of cash generation and WCR management in 2022. We sold off APRR financed by and as you know, it turned out into non-recourse debt. Quickly now, the backlog, it was commented upon by Benoît as far as the left part is concerned. On the right, you have the details by business line.
Unsurprisingly, very strong visibility in the medium and long term as far as Infrastructure goes, and there's less visibility in energy systems. Construction is resisting given the markets that the business line is involved in. Thank you for listening. I'm done with the financials. At this point, we can move on to the much-awaited Q&A.
Good evening. I'm with Citi, Morgan. Thank you for the presentation. I have several questions, if I may. Let me start with Contracting and order book. Quite impressive, I must say. You were told that order books are up 40%, but there are new contracts that you've already secured. So my first question is, how many projects have you secured that are not yet in the order book, and when will they be in the order book? My second question, in Contracting again, you mentioned strong visibility in terms of Contracting sales with the strong order book, but you said there was a mere 3% rise in 2024 and 2025 even. Is this before the new contracts are secured in the order book, or does it take into consideration everything you've already recorded and booked?
And still in Contracting, could you give us more flavor regarding the margin of the order book for these? Is the risk profile different with the size of the projects that has become larger? And later, I have a few more questions, if I may.
Why don't we show the last slide of the order book at this point? Well, I only mentioned two projects that are not in the order book. There's still some recurring business, but that's not what we're talking about. The only significant contracts are Rail Baltica. It's a rather specific contract because we've secured a contract which involves EUR 20 million in engineering to look at the portions that need to be done. We will agree with a client. We're looking at anywhere between EUR 160 million and EUR 300 million for each portion. When we agree on all that, we give reference prices, you see. And then when everything is ready, we will be given a purchase order, and we will roll out what we have to do for the first portion. And we have engineering teams that are working on the next portions.
So over time and over a long period of time in 2024, apart from 2024, there won't be any impact on Contracting. Contracting will kick in in 2025 at best. So things will become significant in 2026. The second one is A412. We're negotiating with the Ministry of Transportation. You have to work on the contract. You have to sign the contract. And then we have to speak with the authorities and the French Conseil d'État, and the commissioning of the work, of course, takes far more time, which is why I took some time to explain that many of these significant contracts that completely change the structure of our order book virtually have no impact in fiscal 2024.
It starts kicking in in 2025 and 2026. If you take a look at what we have on the screen, the 3% is the blue part of the graph from 11.9 acquired last year. The only contract with engineering for the EPRs and 15S that is included, the only significant part that's not included is EUR 200 million in business for Nové to be done by Eiffage Construction. It's not yet in the order book. That's the EUR 200 million only, but everything else is in the log book.
Then regarding margin and risk profile, for what we have in the log book, essentially the two big ones, profiles have changed because, as you know, the Société des Grands Projets, as it is now called, amended its master plan for the four key contracts of the new phase, including line 15S. We were in Construction only, but now we're moving on to operations as well. There's a major difference with this approach now because we've known engineering has had to last much longer to make the contracts more robust. And for some years now, we've had many teams working on tunnels in Paris and around Paris with the same clients, same demands, and so on. So the knowledge of the risks has become greater. All this has been factored in by our teams.
But fundamentally speaking, the risk profile is different from what we've experienced in the past. And finally, the two EPRs, the PANLI engineering work, you have the conventional work with EDF. We're builders only there. Therefore, we will work according to what the client tells us to do in order to make progress with this project. In the short term, we're focusing on engineering, design, and the startup commissioning, which should be this summer provided we get the environmental authorizations. There's a typo on the right. The 21% and the 31% should be switched around.
Okay. I'll continue, if I may. Since we were talking about margin in concessions, you told us that concession margins were impacted by new concessions. Should we expect more dilution, even more dilution in 2024, or are you looking at stabilization? If you're not looking at stabilizations, when do you think the margins could stabilize? Well, we don't have the equivalent in the entrance into consensus. The only KPI you have to have in mind is the CapEx of APRR when they are in production. They generate like on the previous networks and concession. They're amortized only by the end of the concession. EBITDA will increase in the legacy part, but in part will be decreased by the dilution. We had no effect on the operational margin of the concession. We had three new concessions the same year.
Crystal clear. Thank you. On the free cash flow with strong progression, EUR 2.3 billion, is it sustainable? And since you have so much visibility on the activity, can you tell us a bottom free cash flow? Well, some took some risks to do that, and they regretted it.
No, no, no. I will not do that. No. You have to have in mind that it's very volatile with the major projects. We cannot take any commitment. No. I would say that the other flows are normative of taxes, interest, EBITDA. There will be no decrease in EBITDA. This is the need in the free cash flow that is important. At this time of the year, we cannot commit ourselves. EUR 2.3 billion minus EUR 300 million if worse comes to worse.
That's what you say. Now, another problem, the taxes, concession, as you said, which are not foreseen. What about the discussion with the government now? How do you see things moving us from now? Is there a risk of an increase of the tax? We heard also a rumor— I don't know where it comes from - saying that the government is having a call for tender when the concessions will come at maturity. Well, Philippe needs to talk to you about the tax. He's expert in the Senate, Commissions, National Assembly.
Hello all. So on the tax, we are determined to fight and to use all the possible means to combat this tax from a legal point of view. Well, update, as you know, the Constitutional Council has been summoned by a certain amount of senators and members of the Parliament, of the National Assembly, about some items of the budget law, including the item about our tax. Well, the decision of the Constitutional Council was published December 28th.
In fact, the article has not been invalidated but hasn't been validated either formally on its totality since the Constitutional Council focused on the arguments used by the members of the Parliament. So the next step is the questioning of the decrees of implementation published February 9th, questioning through a recall and excessive power in front of the Council of State with a constitutional priority question. If this first line of defense, constitutional defense, we will see an outcome by the end of the year, so it's going to be quick. If this first defense is not successful, we shall start a second recourse, contractual recourse, in order to obtain a compensation with a time frame that will be longer to have the final decision.
So in terms of compensation, you imagine that the government will give you some cash?
We're open to any kind of solution.
We don't see the tariff option given the financial challenges. This tax is not deductible. For APRR AREA, if we base ourselves on the figures of 2023, it's EUR 120 million. We don't see how finance by tariffs this operation, how to offset it given the remnant time till the end of the concession. We can imagine other solutions, for instance, the extension of the time of the concession. The only thing that we will have is the implementation of the contract. This is what we're going to fight. We have to get back the balance and all the methods we used in the past. Okay. I'll stop there.
Any other question?
Augustin Lhoste, Stifel. I have two questions, please. The first is your Energy System department. You increased your margin by 13 basis points, and you reached a margin of 4.5%, which is close to your target long term of 5.5%-6%. With a view of 2024, is it possible to increase this margin? The inflation environment is behind ourselves. My second question regarding the CapEx.
You're right. We always talked a few years ago about the target of progression little by little, step by step, of the Energy System to go and get 5.5%. We're getting close to it. In the meantime, the dynamic of the market, we made a lot of organic growth and external growth. We have a better coverage of the territory. So if you are consistent on the territory, you have a better amortization of the structures. We're convinced now that it's shared by Ludovic, the CEO of the branch, that we can do better. This is the aim, seems rational, seems logical, and we should be able to go on progressing the way we did in the past. I mean, there's no reason today, given the markets that we have, not to go on to improve the margins.
CapEx, do you want me to answer? Well, Contracting, you have to extend the figure this year and amend it by the increase of the growth of the Contracting. It's normative. Concessions project EUR 330 on APRR and EUR 300 on the other concessions. With airports, the ramping up of the back log, as in there, and the CapEx on the various other PPP road or buildings. Thank you. One last question regarding the Olympic Games. Your activity of Contracting, is it at risk in France this year due to a works interruption for the Olympic Games? It's rather complex currently.
We don't know at all what will be the decisions taken. There will forcibly be local impacts. It's not very important. Conversely, you have also possibilities the other way around. When we write a contract, we manage all the contract of lighting of the City of Paris. They will ask us to increase our capacity of intervention. So the elements are in both directions. So at the scale of the works we have in the group, there forcibly will be impacts, but they will not be significant right now. There's no clear will to stop massively the activity. So currently, we're not expecting perturbation, which would be important enough to impact the operations of the group.
[Foreign language] Okay. I'll take the mic again. Construction margins decrease due to the situation of real estate. Can there be an upturn in 2024?
Olivier? We're very interested by your answer.
Well, real estate probably not. So the challenge is to know if the works Contracting will go on to offset the decrease of the real estate. We're not worried, globally speaking. It's not very clear. On another topic, I mean, what I can add is we will go on having a decrease of real estate in terms of activity. So even if the profitability of real estate is maintained, its contribution to the results will be equal to what it is this year. It might have a slight impact. We imagine that the performance of the building of the other real estate, as you have seen in 2023, there's no reason for it to have a reverse position.
If it's small tents, it's not significant. We hope to be able to maintain the levels of margins that we have today and to be able to go on offsetting the loss of the contribution of the real estate to the results of the line of business. Thank you. Motorway traffic in January impacted by the farmers? Do you think that the traffic will end up on the rise at the end of the year? I won't answer. We're not very worried. No. More seriously, it is difficult at this time to define a long-term trend for the first quarter and more so for the whole of the year because we have experienced a certain amount of important events at the beginning of the year that really changed the KPIs.
We've been impacted by the crisis of the farmers between January 27th and February 3rd with very strong decrease of traffic on our main networks. All of our major roads were blocked for several days. We have been penalized also by a deficit of snow, which was unheard of. And the stations, our networks, are very sensitive to this winter traffic, but things improve for the past days. But globally speaking, exceptionally, I'll give you some figures. January -4% on APRR. Not too bad given the impact of the farmers. We expect -2% on February. The other concessions to be noticed resisted very much better. We are on growth, more or less strong at the ACC and on ALIAE.
Well, A'liénor has figures, which are close to APRR AREA in line with the lack of snow in the Pyrenees Mountains because those networks are the way to those ski stations. We're waiting for the trends of March to have a refined trend. For the time being, it's outside of what is happening usually.
Thank you. Maybe one last question, one for the road. Where do we stand with the airport strategy since nothing happened for the past since COVID? It was a beginning of a strategy. Vinci was telling us that they're expecting more activity on this sector as of this year given that the traffic went back to normal, more or less. What is your strategy on this segment?
Good evening. On the airport strategy, it hasn't changed. We talked about it. It's to have a there are some issues raised. One is in the Pointe-à-Pitre, Cayenne that we are monitoring, and we're expecting some for this year. If I can add to what Cécile said, the strategy of the group in terms of concession remains linked to our sustainable locations. On our sustainable location, globally European, there's no activity which are on the face of it in the pipes in the month to come or in 2024. It's delegation of public service or concessions on which there are some works to be done. It's of interest to us more than the M&A strategy. Maybe there are more things that could happen, but it's not places we are considering, as you know.
[Foreign language] One very, very, very last question, if I may. Getlink, what will your shareholding be at the end of 2024?
Well, our position remains unchanged. Look at what we said in our release when we first took our stake. Situation remains unchanged. Very happy with our position. We're open to taking a greater stake, but it all depends on the share price. And if the share price is good, why not? We'd love to increase our stake over the years and hold anywhere between 25%-30%. Strategy unchanged. And whatever their opportunities that we find agreeable, well, we put our best foot forward. Thank you very much. That was indeed the very, very last question. Does anyone have any other questions? It seems we have a question online. Sorry, the sound is pretty horrible. The interpreters can't catch that. Three questions.
Civil works in France, public works in France. When can we expect the first positive effects of the municipal elections? My second question. Sorry, the interpreter didn't catch the second question. The sound was not good enough. We'll see whether the answer makes sense. Third question. Sound was pretty bad. It has to do with energy. Let's see if the speakers had better sound to answer. Okay. Regarding the municipal elections and the impact thereof, well, usually, the impact can be sensed on roadworks and on real estate too. But since real estate is pretty lackluster, there's not much of an impact. Prior to elections, it's pretty difficult to get planning permissions. But anyway, it's pretty tough altogether. So not much impact there. And the main impact is on road maintenance and if our route can be impacted.
In the presentation, I tried to explain that we have more and more private clients in our client mix. We have low-carbon, low-impact mobility solutions. We operate in multiple areas. We're less and less dependent on election cycles. The business is more resilient now. Also, decision-making is done not so much by municipalities but by groups of municipalities. So prior to elections, there may be a little bit of change, but not to the same extent as in the past. Second question had to do with digital mockups, digital twins, and so on. There's a lot going on. There are plenty of areas that are uncharted, and things are moving. It doesn't have an impact on productivity as far as I'm concerned. It has some impact on complex things that we could not do without those tools.
In certain businesses, first of all, Construction, building, when you want to do prefabricated buildings, for instance, well, you have to use digital twins and more digital modeling and so on. So it is quite helpful. The technology can be quite helpful. They're not very substantial reverberations, that said. But we do hope that we'll be able to have greater data analysis capabilities to enhance the productivity of our projects in terms of logistics, organization, and so on. We're all very interested in all these topics, whatever our business lines. And it's continuous improvement as far as we're concerned. We'll continue to work on this, but don't expect a major overhaul of the economics of the public works business due to these tools. Then your third question had to do with labor shortages.
Well, our challenges continue to work, and I think this is an issue traced by all the players in the industry. We have to make our business attractive. Our business is very attractive. It's resilient. It cannot be offshored. It's present all over the territory. It's like a lifelong experience for people when they join us. We need to attract more and more talents. Our federations are quite active in that regard, and so are the industry players. I spoke about this when we presented the half-year results, renovation, the circular economy, and all that. All that makes us more attractive, I think. If you take publicly assisted dwellings, we are involved in massive renovation programs with Eiffage Construction now. So you speak to the people. You help them improve their daily lives. And we have more and more employees who find that quite attractive.
They have a holistic view of their work. They do many more different things now. That will enhance our attractiveness. Demand is growing, so we have to be even more attractive and attract engineers and graduates of every walk of life. We have our own training programs, and we must speed things up. Final example, if I may. Over 30 years ago, Eiffage had been wise enough to create the regional club of companies in favor of insertion. This has been very successful, and it helps us recruit. It was a very good move 30 years ago. Our businesses are very sensitive to all this. With networks like that, the CREPI networks, you have all the players in a given area that join forces to support people and provide them with work opportunities. This is useful for recruitment, and it's a very good thing.
We have another question online. The sound hasn't really improved as far as the interpreters can tell. Good evening. Construction first? Tell us more about the debt in real estate and the impact on margin and your ambitions. That's my first question. I have three or four more. Olivier will handle the first question. I'll try to be more specific than previously. When you read the press, you see -20, -30, -50 when it comes to real estate. Overall, we're looking at -50% as far as new housing is concerned. So eventually, our new housing sales will drop 50%. Two-thirds of our sales was two-thirds of housing, one-third of something else. I'm not saying things are doing well. I can't say that, but it all depends on other projects. So we recorded -30 over the past two or three years.
In 2024, once again, we will have lower sales, anywhere between 5%-10% less. We won't have the margin corresponding to that level of sales, of course. For the time being, profitability is still faring pretty well because we have light structure in our builder-developer model, and we adapted to the situation faster than most developers. Our structure is not too top-heavy. In our builders' DNA, we count every single nail, every single thumbtack and brick. We've been on our toes when it comes to risk analysis. In other words, we have fewer difficult projects than most other players. Okay. Overall, sales will continue to decline in 2024. 2025 is difficult to predict at this point, but there we are. Nevertheless, the development pipeline is still being fed with projects, assuming that the crisis will eventually be over.
We don't want to be unarmed when that happens. Nicolas? What's your second question? Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Infrastructure? Margin a little bit above 3%. There's a mixed effect with metal. And there's the Grand Paris that has an impact. Won't it be a roller coaster ride moving forward because of the different sizes of the projects you're looking at? Guillaume is answering the question. Yes, you have quite a good grasp of this. The mixed effect with metal is something that we're tracking very closely. In 2023, we paid close attention to what happened in the summer with alerts and turbines. We hope that's behind us now. And apparently, the market is picking up and buoyant again. One example is the call for tenders launched in the UK. The floor level was too low initially. That was relaunched.
Regarding metal, we're going to track things very closely. We're going to try to be good as far as margins go. Volume may be an issue because we're not going to grow 42% year-on-year. That's for sure. Now, as far as civil engineering goes, we're quite cautious in stating our projects. We're still very selective. We're reaping the fruit of projects that go back to 2017, 2018. We're going to remain just as cautious. For sure, as far as large projects, EPRs, and so on, we're going to be very cautious in slicing and dicing these projects in order to be able to recognize difficulties ahead. Let me add. Roadworks, we're not expecting massive changes there. It's a stabilizing, in fact, because of its weight, of course.
And when we get these large contracts, we have three years of work with significant teams on the deck. And the engineering costs have to be taken into consideration. Now, of course, there is an impact. When we start up these large projects, they're very cautiously managed. We've always done that. That's the rationale. But of course, there's a significant decline in engineering costs, which we're strong upfront. Hence, the success is reaped. So in the end, the answer to your question is pretty simply put: no roller coaster ride expected. I have two questions on Energy Systems. First of all, the vacuum that was sensed in Germany and Spain.
With the contract with renewables and so on, are you expecting a recovery or further headwind? And regarding M&As and bolt-on acquisitions, what are we looking at in 2024? Are you going to further accelerate with those acquisitions? Ludovic is going to answer that.
Hello, everyone. To answer the first question. T&D, a few years ago, we were asked to provide high-voltage lines. This was a request by a German player. We were supposed to do this in export mode because our operations in Germany are not really involved in that. We ran 3 projects. Experience has shown that it takes a German to work in Germany. So we won't do this in export mode anymore. So we won't continue those operations like that in Germany. In Spain, there was indeed sort of a trough in network maintenance because Iberdrola was our main client. And for political reasons, it postponed some investments. And this did have an impact on our business in the last quarter. But we're going to catch that up at the beginning of this year because the investments are picking up again.
Secondly, there were 1 or 2 postponements of 2 or 3 postponements of wind farm projects for political reasons. So much for Spain. Now, regarding external growth acquisitions and so on, indeed, there were quite a few acquisitions this year expecting a major one in Germany, which was somewhat overdue. So we're going to focus on integrating that. But that said, we are looking at other opportunities. We're still open for suggestions because the external acquisitions we want to do have to be embedded in our strategy. In Europe, improving our coverage in countries where we are already present.
And elsewhere in Europe and France, we have to bring in new forms of expertise to strengthen the added value of our value proposition. We want to create value, first and foremost. That is our watchword when we contemplate acquisitions. And we have to buy at a fair price, of course. Again, we remain opportunistic.
Thank you, Ludovic. If I may add, Nicolas, it's that the word speed up, accelerate. I don't see it. However, go on on what we have done in the past two years. Why not? There is a certain amount of occasions, opportunities. And as we've said in the past, the more performing, the more we can do external growth in all the OpCos. And in the French region, you have bosses who prove their performance. And they're able to do bolt-on. And we help them. And on the bolt-on, with the help of the central, with the audit. And some years ago, we had some areas that were underperforming. And we couldn't allow them to do external growth.
You have this effect, making that we're able to do it in the Netherlands, in Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, all the French regions, which wasn't the case several years ago. What's important is the capacity of managerial integration of all those operational parts of the energy of the group. Thank you. One last. When we look at the organic growth in France in 2023 with a two-digit growth, we look at a macro environment, which is more complex in 2024. The major structural trends, digital transition, energy transition, are they major drivers? Or are we getting headwind with the macro, with the little pressure on investment and less demand on the non-residential? It was just the Energy System, or was it the group, globally speaking?
No, no. It's mainly on the Energy System for the rest of the group because the growth rate for the rest of the group is not the same. No, look, there's an element that has been alluded to previously. It's that it's been some time that our capacity of growth is very linked to the human resources. And it's also a lot of that. And I think that for the time being, there still is a market and demand more than what we may offer. Since obviously, the first question we're raising, facing all of those opportunities, is, who do we have? What are the means we have? For the time being, the market is demanding more, asking for more.
It's for sure that there was an effect of speeding up for the ecological transition due to the war in the Ukraine because at the end of the day, there is a research for sovereignty, which is strong. Decisions were taken. Even if the price of energy stabilized, many industrials and customers do not feel like experiencing in the future the next problem. Made decisions of investment. It's not about half a year. We can meet the demand with some more time. I think that the underlying is really there. You can look at it. It's all of the business that is in demand for that attractiveness, internal training, and the ramp-up with the manpower, which reminds a real challenge, but a beautiful challenge, if I may add.
The two-digit growth of Energy System in 2023, we have the share of major projects on Grand Paris, which were mobilizing engineering with little sales that start in production. Same goes for data centers or industrial objects. We have this part of major projects mastered that we're looking to for some years that can be added to the sales of the commercial property. What can be said in terms of players of the market, given the culture of companies, some players do not want to go on major projects. Some do it with devoted, dedicated teams and key processes. It's part of the strategy of the company. We don't say no to major projects. We are cautious to only get those who are able to perform on with processes that we can master.
The demand for more significant projects, EUR 10 million, EUR 20 million for Energy Systems, they are more numerous. And there's some players who don't wish to do them because they're not convinced they have the right processes and the right teams for that. So on that part, there are somewhat less players than on the rest and the small contracts on which we are very active too. Are there any questions in French or even in English? No more questions? Elodie? So we wish to commend a very important person, Jean-Christophe, in the audience who is monitoring the group for so many years. Thank you for all you contributed, sometimes by knowing us too much. But for everything you brought to the branch, and we're very glad to have you with us, Jean-Christophe. Monitoring very closely, that's the Parisian experience that remained with us.
Thanks for having been with us this evening. We will go on in the next room. Thank you for your attention.