Ariane 6 is a program launched by the European Space Agency. ArianeGroup built the launcher, and Eiffage was involved in part of the construction. This is footage of the initial earthworks. This is the mobile gantry, the rolling area. This is the gantry itself. It's mobile. The frame, the steel frame is 7,000 tons, 90 meters high. It moves over a distance of 140 meters at a speed of 7.6 meters per second. This is the launch pad. There are two exhaust collectors, 170 meters in length, 30 meters underground, 30,000 cubic meters of concrete, 4,500 tons of frame and other infrastructure. Liquid oxygen galleries, cryogenic storage facilities. These are the support facilities. This is the launcher assembly facility, 900 tons of frame, storage platform.
This is in French Guiana, by the way, I forgot to mention. This is the water castle, 1,200 cubic meters of water storage, 90 meters in height. Ground control. This is the automated workshop for the rocket nozzle production. Electric infrastructure and IT for Ariane 6. Maintenance and operations were done with other companies working with Eiffage. Takeoff on ninth of July, 2024, the inaugural launch by CNES, ESA, and Arianespace. There were four European subsidiaries of the group involved. There were four business lines, as you can see here. 650 pairs of hands on deck from Eiffage. Benoît
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here. Thank you for attending this presentation of the H1 results. I would like to greet the members of the board and the management committee who've joined us tonight, including Olivier Berthelot, who is now the CEO of Eiffage Construction. He came to office on the first of July to replace Olivier Genis, who retired after forty years in the company. I decided to start this meeting with this film showing the involvement of many of our business lines in the building of the new launchpad for Ariane 6, the Ariane 6 rocket in French Guiana. The successful launch on ninth of July was a reward for the hard work done over since 2015 and more generally, over the past 55 years there in French Guiana at the Space Center, where we have been involved ever since its inception.
Moving on to the highlights of H1 2024, all went well. We have a confirmation of the trends already seen in H2, 2023. Business activities remains intense in all our business lines, with the exception of property development, which may have hit its lowest point now. But there's even better visibility over the next few years, especially at Eiffage Énergie Systèmes and Eiffage Construction. As I was pointed out in back in February, we ended 2023 with extremely good visibility, unprecedented visibility for the contracting business for both for medium and long term, especially for the two major contracts for the Line 15 of the Metro line and EPR2 in Penly, which will continue over 2026 and beyond.
Apart from that, order book worth EUR 26 billion, I also mentioned these new contracts that are coming in, in particular, the construction concession contract for Nové, for the Ministry of the Armed Forces. That was worth about EUR 2 billion at end 2023. In H1 2024, the momentum continuing, and now has encompassed all or most of our business lines. And so we have even better medium and long-term visibility, especially with the contract with EDF for the supply of 24 diesel power backup emergency backup systems, and 6 nuclear for 6 nuclear power plants, EPR2 plants in Penly, Gravelines, and Bugey.
We're working in a consortium with other companies for a market worth EUR 900 million, which will roll out over the next 17 years. We've also been selected as part of another syndicate with SNCF Réseau to for two lots regenerating tracks between 2025 and 2028. The overall amount has been confirmed at EUR 450 million. Once the annual tranches, there are additional optional tranches for 2028 to 2030, the amount of which, including that, could reach EUR 800 million. First lot replaces track equipment on the high-speed trains on the Atlantic branch, Northern Europe and Southeast Europe. The second lot is the regeneration of standard railway lines for the domestic railway system.
On offshore wind turbines, we clinched a contract for four electric substations in the AC current on Princess Elisabeth Island, and that will be the future artificial energy island. That will be a first to be built 45 km off the shores of Belgium for the Belgian electricity grid. It will be a centralized energy hub, and it proposes to interconnect with other countries, providing electricity to different connected countries. The building of the substations will start in May 2025, will continue as late as May 2029. It should be commissioned as early as 2030.
As you heard last week, we also won another contract, again, as part of a partnership, to build the civil engineering project on the Rhine-Main connection for Amprion in Germany. The purpose there is to have a cut-and-cover passages for 600 kilometers worth of energy corridor in Lower Saxony in the economic area of Hesse to. And then there will be ducts to carry electricity cables connecting the offshore wind turbines of the North Sea towards the Rhine-Main areas. And once that, the design phase is completed, we'll complete the work between 2028 and 2030.
We also have won the contract for the design, building, and operating over five-year for office buildings for the Ministry of the Interior in Saint-Denis. The amount is EUR 700 million. Through Eiffage Concessions, we have a new motorway connection, 16 km between Thonon and Machilly, for a period of 55 years. We have been granted the contract, but we are waiting for confirmation from the French government. These are significant contracts, of course, in terms of size, but we have many smaller contracts in our order book, and that is for a recurring activity around the country, but also abroad. In Germany, in particular, we have won the contract for a railway bridge, a metal bridge in Stellingen in Hamburg.
That bridge is 110 meters long, 25 meters wide, and weighs 4,000 tons. In Belgium, our teams, again, as part of a syndicate, will build the Realex Tower at the heart of the European district in Brussels. That includes the conference center of the European Commission, but also businesses and offices. In Spain, we are also working in PV farms. We have as many as 14 new solar farms built in 2024, generating about 1 GW. And for Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, we have about 1.4 GW this year. As part of Grand Paris Express, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes has been tasked as part of a synergy to maintain the multi-service network and the monitoring systems to ensure security on Line 18.
We'll have as many as 1,500 video cameras, but also 1,300 access control terminals, 500 cameras on the trains themselves, as well as 2 data centers that will house all the systems. A part of our organic growth with the new orders, we were also very active in terms of external growth, especially at Eiffage Énergie Systèmes. So the acquisitions enable us to broaden our territorial coverage, having more expertise around Europe, and therefore generate more growth for that business line. As in 2023 alone, we've achieved as many as 11 acquisitions worth about EUR 500 million for the full year, 10% in France and 90% in European target countries, and as many as 2,400 new employees.
A good example of that is Germany's strategic market. In 2023, we already had a few units in a couple of regions, but that didn't enable us to become domestic players to cover all the markets in Germany. But when we acquire Salvia and EQOS, well, we hope to finalize this by Q4 2024, but we still need official authorizations from competent authorities. Eiffage Énergie Systèmes should be in a position to generate as much as EUR 1.1 billion in revenue with 4,500 employees. As you can see on the map, well, we do have a full domestic coverage, but we also have a strong presence in Austria. That's our first inroads into Austria. Another example is the Netherlands.
Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, uh, came into the Netherlands through Kropman that we acquired back in 2018, generating about EUR 150 million in revenue and 800 employees. And in 2024, after some organic growth, but a few targeted acquisitions, now Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, um, has, uh, headcount of 1,900 employees and, uh, EUR 400 million in revenue. We're now in the top five players. Again, a major domestic player covering the entire territory in all business lines.
The last example, and that's an innovative example of organic and semi-external growth, enabling us to develop our business in a technological niche, and that is the co-enterprise that we created with Entech, dedicated to the design integration of storage system, the building of connection substations for high voltage networks and the high voltage grids, driving tools for the securing of batteries as part of wide-ranging projects. The targeted projects are storage units, battery storage units located in domestic France and connected to the high voltage grid. These projects have become a significant as part, as representing a growing part of the renewable mix of the various European power systems. Going back to what I said at the beginning, we have unprecedented visibility.
We had unprecedented visibility already at the end of 2023. A significant highlight of the first half of the year has enabled to grow our medium-term order book in all lines, especially at Eiffage Construction and Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, but we have also significant growth in the order book in Europe, outside France. Regarding our business, it is looking good, especially at Eiffage Énergie Systèmes and Eiffage Métal. We enjoyed 6.5% growth in our contracting business. We've enjoyed several years of growth in Europe, both external and internal, and organic growth. But the contracting part of our business now, 40% of that business is outside France. I'll give you a few examples.
What you have here on the screen is the winter garden in the Ursuline Institute that we restored in Belgium. This is a listed monument that was built back in nineteen hundred. This is, of course, in the Art Nouveau style, back to its former glory, built back to its former glory. We also renovated the thermal baths of La Bourboule. It's a reference in France for respiratory disease. We have as much as 4,000 meters of rooftop roofs that had to be restored, including 3 domes. But there's also interior renovation and, of course, the energy adaptation of the thermal baths themselves. A significant part of our business is, of course, the road business and urban design.
So we broadened the roads at La Rochelle to make more room for pedestrians on sidewalks, but also more space for cyclists, cycle lanes, and handicapped users. Regarding public transportation, on-site work, we have been working a lot there. Lots of business in the contracting line. We have on the screen the new tramway lines in Lyon, T9 and T10. But as part of urban design, it's not just the tracks for the tramways, but of course, broadening cycle lanes and taking precedence over cars. A good example of energy rehabilitation is a project we've been developing in Valenciennes. There's many as three hundred and sixty-two housing units.
This is a construction site with significant environmental challenges in terms of technological performance, but also preserving biodiversity. The first example of the motorway, one example of that innovation is the Oré solution, using granulates with optimized rolling quality. It was developed to improve resistance to friction, maintaining a high level of safety. That solution proposes to reduce the Scope 3 emissions as part of for high traffic roads. We're looking at a lowering, of course, of CO2 emissions, but also savings in fuel. And then we designed a new hospital, Paris-Saclay, three years in the making, 45,000 square meters, 480 beds, and eight operating theaters.
This is a set of hospitals in Longjumeau and Orsay on a single site. A very ambitious site in terms of innovation and technological excellence. We also built a walk bridge, Robert Poujade, over the Garonne River in Toulouse. This is a cable-stayed, asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, 165 meters long, a single pole, 65 meters high, for soft mobility, pedestrians and cyclists. Regarding the concession business, our business is driving again, up 5.6%, with, of course, the integration of ADELAC over the full year, and the upscaling of the A79 motorway, where traffic is up 9.2%. Even though traffic is slightly down 0.9% on APRR AREA, the business as a whole remains steady.
In fact, has been able to grow, thanks to higher fees. The main issue, of course, we have is the tax on long-distance infrastructure, which, of course, has a significant impact on our performance in our motorway concessions. We've been challenging this at the highest court in France, the Constitutional Court and the Council of State. We're waiting, expecting a ruling from the council in September. Ever since its commissioning in September. Sorry, its opening, its commissioning, A79 has been growing ever since. It had as many as 8.2 million passengers and. sorry, cars going through it, and with a growing trend. As you know, it's the first free flow motorway.
Most of the tolls are paid in electronic tolls, two-thirds of them, 30% on the online, and 3% at the toll gate itself. Since the month of July, passengers on the A79 motorway can also pay for the toll at a tobacconists. 8,000 shops are providing this service, and that has been developed in France by FDJ. As part of the stimulus plan, the most significant project was the complete rehabilitation of the A480 network, and that has brought together the necessary expenditure investment to address the issues of the environmental transition, development of biodiversity in urban areas. You can see the results. On the sides of the motorway, you have completely green areas.
You have been able to reclaim the land along the Drac River, and that is a remarkable success, and very much appreciated by local inhabitants. Regarding airports, traffic is up, slightly up by 1.5%, but business is up 7.9%, thanks to a buoyant commercial momentum. Internationally, business is growing, and indeed, this has somewhat offset decline in domestic traffic. With a HyPort station for buses, for passenger buses, the Toulouse Airport is now a pioneering platform in Europe, for hydrogen solutions. The Nové contract, and that's for the ministry, the Defense Ministry, and its Ambition Famille plan. This is going in full production. We delivered the first projects with these new buildings, as you see here on the bridge.
The Nové contract, by 2028, will be worth EUR 1.5 billion over the French territory. And, a few yards away from us, we have as many as 5,000 Paralympic athletes. So we need to talk about sports, and I would like, by the way, to thank you for making it tonight, in spite of traffic restrictions. Eiffage has been working with sports for many years. We've been supporting high-level athletes, and we have connections with the sporting events, encouraging all those involved in physical activities. And in fact, we felt we should have a reminder of our involvement in sports with this new book called Faire Équipe, Team Play. You were provided or you will receive a copy.
We would also wish to remind you of all the activities we've been conducting to support this major sporting events, starting with the Athletes' Village.
The extension of Line 14 to the north and to the south, which was opened up on the twenty-fourth of June, 2024. Line 14 has become the longest metro line in the Greater Paris area. It now connects the new station of Saint-Denis Pleyel to Orly Airport in 40 minutes. By 2025, one million trips will be carried out every day on this line. The Saint-Denis Pleyel station was inaugurated at the end of June, and we were in charge of the civil engineering and the railway work. It's 28 meters underground. There are four levels, and it has a capacity of 200,000 travelers per day.
The restoration of the Grand Palais, and this is where our subsidiary, Pradeau Morin, was involved, and it specialized in the renovation of historic monuments. Our teams took part in the restoration of the stone facades, the bricklaying, the lead removal, and the roofing. The low-carbon steel and carbon foot and cycle bridge, which connects Saint-Denis to L'Île-Saint-Denis. It's 138 meters long and 16 meters wide.
This is the reservoir tunnel, VL8, as it's called. The idea is to avoid the untreated water outflows in the natural environment. It strengthens the existing sanitation network's capacity in the face of climate change, which leads to rainfall that is more and more substantial and sudden. Our teams were involved with other companies in lot three of the tunnel. Owing to its modular nature and its convenience of use, the Pierre Mauroy Stadium brought in international competition for several sports ever since it was commissioned. This summer, for instance, it accommodated basketball and handball competitions. And there's public lighting too, with traffic lights and the lights of the city of Paris. We're in charge of the management and maintenance. As I was saying, the group contributed to creating a connection between the organization of sports events.
Therefore, I encourage you to take part in the upcoming edition of the Eiffage Race on the Millau Viaduct. It'll take place on the twenty-second of September. It will be the pinnacle of the twentieth anniversary of the viaduct, and there will be quite a few events in the twenty days prior to the race. I also wish to speak about the company's overall performance, because that is what actually ensures its quality and lasting nature. There's financial performance and non-financial performance. We take a look at the whole value chain. Our aim is to bring meaning to the work of our teams, help them be happy at work, and that is how our jobs can be very meaningful.
Human resources are at the heart of our concern, so is the climate, low carbon activities, biodiversity, corporate governance, and you can see our non-financial rating up on the screen right now. Quite naturally, the expectations are rising year on year, and we have to maintain our rating, and that is quite challenging for all our teams. As you probably found out this morning, our efforts have once again been acclaimed by SBTi. In 2023 , SBTi approved our trajectory for GHG reductions in the short term, twenty thirty, and it has just approved our trajectory in the long term, by twenty fifty that is, for Scopes 1, 2, and 3, the alignment on the one and a half degree trajectory and our commitment to reach net zero emissions in GHGs throughout our value chain in twenty fifty.
Decarbonization means that all our teams must be on deck, and we must be involved in virtuous processes in order to have no-nonsense carbon performance numbers, as well as technical and economic numbers. We thus designed a marketplace, and all the products and items that we offer are backed by a specific life cycle analysis. The aim is to guarantee reliable environmental information according to standards for all our products, and carbon measurement has thus become a new standard in the realm of procurement. We are still calling for innovative solutions that are low carbon and climate friendly through our Sequoia platform. The solution call was dedicated to two crucial themes this year. First, data serving environmental performance and sobriety at the heart of construction solutions.
The purpose of this initiative is to bring about solutions and accelerate their implementation in our projects and throughout the operations of the partners of the Sequoia Club. And of course, we bring in students in a participatory manner with the Eco-Skills Challenge, which is a student challenge that rewards innovative ideas for the modes of construction that are most respectful of the environment and the most sustainable. The third edition took place last May in Paris, and three awards and the public's award were granted. There were eight finalists out of eighty-eight teams. Innovation is also at the heart of our operations. For example, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes has quite a fleet of drones operated by our own pilots.
This serves the purpose of simplifying and securing our various operations, inspection of electric lines, reservoirs, confined spaces, site surveillance, preventive maintenance, and so on. Aerial thermography, using a drone that has an infrared camera, makes it possible to control heat losses on roofs in urban heating networks and defects in solar panels. All these innovations are involved in preventive maintenance efforts, and they help ensure proper maintenance in the field at the right time, at the right place. This is key to operational performance.
To go one step further in data analysis, Eiffage has struck an alliance with Google Cloud to increase its operational efficiency, thanks to a structured approach of its data and artificial intelligence. Our strategy in this field is aimed at making the most of our huge oceans of data that we have at our disposal in a secure, sustainable way, and to serve as many as possible in all our businesses. We have chosen to focus on the design and implementation of use cases, such as the scoring of risks when it comes to prevention, providing a generative AI that is private and specific to Eiffage, and also an assistance in drafting technical documents. Finally, when it comes to supporting the group's growth, we must remain attractive and tie our people in.
We have worked on our employer brand to highlight what makes us specific, what our hallmark is, and what distinguishes us in order to attract the most able talents and to be selective, and to bring in the people we need and who are in line with who we are. We launched a new employer brand called The Family Spirit, Esprit de Famille, referring to our culture and the sharing of our values. Following this overview of the highlights of the year, let's come back to the key numbers of the half year. Business grew 6.3%, with quite a few differences between our business lines. As expected, organic growth was somewhat shy of what we achieved in 2023. Operating profit and net profit are very similar to H1 2023.
The impact of the new tax was nearly fully offset by the improvement of our contracting results, both in terms of profitability and volume. Free cash flow generation nearly amounted to EUR 150 million, in spite of the seasonal nature of our businesses. Debt has been stable following the integration of A41 and the growth investments that we carried out, both in concessions and in contracting. Finally, our backlog grew very significantly just as at the end of 2023, and it even fortified over the period, notably in construction and Energy Systems. All this enables us to confirm the outlook for 2024. Our contracting business will therefore grow, although the organic growth will be less significant than in 2023. Our concession business is also expected to grow in 2024.
Contracting results will once again rise. Results in concessions will be significantly impacted by the new tax on transport infrastructure, and therefore, the group's attributable profit for twenty twenty-four should be in the same order of magnitude as in twenty twenty-three. As you've understood, above and beyond 2024 , we are confident. We believe that the group's ability to continue its growth and to improve its financial and overall performance are here. I'd like to thank you for your attention, and now I'll give the floor to Christian Cassayre, who'll give you a detailed explanation of the financials.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Moving on to the financial portion of the show. You can see 6.3% increase. Organic growth on the left is a little bit lower than it was.
There are more and more significant differences between our businesses. In concessions, there's A41. In contracting, there are the various elements that were mentioned earlier. On the right, there are differences between geographies. In France, you can see the numbers, and we are now in a specific situation for the residential market in France, and to a lesser extent, road maintenance has been a little bit lackluster. You can see 17.4% as a continuity of previous years, a combination of 8.1% organic growth and a scope impact of 9.6, 17.7 altogether.
Now, if you take a look at contracting, the discrepancies I mentioned can be seen blatantly here, 2.9% average organic growth, and you can see a dual standard of growth, and so the average doesn't really speak very loud. I'll come back to this when I go through the various business lines. On the right, the highlight is that we now have nearly 40% of contracting, which is international. It was a little over 35% last year, and it was only 30% in 2021. Of course, there was acceleration in Europe in line with our strategic roadmap. Our operating profit is very similar to that of 2023, in spite of the impact of EUR 60 million, and you can see here.
In the first half, there was a drop. 16% profit in contracting. In concessions, thereof, of course, there's a new tax that has an impact. 3% is the profit. In the holding, the result is more volatile. There are non-cash movements. There are two things I need to mention here. First, since last year, we have a non-cash impact in our group savings plan. And the second item is that this is higher than in 2023, and in 2023, we had a provision that was called back. It's non-recurring. Now, if you take a look at the details here in construction, the setback in France is minus 13.5%, although the amount on the market of new dwellings is not huge. There are high comparatives here.
H1 was up in 2023 because of programs that were still going on, and for the full year, it's down. In Europe, too, sales were down in the three countries where we have operations for the same reason. But you see that the margin is still doing pretty well, 3.4%. There are two explanations for that. First of all, we have a very selective cherry-picking policy, and secondly, margins are still quite robust, 8%, in spite of the fact that the business volume is lower. Property development has generated EUR 24 million in operating profit, compared with EUR 33 million in 2023, and EUR 59 million in the full year. This lesser contribution has been offset by stronger performance in contracting.
Finally, the backlog at as at thirtieth of June on the right here, it takes into account the service industry project that we were awarded by the French Home Office, although we didn't really make a big media splash about that for reasons you understand. In our Esprit de Famille program, we launched a competition, and I have a few pictures to show you. Here, within Eiffage Construction and here in the Pays Basque agency. This is an engineering school construction project. In infrastructure, the business in France remained buoyant, +3.8%, in spite of volume that shrank with the Grand Paris Express, a mere 134 million EUR out of 180 last year, and it used to be 300 million before that.
But this was offset by the ramp-up of the Toulouse Metro, and there were other businesses and civil engineering. Those rose 13% in France, whereas roadworks dipped 2.4% because general maintenance dipped, although the momentum remains strong regarding urban mobility projects. A few examples were given earlier. Now, international civil engineering growth is 12%, driven by large infrastructure projects, the LGV HS2, highways in Norway and in Germany as well. A strong increase in international metalworks, +28%. As you may recall, we increased our production capacity last year, and of course, the offshore wind energy market is rising, and we're a part of that. The growth remains stronger in the rest of the division. It's a specialty business.
It's less seasonal and the operating margin dipped to minus 0.3%. But of course, it, this isn't really represented because it's seasonal. So this is in Line 15 of the Grand Paris Express. And in roadworks, we're in Nantes here, Place du Commerce, the main square in the city of Nantes. The business of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes remained very dynamic on all the markets, plus 7.7% in France. Six point one percent of that is organic growth, essentially driven by a number of large project data centers, the Grand Paris Express. And we moved on to the actual work after a lot of engineering work. International European growth was 41% and minus 8.5% outside Europe, where sales were up 37.4%.
The 41% rise in Europe is, of course, driven by the integration of Salvia and Van den Pol, but the organic growth in the area remains significant, 12% for the half year. Operating margin is once again on the rise, 30 basis points to 4.6%, owing to market dynamics already mentioned, and we are capitalizing on that, given our exposure to these acquisitions that we're carrying out, and of course, our teams have constantly increased added value in our propositions. Another highlight of the half here is an EUR 8 billion jump in our backlog, and this, of course, drives us full speed ahead into 2025 , so the Mont Saint-Michel here on the left, you can see our teams here, and the people on the right are in Occitanie, in the southwest of France.
Now, in concessions, since last December, we've been showing you this slide here, and the next two as well, to highlight our main assets that are consolidated. On the left, you have the list of the assets, the end of the date of the end of the concession and how much we have. And on the graph on the bottom, you can see the ramp-up of the three blocks: highways, airports, and other assets held in PPPs or concessions. So in APRR, things were a little bit difficult, but A79 has been rising slightly above expectations as far as traffic goes. The drop in EBITDA is essentially due to the new tax on highways. It also has an impact on our result profit from recurring operation.
The last two aggregates, profit from recurring operations, our net profit, must be seen in light of the amortization, which I spoke about later. So plus EUR 17 million in the half year due to the amortization of our investments. And of course, you must take all this into account moving forward. Regarding other APRR concessions, here you have EBITDA generation and margin. The margin difference between the concessions is due to the fact that we operate and integrate certain services. On the right here, you have the contribution of the concessions in terms of profit and current operations. All this is consolidated, excluding Getlink. And of course, family spirit again. Here you have the Port of Toulon. Now, in our portfolio, this is the Pierre Mauroy Stadium that was mentioned. And on the right, of course, you can recognize the viaduct.
So Getlink is now on an equity basis. On the right here, you have the key numbers published by Getlink, sales and net profit, because we do integrate net profit into our accounts. Getlink's contribution in the first half was EUR 35 million for Eiffage, broken down to three amounts. The share in the half, EUR 35 million of the rest of the 2023 profit, because we published our accounts before Getlink, EUR 6 million and EUR 6 million in goodwill amortization. On the first half of 2023, we took into account EUR 7 million of the share of our result, because we only consolidated Getlink for two months, and a non-cash profit amounting to EUR 29 million. Here you are. So much for the operational business. Now, consolidated result. Here you have a line for other non-recurring profit and losses, EUR 18 million.
It's down EUR 10 million. In 2023, there was an exceptional item there. Now, net debt is up a mere EUR 6 million, whereas there was EUR 10.5 million for the integration and the interest, of course. So you can see the interest here. The performance is quite good, given the high interest rates on the market here. And inflation has to be taken into consideration. Another reason is that treasury compensation has been better than expected. We had EUR 3 billion in active treasury, including EUR 1.2 billion with interest, and that adds up to the figures you can see here. Other profit and losses in interest, it's often non-cash. In 2023, there were EUR 29 million of the revaluation of Getlink, which I just mentioned.
Finally, tax, EUR 235 million, and the effective tax rate was nearly 29% above the usual standard because the tax on highways cannot be deducted. Net attributable profit, EUR 382 million, very near the level of last year. Now, for the balance sheet, here you can see the net debt. EBITDA is up EUR 117 million. We now can make a difference with the dividend flow that we get from our equity companies. EUR 66 million from Getlink. The seasonal variation of working capital requirement is more significant this year, EUR 672 million after four years, where the working capital requirement resource was 1.1 billion in treasury.
The interest in tax paid is above that of last year, in particular regarding tax, and therefore, the operating cash flow is EUR 551 million, as so shown in green here, down EUR 170 million. As you can see, investments are under control. They're stable in contracting in spite of the rise in business. They are limited in concessions for the half year, given the phasing of certain operations.
and it has nothing to do with the full year numbers. And on the whole, we have an investment flow of roughly EUR 400 million, and free cash flow is EUR 148 million, down from 2023, given the working capital requirement and the new highway tax. But the good news is that since last year, operations generated cash flow in H1. It's positive, in spite of the seasonal nature of contracting. This was not the case in the past. It was negative in the first half as you recall. And now, you have the history shown here, and now it's positive in the first half as well. External growth generated EUR 266 million in cash out for the acquisition of our stock.
Now, we have a 100% stake in a company that we used to own partly only. EUR 400 million in dividend paid out to our shareholder, and our debt is EUR 10.6 billion, stable. It's broken down as follows: non-recourse debt for concession in black here. The limited rise here, EUR 200 million. It's limited because you need to remember that we integrated the debt of ADELAC, EUR 636 million. The net available treasury for the holding is near zero. It was EUR 193 million last year. The group's net debt is stable over a period of 12 months, EUR 10.6 billion, as is the net treasury of contracting and the holding company, which is stable around zero. Because we've reinvested.
Over the past twelve months, we carried out quite a few external acquisitions. We did that in H2 2023, and we took a larger stake in Getlink, and we increased our treasury stock by 1%. Now, the final chart here, that Benoit spoke about at great length, notably on the right here. Here, you have the details per business line, and you can see contracting with the step here between 2023 and 2024. That was commented upon at great length. So there you are. So much for this part. I'd like to thank you for your attention, and now we'll be very happy to entertain your questions.
[Foreign language] Thank you. I have a few questions. Number one, on the ruling by the Constitutional Court in September. If this ruling goes against you, what are your options? What can you do about it? What are the various scenarios to challenge that tax on infrastructure? You need to find a solution, don't you? And on property development, you said that you are halfway through your cycle. At least you've hit, as it were, a rock bottom. Is that to say that you're looking to a sort of a better position in 2025 ? I mean, just what's your feeling on that? Regarding construction, the construction business, Eiffage Construction, not including property development, how do you distinguish between residential property and commercial property, non-residential property? What's the breakdown?
You referred to the A412 motorway. Is there any sort of political risk that this project might be postponed?
Right. Regarding question number one and the Constitutional Court, well, we've communicated on that before. There are two possible remedies, but one goes after the other. We have to. I mean, these are two different approaches. The first one, well, is to seek remedy from the Constitutional Court. There was one prerequisite. The Council of State considered that it was fair to ask the Constitutional Court whether this matter was consistent with whether this tax was consistent with the French constitution. If we have a negative ruling, then we're back to contract legislation.
In other words, the contract regulations, the number of provisions regarding tax issues that was considered, in fact, when we pulled out of the 2015 crisis. So this will take us to administrative courts, which will take time, because whoever wins, there will be an appeal. And so, that process will be very long, because the administrative courts can be appealed all the way up to the Council of State again. So that might take some time. Olivier?
Yeah, maybe, so this way and people will know you better. Yes, good afternoon, everyone. Regarding, I'm not sure who asked the question on property development. This. Well, this business is slightly down regarding new housing units, new housing.
This market is under real pressure, and in fact, there's very little visibility. Now, there are few indicators nonetheless. The reservation rates, well, that is looking well. H1 2024 is somewhat better than H1 2023, so we may have, as it reached the sort of breakeven point. Although, how long will we stay there? We don't know. It's a sort of a balancing act, and we don't know how long we'll be able to maintain that position or whether we will, in fact, get over the hurdle or whether we might fall back. But the residential property, that business has always been doing well enough, particularly thanks to the Nové contract.
You remember Nové, for the construction part of the contract, that business is significant. We're talking about EUR 1.1 billion in construction work. And so this is residential property alone. But this is a right, this is a mix between new housing and rehabilitated buildings. But that is only partly to be found in our backlog because the order book takes in these new orders as they are authorized by the local authorities and such like. Nonetheless, this gives us some visibility for future years. Yes, the reservation numbers in 2021, we're looking at 2,200, 1,500 in 2023, 500 the following year. In 2024, we are up to 800.
So, is that to say that we're. Well, we are on an upward trend, but we're a long way from the figures of four years ago. Yes, basically, the market halved in a matter of three years, and of course, when reservations pick up again, you still have to wait for two years before you generate actual revenue, and this applies both to Eiffage Immobilier and Eiffage Construction, so it will take some time for the effects to be felt, but for both residential and commercial property, that Nové contract, of course, is an outlier from the market. That's one thing. In traditional markets, we had this sort of a division between residential and non-residential or commercial property.
Now, the real distinction is between renovated buildings or rehabilitated buildings and new buildings. The renovated part of the building is growing and will keep growing, and that part of the business is very dynamic. In fact, Nové is a case in point because there are quite a few parts of that contract that involved the rehabilitation of buildings. We're looking there at large projects, but involving comprehensive, sort of holistic approaches, but highly technical solutions as well, which means that you need to have a significant design and engineering capacities to be able to take on such contracts, because the energy renovation projects are quite significant, and we're well positioned to take them on.
Regarding the A412 motorway.
Right. Good evening. Yes, on A412, we have been granted the contract, but it is... We are, as it were, the preferred bidder, but that's one thing. We still need authorization from the French ART and the French Council of State. So that has been passed, but of course, the contract itself has yet to be signed, and for that to happen, we need to have a government official, a minister in charge, and at this point, as you may know, we haven't got one. Yes, and well, local officials have been providing full support for the project, so at least as far as local authorities are concerned, we have a go-ahead. But again, as I said, we need a government minister to sign the document, and we haven't got that.
"Hello, I'm from J.P. Morgan. I have several questions. Number one," and you can answer them in one after the other. "What is your view, or what's your. How do you see the Constitutional Council, how do you see that happen? I mean, do you think they will rule in your favor or not? What do you think?"
Once again, I'm sorry, I haven't a clue. I have no idea at all. One thing I can tell you that all constitutional lawyers have been working on this issue. There have been hearings, and now it is in the hands of the Constitutional Council itself, and they will have to rule on the matter. It is a highly technical matter, and at this point, I would be at a loss to give you any idea at all, one way or the other. "Regarding profit margins on the energy rehabilitation business, you're up thirty basis points. You were at 5.4% last year. Can we look forward to like a 6% profit margin this year? I mean, if you add thirty plus thirty basis..." Well, I wouldn't have dared go that far, but maybe Christian, you can.
Good evening. Look, of course, we're growing year on year. Last year, our profit margin was 5.4%, and we have every reason to hope that we'll do even better this year. I can't tell you much more than that, but of course, we're doing our utmost to reach a 6% target eventually. I mean, sorry, that's definitely one of our targets.
Well, thank you.
Yeah, well, I mean, 6% in 2024, I'm afraid not. What about 2025? Well, look, we. I mean, a 30 basis point growth is a good trend, and I think, I mean, if that keeps up, of course, we'll reach the target. But then, having said that, this business involves thousands of people, and here we're looking at productivity gains. Means everybody has to work hard on that business. It's not a one-off good development here or there. We're talking about in-depth work here.
We're really trying to turn around the business, and that business is not a small business. It is, it's quite significant, but of course, what we have, we have good reasons to believe we will do well. Size is an issue, and of course, we need to be able to to hire help, I mean, competent help. Eventually, we'll get 6%, but I think all of us know that we'll get there, but it will take time, but we will be getting there eventually. All right. Well, I understand, but I still would like to ask you about capital allocation. The debt level is stable and in H1.
Can you give some color on, on, say, dividends or acquisitions? You also stable at, Getlink is still doing about 20%. Any chance of that changing this year or any. What's your feeling on that? Look, fundamentally, there are no changes on capital allocation. We're still, we're staying with that strategy. We're trying to find the right balance between contracting and concessions, but, if there are opportunity growth, we will seek them out. But, that balance will be driven by. Well, you have, you have property development, you have the power, the energy business, and then, of course, you have public works, plus concessions. So we, this is a fine balance we would like to keep.
Of course, the concessions are big tickets, but they are few and far between. In property development, you have some bolt-on opportunities. Our management team has enabled us to look to more significant capital expenditure. EQOS is a case in point. We'd hope to finalize this, but here we're looking at rather large organizations. What I'm saying is that, indeed, we are in a position to grow and to generate growth through acquisitions. But that's, of course, the contracting work in concessions has been generating profits that we will reinvest, both in contracting and in concessions. We're still trying to maintain that balance. Regarding Getlink, there again, there's not much new. Yes, we stand at about 20 some percent.
Last year, there was an opportunity, a growth opportunity, which we seized upon. If another opportunity comes along, it will be a matter of the price tag. So we're in no hurry. Group-wide, well, we can find no... We don't have an issue with going up to 20%. But again, that stake will depend on the price tag. On Energy Systems, again, there were recent acquisitions. They've got to be integrated. We have to make sure these acquisitions will be profitable, will generate profit for the company. Having said that, there are no fundamental changes.
But we, again, we are in a position to do both and remain agile on both fronts. Regarding dividends, well, of course, they should be in line with our profits. If the profits go up, the dividends might go up again, but we're still only at H1, so we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Yes, thank you, and then a question for Christian on WCR. There's been an improvement in H1, so what is your expectation for the year as a whole? Of course, the WCR is always something of a black box, but traditionally, H1 gives us some idea about the full year.
Regarding the holding company and the costs, there are effects that were felt in H1, can they be expected to reoccur in H2? On WCR, there was the usual cash out, about EUR 500 million. You have to remember, over the past two years, we gained about 20%-25% in new business and revenues. And so if there's more business, we need to cash out on immediate expenditure. But of course, what comes out at the beginning of the year should come back towards the end of the year. But there's one unfavorable development. There was a significant decline in business at Eiffage Construction, but Eiffage Énergie Systèmes has been going up.
Eiffage Construction is the area where WCR has the best performance, because we have down payments, we have lots, lots of the billing is paid upon receipt. But this is a labor-intensive business, and that's where you have to pay people immediately. They get their payslips at the end of the month, and not forty-five minutes, forty-five month, weeks, beg your pardon, forty-five days after billing. In any case, so there are the timelines are different. But what we have at the first half of the year doesn't tell us the full picture. There were big cash outlays, there was big cash coming in. We might be off by a few, by a hundred or so by year's end. We don't know.
The swings of WCR are difficult to predict. The cost of the holding, because they are expenses, we have the employee savings plan. There was only one such operation in H1, and the full amount was taken on board. Of course, this will be the same amount for the full year. For the reversal of provisions, we don't expect to see any this year, but there's no reason, but that shouldn't be more, there shouldn't be more of an expense over the year. What about the APRR motorway traffic figures? Any.
If Eric was here, he would tell you more, but right, regarding traffic, the figures for the summer, well, once again, and that has been the case for a number of years now, July was disappointing. By contrast, August was much more buoyant. Now, I'm loath to give you figures because I'm still short four numbers, four days in August, and there's a big weekend coming up, and that should generate significant tolls. But if you look at July and August together, traffic is up compared to last year, and we're looking at plus 1%. So that's rather good news.
Good evening. My name is Augustin Cendre from Stifel. I have, in fact, three questions. Number one, on contracting, but also the political ramifications, what could be the consequences should we have a caretaker government, technical government, in charge? What difference would that make to your business in the coming months? On concessions, what were the latest bids that you put out? I believe that you were looking at the Cayenne Airport. I haven't checked recently, but has there been any developments there? And then on capital expenditure for the rest of the year, at the last meeting, you mentioned similar amounts for contracting. You have about 300 for APRR and a similar amount for the other concessions. But are you looking at the same amounts for.
Hang on. CapEx, well, we expect to stick to the numbers for 2023, even though business has been growing, but we will try to stick to the numbers of 2023, but keeping the equipment in good operating conditions. On APRR, it's upwards of 300, actually. It's... No, it is around 300. I beg your pardon. But for the other concessions, we're looking at three hundred or to three hundred and thirty, maybe, millions in capital expenditure. We will give you finer numbers, but there's been no significant change. You have to remember that last time we met, I don't know if we had actually clinched the Toulon Airport bid, but anyway, all in all, we're looking at about EUR 350 million in concessions.
Ah, yes, and regarding concessions, and but then again, even if. Well, you have the same strategies, the big bids on infrastructure, airports, wind turbines, and no, airport, you have Cayenne Airport, you have bids on buildings in Marseille, on the Port of Marseille, and there was a prison being built in Belgium, I believe, a PPP thing. We also took a position on the district heating grid of the city of Paris, and so this is a syndicate involving ART, but the bids are still being considered. And then there are motorways, the A154, that has just come out. Cayenne Airport is still up for grabs. The call for tenders is in progress.
Regarding the potential consequence of having a, quote, "technical," unquote, government in France, it's anybody's guess, right? If we take a step back, our business is in the long term. We have visibility in the long term like never before, and what I tried to explain in my presentation was that you can see the very large contracts that have kicked in, which is quite something, but the underlying daily business is still there. In certain businesses, it is quite difficult to have enough people, enough hands to face customer demand. Now, there are private. There's private demand and public demand. Maybe there will be more wait and see than before in France, but of course, there are international operations. Now, there are some underlying elements that won't change. We...
There's still a lot of investment going on in the hospital sector, safety, security, penitentiaries, heavy investments there. The state is still a major investor, and the state invests in the long term. We don't see that stopping overnight. Not to mention the fact that certain politicians may even want to step that, step investments up, and the defense has been investing significantly in France. So there may be some wait and see in the local authorities because they don't know which way the wind is blowing, and we have that experience. You saw that in the first half figures. Roadworks, for example, are hinged on the decisions of local authorities, more so than other projects. And if you take the different business lines now, Energy Systems is a case in point here because there are some obligations.
It's part of our priorities, but I'm not certain that there could be a substantial impact. Now, industrial investment with the reindustrialization of France, which has called for quite a few subsidies and all that, and, you know, there have been no decisions made in the past few months already, so growth may kick in with a vengeance later. So what I've tried to demonstrate is that visibility for the two years to come is huge, as far as we're concerned, in France and in Europe. And that is not the hallmark of if I share some specific contracts, notably with Nové, for instance. We're protected there. We're financing a. We have financing for a huge project and we'll continue to drive this forward, and that what we're doing at Eiffage is quite substantial.
There is no major issue in the short term as far as we're concerned. But as I say, you have your own guesswork capabilities, don't you? Any questions from the people listening online? Do we have any questions online? No, there are none? Okay. Any other questions from the audience in attendance here in Paris? Neither in French nor in English. So it seems our presentation was crystal clear, right? No more questions from the attendees here in Paris? Well, in that case, thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. We can now go to the upper floor. Thank you.