This is the result of the increased focus we are putting on profitability over volumes. Our Adjusted EBITDA reached 37.7 million EUR, marking a strong 37.4% year-on-year increase, with progress made in all of our three geographies. Our Adjusted EBITDA margin has increased by 200 basis points to 7.3%. Net income group share was still negative, but we made significant progress, as it improved by 8.5 million EUR year-on-year to -5.9 million EUR. It includes 7 million of customer relationship amortization that has no operational reality, and we will come back to that.
We also recorded a positive evolution of our operational cash generation, with a good level of cash conversion of our adjusted EBITDA, and a much more limited seasonal increase in working capital compared to first half last year, reflecting discipline in managing the operational cash flow. As a result, H1 free cash flow improved significantly by EUR 26.1 million to -EUR 6.3 million, compared to -EUR 32.4 million in H1 last year. Our financial structure remains very sound, with a 1.3 times net debt to EBITDA ratio at the end of June, and we have all the financial means to support our development in the years to come, including bolt-on acquisitions without any capital increase needed. Lastly, we confirm today the full year outlook that we gave back in July.
We face contrasted market dynamics in the second half of this year, against which we clearly prioritize our margins and cash generation. Now let's take a closer look at our H1 revenue, which was broadly stable, -0.3% at EUR 517.4 million. We already discussed revenue in July, but in a nutshell, Benelux grew by 9.3% in H1, despite a second quarter at -1.1%, as we experienced delays in the ramp-up of fiber activities. This is due to local elections and because Belgian telco service providers are holding some deployments while negotiating a possible mutualization of their investments in infrastructure, similar to the French model. These are just delays, and we are working to navigate them, even though they are impacting our top line and margins this year.
Nevertheless, the outlook for Belgian fiber market remains excellent in the midterm. Our commercial pipeline in this region is very strong, currently above 300 million EUR. France experienced a six point four percent organic decline in revenue. This is largely due to the deliberate reduction of our exposure to telecom contracts, where profitability conditions were lagging behind group standards. Energy activities continued to grow strongly by 57%. Other countries were down 5.4% in H1. Germany grew 25.1% as fiber activity are ramping up, and the country is delivering on its promises, as it gradually progressing towards the status of a strong top line and margin driver for the group.
Italy was a drag, but the good news is that the activity has resumed in Q3 at better economic conditions, so it should not be a drag anymore going forward. Growth in Poland was strong, while we have significant declines in Spain and the UK, as we applied strict selectivity measures to protect our margins locally. Let's now break down our revenue by business segment. Connectivity remains our largest segment, contributing to 76.7% of total revenue, but it did see a decline of 3%, reflecting the maturity of the French fiber market. On the other hand, energy, which now makes up 13.6% of our revenues, continued to be a bright spot, growing by 28.7% in H1.
This growth is the result of our diversification efforts and the quality of our offering, increasingly recognized by our clients, particularly in renewable energy installations such as solar panels, where we see significant long-term potential. Technology, our smallest segment, which accounts for 9.7% of revenues, saw a 9.7% decline. Again, I would like to stress that the growth in energy is particularly promising as we continue to diversify our business, applying the same model that has worked in other sectors, and tapping into new opportunities related to the energy transition across Europe. Profitability is now our number one focus. On a flat revenue, we managed to grow our adjusted EBITDA by 37.4%, reaching EUR 37.7 million.
This was driven by margin improvements across all geographies, with our group Adjusted EBITDA margin reaching 7.3%, up 200 basis points compared to the same period last year. However, it was below the level achieved in H2 last year. That was 8.8%, mainly because of the delays in fiber deployment in Belgium, and Jonathan will elaborate later on that. In France, margins remained at a good level, thanks to the benefit of the transformation plan launched in 2022, and the growth in energy and the selectivity on our contracts. In other countries, Germany is performing well and has a positive impact on group margins already, while Italy recorded a strong improvement in H1. Our strategy of prioritizing profitability over volume is already paying off, and we will continue our efforts in this direction.
I will now let Jonathan and Amaury comment on our results in more detail.
Thank you, Giambeppe, and good evening, everyone. Let's take a look at our H1 results, starting with the P&L. Revenue for H1 2024 was EUR 517.4 million. That's a very small 0.3% decline from the previous year. Operational costs decreased by 2.9% and accounted for 83.4% of revenue in H1, compared to 85.6% in H1 last year. This reflects our focus on cost discipline and operational efficiency. Our adjusted EBITDA increased by 37.4% to EUR 37.7 million, as previously mentioned, and corresponding margin improved to 7.3% from 5.3% last year. Adjusted EBIT saw substantial growth, increasing by 124.4% to EUR 11.1 million.
All our profitability indicators are going up at group level. Let's now dive into the details by geography. Starting with Benelux, which continues to lead the pack, both in terms of revenue and margins, and where we continue to see strong demand despite some short-term challenges. Adjusted EBITDA for Benelux was EUR 19.6 million in H1 2024, growing by 12% year over year. We maintained a double-digit margin in this region, despite the delays in fiber ramp-up that were induced by our clients starting in Q2. This is stemming from ongoing negotiations between Belgian fiber operators regarding the streamlining of deployment operations.
While we are expecting some pressure on both top line and margins in H2 and over the full year, due to these delays, the fundamentals of this market remain very strong, and we are confident about the longer-term profitable growth trajectory of our Benelux operations. We actually just announced two contracts in Belgium. First, Telenet have renewed their partnership with us for another five years for fiber and coax installation and maintenance. And second, we just signed a major contract with Wyre for cable networks maintenance in Flanders. I will now pass it over to Henri for the comment on France.
Thank you, Jonathan, and good evening to all of you. In France, we are seeing good results as we delivered a 10%, growth in Adjusted EBITDA, despite a 5.5% revenue contraction. Our Adjusted EBITDA was EUR 17.4 million a year in H1, and EBITDA margin was maintained at a high level, at 9.2%, broadly in line with H2 last year. This performance is due to several factors. One, the transformation plan that we launched in 2022 continues to bear fruit, particularly in terms of profitability. Two, the integration of Scopelec's activities has been completed. This process started in 2022 and cost us around EUR 25 million in total, recorded in the Adjusted EBITDA of 2022 and H1, 2023.
Such activities are a good fit with our business, and margins have progressed regularly since the start of the integration. Three, our strategic expansion in the energy sector has a positive impact on France's overall profitability. And four, the first benefits of selectivity measures we implemented in connectivity in Q2 are starting to come through. Looking ahead, we will continue to apply the same principles. We will remain very focused on operational efficiency and cost management. We expect energy to continue contributing to margin growth, while we will remain selective in our connectivity business to ensure we prioritize profitability over volume. Thank you very much, and back to you, Jonathan.
Thank you, Henri. Now, finally, turning to other countries. We are seeing a positive evolution as the region contributes strongly to the increase in the group's adjusted EBITDA this semester. EBITDA in other countries increased more than 7 million EUR compared to H1 last year, out of a 10.2 million EUR increase at group level. Adjusted EBITDA for other countries reached 6.5 million EUR in H1 2024, compared to a loss of 0.8 million EUR in H1 2023. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 4.9%, in line with that of H2 last year, when a strong rebound was recorded. Germany is delivering on its promises. The country is already margin-enhancing for the group, driven by the excellent market fundamentals and our strong position.
We are leveraging our past experience in both France and Benelux to ensure that Germany has a dynamic but smooth, profitable growth trajectory. In Italy, we significantly improved our margins. Normal fiber activity is resuming at better economic conditions than before. Profitability in Poland remained satisfactory. In Spain and in the U.K., as mentioned in July, we took selectivity measures, as local margins remain below group's normative levels. Overall, a positive margin evolution in this geography, driven by a strong, profitable growth in Germany, who is expected to be an increasingly important contributor to top line and EBITDA going forward, and a significantly improved situation in Italy. Turning now to the bottom part of the group P&L. Adjusted EBIT for H1 2024 was EUR 11.1 million, more than double compared to H1 2023, with a 124% increase.
Amortizations of intangibles came in at EUR 7.2 million, broadly stable year over year. I would like to remind you the nature of this charge. In the consolidated accounts, our auditors determine a fair value of customer relationships on the companies we acquire. This amount is then depreciated yearly over time, so it has no cash impact and does not relate to any tangible assets. Non-recurring items were reduced to minus EUR 2.5 million, versus minus EUR 4.3 million in H1 last year. Non-recurring charges primarily relate to France and U.K. Financial result was minus EUR 6.1 million, compared to minus EUR 2.19 million in H1 2023, driven by the higher interest expenses due to the increased rates.
Interest expenses include, excluding IFRS 16, increased to -EUR 7.7 million, compared to -EUR 4.7 million in the same period last year. Including corporate taxes of EUR 2.1 million, consolidated net income was -EUR 6.5 million, and net income group share was -EUR 5.9 million. Still slightly negative, but considerably improved compared to -EUR 14.4 million in H1 2023. And I would add that if we were to restate the amortization of the intangibles, which arguably is a very theoretical charge, we would be break even in H1. To conclude on the P&L, as we already mentioned, our strong focus on margins resulted in a marked improvement of all the group's profitability indicators in H1. Turning now to the cash performance.
Starting with the cash, the free cash flow, which I will remind you, this is calculated based on IFRS, whereby leases are considered as debt-financed CapEx. As you can see from the chart on the left, there is quite a seasonal pattern in our free cash flow, stemming from the seasonality of our working capital. So free cash flow is typically negative in H1 and turns positive in H2. In H1, twenty twenty-four, we had a significant improvement, as free cash flow came in at -EUR 6.3 million, a EUR 26.1 million improvement from H1, twenty twenty-three, where we reported -EUR 32.4 million. This is a combination of a 44% increase in cash flow from operations, reaching EUR 32.8 million in H1, twenty twenty-four.
Driven by the increase in our Adjusted EBITDA, as well as a good conversion of our margins into cash, as cash flow from operations represented 87% of Adjusted EBITDA, and a much more limited seasonal increase in working capital, which was significantly lower than in H1 2023, at -30.6 million, compared to -44.8 million back then. This is due to a positive evolution of customer advanced payments overall, as well as a positive impact from Germany. Please note that the change in working capital in H1 2024 includes a significant decrease in factoring, which went down from 109.2 million EUR at the end of December 2023, to 70.4 million EUR at the end of June 2024.
This EUR 38.7 million reduction results from a lower volume of trade receivables in France, in line with the evolution of the activity and a good level of collection in Germany. Lastly, capital expenditure remained within the group's normative level at EUR 8.5 million or 1.6% of revenue. Overall, we started the year well in terms of free cash flow generation. This reflects the increased focus we are putting on selectivity and discipline, as well as the positive impact of our expansion in Germany. Let's now take a look at the other components of the net cash flow. This is the usual bridge of our cash position. At the end of June 2024, we had EUR 68.8 million in cash, with factoring at EUR 70.5 million.
At the end of December 2023, cash was EUR 118.2 million, with a much higher factoring at EUR 109.2 million. Given the seasonality of our business, we must compare to the situation at the end of June 2023, which showed EUR 73.3 million in cash, with factoring at EUR 85.9 million. In addition to the free cash flow that I just commented, we made an earn-out payment of EUR 3.5 million, and acquisitions for the period amounted to EUR 0.2 million. We also reduced our debt with EUR 17.1 million in loan reimbursements and EUR 4.1 million in interest payments. Lastly, the payments of leases, mainly for our fleet of vehicles, was EUR 17.7 million.
Now a word on the group's balance sheet, which remains in a solid position to support our future growth. On this slide, you see our usual summary balance sheet as of June 2024 on the right, compared to December 2023 on the left. Our net bank debt at the end of June 2024 was 26.7 million EUR, compared with a net cash position of 5.7 million EUR at the end of December 2023. But this increase is mainly due, as I explained, to the seasonal working capital needs and the reduction in factoring. Our leverage remains very limited, including IFRS 16 lease debt, and potential future earn-out payments. Net debt at end June represent 1.3 times our adjusted EBITDA for the last 12 months.
This compares to 1.7 times at end June, and 1.1 at end of December 2023. The difference is mainly seasonal variations, as I explained. This concludes the finance part of this presentation. I will now hand back to Jean-Baptiste for the outlook.
Thank you, Jonathan. In July, I already commented the revenue trends that we expect for the rest of the year. And in terms of margins, Benelux will suffer from the delays in the fiber rollout, both in H2 and over the full year. France should deliver a good performance, and other countries will continue to benefit from the ramp-up of Germany and the rebound in Italy. Altogether, we are confirming today our outlook for the full year, which reflects the priority given to margins over volumes. We expect a slight decrease in revenue, reflecting increased selectivity in some of our mature markets, primarily connectivity in France and temporary delays in Benelux.
We are focused on improving our profitability, and we expect the group Adjusted EBITDA margin to continue progressing, and to result in an increase in group Adjusted EBITDA in euro over the full year. We are only a week away from our Capital Markets Day, which will be held in September, twenty-sixth, on September twenty-sixth, and this will be an opportunity for us to discuss in detail our markets, our business model, our strategy, and to outline our two thousand and twenty-six roadmap. We are looking forward to this event. It will be held in Paris, and the webcast will be simultaneously available from our website. If you wish to participate, please contact us at the email address you see on the slide. Thank you very much for your attention. We are now ready to take your questions from the chat.
Okay, we have a first question. The EBITDA margin decreased from 8.8% to 7.3% in H1, 2024. Shall we expect an increase of the margin in H2, 2024, back to the H2 2023 margins or higher? Amaury, you want to take this one?
Yes, well, as Gianbeppi said, overall, at group level, we are definitely working on an improvement of the EBITDA margin, in absolute number on the full year basis. But we remain cautious, given the situation in Benelux.
Yeah, exactly. We have some uncertainty in Benelux. Other than that, the rest should improve the margins. Do we have visibility on the negotiations between Belgium fiber clients on possible streamlining of deployment operations? No, the outlook of the Belgium market remains pretty good. We signed this new contract with Wyre that is going to deploy fiber, and we are working with all the operators that are deploying fiber at the moment, and there is a lot to do. It's really a temporary hiccup. I think it's going to finish, you know, around the end of the year. It's just not easy for us. Well, it started already in Q2, and it's not easy for us in second half.
There was already the problem of the elections that were causing some delays, and now these negotiations are causing delays, so we need, unfortunately, to just adapt and wait a little bit, but the outlook on the midterm remains good. Other question: What growth shall we expect on the German market in H2 2024? Good growth. Germany is performing well. We are seeing a good ramp-up, but more reasonable than the one we saw in Benelux, and therefore, we also expect margins to stay, you know, higher and more consistent than what we saw in Benelux in the past, and this past month. So I would say good growth in Germany, double-digit growth and good performance also on margins.
Other question: Will the amortization of intangibles still be high in H2 2024? Will the non-recurring items still be high in H2 2024? Amaury, you want to take this one?
Yeah. Well, you know, first of all, regarding your question on the amortization of intangibles, this relates to the amortization of our client relationships, so the intangible assets that we acquired within the context of our past acquisitions. So these intangible assets are amortized over a year, so I would say that you can expect for the end of the year to this amount to be stable for the end of the year and next year as well. But this is. I emphasize that it is a non-cash expense, purely amortization related to past acquisitions. Regarding the second part of the questions, regarding non-recurring items, well, these non-recurring items have decreased significantly.
They amount to EUR 2 million on this first half, but we don't expect a significant increase. They should remain at very low level on H2.
Yeah. Other question is: When will you reach a positive net income, so net profits at the bottom? Well, you've seen that we are not far from the breakeven. We told you we have this uncertainty now in second half because of the discussions in Benelux, but we also told you that margins are improving in all the other geographies. So we are not far from breakeven, you know, we are progressing. I'm not sure it's going to be something for second half this year, but certainly for next year. So we should be back on track soon. You have been quite successful on floating solar farms in France. Are you bidding for other projects?
Yes, we have already pushed other projects, and we actually won a second one, which is quite large. And the pipeline of solar project is quite well filled up, both on water and also on land. Amaury, you want to add something on this activity in France? Because it's really going extremely well.
Yeah, absolutely. The overall solar activity has been increasing by 165% in the first half of 2024, so it's definitely a very promising activity for Solutions 30 in France. As explained in the question, we have developed a strong capability in the installation of solar plants and especially on the technologies related to floating solar farms, so we have a strong pipe and a very good visibility on our activity level already in 2025.
Thank you, Amaury. Yeah, other question on Italy. How Italy is going to impact the second half? Well, Italy is not losing money anymore, but is not contributive to group margins. So it's a situation where, you know, it's much better than the past, but it's still not what we would like it to be. And that brings to a second question, which is: Could you consider exiting some countries if the profitability is not good? And the answer to that is yes, and one of them is Italy. So indeed, Italy and Spain, we are small. Market conditions are not good. Margins are not what they are. Next year we will take a decision if we stay or not.
Other question: Do you think photovoltaic will also be a new driver of growth in Germany, as it is in France? Are you well positioned on this topic in Germany? Yes, solar will be a driver also in Germany. Germany has installed park of solar farms that is much bigger than France, and is investing more than France in solar because they don't have atoms, so they don't have nuclear, so they're investing more massively in renewable energy. We have begun doing solar in Germany. It's small at the beginning. We are in the early stages, but for sure, we will develop a business in solar in Germany.
Germany will take advantage of these investments in solar, and we will be part of it. At the moment, we are focusing on fiber, though, because the contracts signed are really important, and we are doing the ramp-up and are concentrating on that. Solar activities will remain marginal in Germany in second half and also first part of next year. Other question, selectivity in telecoms in France, have you exited some suboptimal contracts? Can there be more? What impact on margins? Amaury, you want to-
Yes.
Take this one?
Yes, good question, well, actually, I confirm that we have done this work, so we have started to reduce our exposure to these contracts that were less profitable than our standards, so this decision is done, you know, but I would like to emphasize that, you know, our customers in the telecom industry remain strategic customers for us. We are now working for four of the telco operators in France, versus only three historically, and the impact, well, it should be quite limited in terms of profitability, because we just-- You know, we have multiple contracts for our customers with different levels of margins.
So when we talk about selectivity, this applies only at a very granular level, and very often, these contracts we are operating at very low FTA level. So even if this impacts the revenues, this should not have a visible impact on the margin or adverse impact on the margin, but rather a positive impact.
Thank you, Amaury. I think there is another one for you. Your net financial charges were very high in H2 last year, -EUR 10 million. How should we think about financial results for H2 and over the full year two thousand and twenty-four?
Actually, the increase in the financial charges, you know, in H2 two thousand and twenty-three, and H1 two thousand and twenty-four, is mostly related to the increase of interest rates. So I would expect, you know, these financial expenses to remain stable on the short term and to decrease over time under the influence of two factors. One, as you have seen, we have repaid a large part of our debt during this first half. So we have reduced our debt, and the financial expenses should follow. Two, you know, everyone is expecting a decrease in the Euribor rate, which should have also a positive influence on our financial charges.
Yes, another question: Is it still difficult to recruit technicians? How do you handle this issue? No, I would say that we are good in terms of recruitment. We can find the technicians we need. It's really not an issue. So we are capable to do the ramp-ups that are needed. Do you plan to have margins at the same level or even higher as the margin in Benelux last year when the activity was growing? So I think the question. I'm not sure I understand, well, but I think the question is, if we are capable to be back to a good margin level in Benelux after these delays of operators are fixed, and the answer is yes.
Benelux is now a geography where we have a strong presence, and, besides these temporary tensions, we believe it's a geography where it can be, well profitable. France is back, to almost, double digit, EBITDA margin, so that is also something we have achieved. And we are quite positive on the other geographies with, Germany, ramping up well, and delivering good margins. So overall, we are progressing towards this objective of, double digit EBITDA margin for the group. I'm not seeing other questions. No, there is no other questions. Then thank you very much for your participation. I remind you of the Capital Markets Day, on the twenty-sixth in, Paris, and thank you again. Have a good evening.