Hello, everyone. We wanted to start today's webcast by remembering Atatürk, our great leader and the founder of Turkey, on the 85th anniversary of his passing away. We will always remember him with respect and love. Thanks for joining Sabancı Holding's Q3 Earnings Webcast. Today, I have our Group CFO, Orhun Köstem with us. Please refer to our disclaimer before we move on with our presentation. Without further ado, let me give the floor to our CFO, Orhun.
Thank you, Kerem. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. We're very happy to host you again, in this time our third quarter 2023 webcast. First of all, I will have to apologize for my voice, which is far from ideal. I hope to complete this without hurting your eardrums, irreversibly, but, thank you for your patience, from now on. Now, if we can start from page 8. Again, we're happy to report another quarter of strong, profitable growth. If you look at our top-line numbers, we have seen a combined revenue growth of 63% in the first nine months of 2023, a 43% EBITDA growth, and a 46% consolidated net income growth. And our return on equity has been at 38%.
Now, just to put these into perspective, which we're going to go into detail, obviously, in the following pages, is that we're quite happy that we still continue generating very significant growth on top of the first nine months of 2022. Which I'm going to say a little bit, which has been, as you all remember, was a very, very strong quarter. So we're happy with our results. If you look at our balance sheet, again, our net debt to EBITDA is at 0.4x, and a consolidated long position of $232 million across the group. And at the holding on the level, we hold a cash of about $217 million.
Now, if you look at the NAV growth, which is a good problem to have, the NAV growth of our portfolio has increased by about 90% in dollar terms this year, which was great. But obviously, our discount has widened from the last time we spoke with you to about 41% at the end of the third quarter. But now I think we're back under 40% anyway. So this is something we will need to continue monitoring, of course, and I'm sure you will be monitoring as well, the value of our portfolio versus Sabancı Holding's market capitalization. And our CapEx to sales is at 10.3%, which is pretty much in line with what we have been committing to invest based on our capital allocation principles.
And last but not least, I'm sure you must have followed, we have announced our interim targets for ESG, and we expect to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030. That's in line with our net zero target of 2050, and in the interim, we expect a reduction of about 15% in our greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. And of course, related to that, we have committed to invest through capital and operational spending by about $5 million for SGD, SGD-related areas. So our commitments remain, our performance remains to be strong vis-à-vis our commitments in this quarter as well. If we go to the next page, of course, just a bit on the background of this quarter.
Now, as you see, if you look at the commodities and energy, this is as measured by Bloomberg, and obviously, in the first nine months, you see, a certain reduction compared to the same period of last year, which was quite excessive, if you may remember that. And again, if you look at our, our group company's performances, this is reflected, for example, on our building materials company's performance. I think something to keep in mind. The CPI on the nine months is at 62%, down from the same period of last year, pretty much in line with what it was at the end of the year, but still high.
If you look at the, the basket movement of the FX, which was at 42%, again, roughly half of what it was last year, but nonetheless, quite a big number to manage on top of last year, just to keep in mind. And all the while, of course, the, you know, the, the minimum wage increase on a gross level has continued to come up quite significantly. I'm sure you must be hearing this not from us, but from many of the other Turkish companies as well, which obviously influences the financial performance of businesses in Turkey. Now, on the next page, just in a little bit of detail, our, again, combined revenues have grown by 63%, EBITDA by 43%, and net income, consolidated net income by 46%.
If you break this down, you see a strong top-line growth coming from the bank. Of course, as the interest rates continue to increase, that's something we would expect to see. But in general, I think for the banking sector. It's fair to say that the performances financial performances are normalizing over and above of last year's conditions. And again, we are quite happy that our performance so far at the end of the nine months on the bank side, meets or exceeds our expectations for the full year so far. If you look at the non-bank business, on the other hand, of course, you see we're quite happy that we have improved back to what we call quality growth.
That is evidenced by revenues growing at 46%, EBITDA at 56%, and net income by 66%. So, we're not only growing our top line, but adding margins on our growth. And just to take your attention to the fact that on the non-bank side, of course, our performance compared to the last time we spoke with you for our first half results, has gotten better. And compared to the first quarter of 2023, it is much better. So every quarter actually, the performance of our non-bank businesses continue to improve, of course, which makes us quite happy. This, in turn, on the next page, results in a good return on equity performance.
As I said, you know, if you look at the banking sector in general, compared to last year, you see reductions everywhere, but that's more of a normalization, basically. If you look at the non-bank business, you see we continue with our favorable trend of delivering improved ROE year-on-year. So we moved from 28% to 29%, compared to the nine months of last year. So that our overall, actually, ROE remains, continue to remain quite strong. That's assisted by the fact that we have generated a very strong operating cash flow on the non-bank side, about TRY 29 billion.
You know, that not only compares quite favorably versus the same period of last year, but also compares favorably versus what we've done throughout 2022 as well. So that's a very strong performance. In each case, of course, on the non-bank side, it's important to underline the fact that our energy business, in addition to our building materials business, have been you know strong contributors to this very good performance. If you come to the next page, you see our cash position. We talked about this, about $217 million or about TRY 5.9 billion.
And then, as you remember, our guidance under our capital allocation principles is that we would like to manage across the group a net debt to EBITDA of 2x or less, and we're at 0.4x, even though, as we discussed, we have stepped out our CapEx. I think that's still owing to our very strong cash flow generation across our businesses in a relatively dynamic year or challenging year like 2023. If we move on to the quarter-by-quarter discussion. First, looking from a revenue point of view, of course, as we discussed, the bank's performance in the first quarter was a whopping 105% growth, which is great. Of course, the overall growth, the combined revenue growth has come to about 70%.
Nevertheless, we've seen at the quarter that our rate of growth of the non-bank business revenue have also grown, from 30% in the second quarter to about 48%. So we continue growing quite strongly on top of last year's numbers. If you get to EBITDA, actually here, we see, bank's contribution normalizing, whereas the non-bank business contribution increasing quite significantly. 74% EBITDA growth in this quarter. And I'm sure you... Apologies. And I'm sure you must have seen that on the energy side, even though the revenue performance was somewhat slow, it is improving in EBITDA. I'm going to show you on the net level, actually, it, it's improving even more.
There you see, between building materials, industrials, financial services, all of our business segments, digital, have delivered very, very strong EBITDA growth in this quarter compared to the same quarter of last year. And finally, on the net income side, again, here, especially, the bank's contribution is large, but it grows 20% within the same quarter of last year. However, on the non-banking side, the growth is over 90%, which is, again, as you may see, assisted by all of the business units. That's the industrials growth, however, is somewhat slower compared to others. And as you remember, we discuss in every quarter. That's driven by the global demand and pricing conditions, especially impacting Kordsa's business in general.
For this, obviously, Kerem is going to walk you in detail, business segment by business segment in the following pages. But so far, again, I think we can still say we have we continue to benefit managing a well diversified portfolio that delivers performance under you know, even though there may be a volatile market conditions. Now, if we move forward, as I said, our the NAV of our portfolio has moved from just under $4 billion to $7.6 billion. Which is again, a 90, about a 90% growth in dollar terms, which is great. But as we discussed, as we reflected onto our discount, so our discount has widened on a quarter-on-quarter from 29% to 41%.
As we speak, I think we should be below 40% anyway, but I believe that leaves an opportunity. Talking of which, if you move to the next page, I think it's again important to underline the fact that the pie chart on the left shows you our non-listed businesses valued on book basis. Which suggests bank and financial services continue to be the largest contributor of our NAV. But if you look at the right-hand side, the pie chart on the right-hand side, which actually shows you the same with the independent valuation of the unlisted assets. There you see there is a more balanced portfolio even today, especially the energy and climate technologies piece growing. That's owing to the valuation of energies written in that sense.
Obviously, going forward, I think the way to visualize this is the digital technologies, which is very, very little today. Obviously, that's a very new business unit that's started to grow. Between these four, we would expect a more balanced portfolio, delivering a more balanced value contribution. But again, you see our portfolio has grown fastest in terms of value this year, compared to last year end of the same period. But still, I think there is more to reflect on to Sabancı's market cap, if you compare it to the P/E multiples and compare to our historical averages of about 6x, basically.
With that, while I rest my voice, I will hand it over to Kerem to walk you through the details of the business units. Kerem?
Thank you, Orhun. Let me start with the banking business. The bank ended the quarter with a new record-high TRY 20 billion net income, resulting in solid quarterly ROA of 5% and ROE of 45.5%. This leads to nine months' net income to a robust TRY 51 billion, up 35% year-on-year, with an ROA of 4.9% and ROE of 41.2%, which is well ahead of bank's full year guidance. Akbank added a solid 1.7 million net active customers year to date. This takes its active customer base to 12.5 million, up by 50% in less than two years.
Strong momentum in customer acquisition, along with record high market share gains across the board in consumer loans, world place-based TL deposits, and TL demand deposits, has continued to support core revenue generation. Akbank's fee income up by a remarkable 184% year-over-year. Thanks to its impressive performance, fee income market share among private banks also increased by an eye-catching 300 basis points year to date as of September. Meanwhile, with the agility in the balance sheet management, time hedges, and strong customer-related business, the exquisite treasury management, which is one of the strong muscles of Akbank, continued to be supportive for the net income evolution. In addition to this, the bank keeps its leading position in capital with a robust 18.4% capital adequacy ratio, which will continue to provide the bank's significant competitive advantage going forward.
Moving on to energy business. As for the generation, as a result of lower natural gas volume due to stoppages in natural gas plants from June to mid-September and lower spot prices compared to last year, revenues dropped by 41% compared to last year. Despite low natural gas profitability, EBITDA was up by 41% compared to last year, with positive contribution from renewable and lignite assets, thanks to higher wind regime and higher dark spreads. Moreover, a satellite contribution on trading activities of energy commodities continued to remain strong and it was one of the major drivers of generation's EBITDA growth. Net income growth reached 72%, even with higher EBITDA performance, owing to impact of ongoing tax incentives. We expect contribution of natural gas to recover in the last quarter of the year, as all natural gas plants are now fully operational.
Enerjisa Enerji's operational earnings increased by 53% year-on-year, driven predominantly by strong growth from distribution as well as retail and customer solutions business. Distribution business generated 14% growth year-on-year on higher financial income due to higher inflation and investments, as well as a profitability change initiated on July 1, 2022, aimed at more fair presentation of financial income. Retail business performance was strong, with 41% earnings growth year-on-year, thanks to higher retail service revenues. These are mainly due to increasing doubtful receivables compensation impacted by earthquake and higher mid-year inflation. Customer solutions segment was also solid on the back of growth observed in the solar PV and e-mobility business.
Investments in the distribution and customer solutions reached TRY 9 billion during the first nine months of the year, corresponding to 268% increase compared to last year, already by far performing to overall investments in 2022, which accounted for TRY 4.6 billion. Free cash flow on after interest and tax is driven by these profitable investments and the related interest costs, thus lowered compared to that last year. On building materials segments, the top line growth increased... The top line increased by 60%, thanks to strong domestic demand and favorable sales mix. In addition to a strong top line, improvement in energy margins and positive contribution from alternative fuel usage led to solid operational profitability and improvement in margins. EBITDA surged almost three times, and margin expansion reached roughly 10 percentage points.
The segment's net income more than tripled compared to last year, thanks to strong EBITDA performance and higher financial income on increased net cash position. For industrials, combined revenue grew by 64% year-on-year in Q3, despite ongoing weakness in the global tire reinforcement markets due to stiffer competition from China. Yet, the weakness in the tire reinforcement business offset by higher domestic demand in the tire business, driven by both original equipment and replacement markets, and higher top line contribution from composite business. EBITDA performance in tire business was also strong in the quarter, thanks to favorable pricing and sales mix. This resulted in slight year-on-year improvement in segment's EBITDA margin in Q3, thanks to effective pricing strategies. Net income growth remained lower at 29% in the third quarter compared to last year, due to elevated financial expenses from higher debt and higher cost of financing.
The financial services segment had another quarter with robust performance. Its top line more than doubled, and EBITDA growth reached 78% year-on-year, driven by both life and non-life businesses. In the life business, despite higher general expenses and minimum wage hikes, EBITDA was up by 92% year-on-year, thanks to the growth in pension assets under management, higher profitability in return premium products driven by TL depreciation, and positive impact of credit-linked life premiums. Net income growth reached 53% year-on-year, thanks to higher FX gains on VTL and higher financial income. In non-life business, despite the company's conservative approach in motor third party liability, top line growth reached 120% compared to last year, thanks to non-motor segments' performance and last year's favorable base.
Underwriting results remained somewhat under pressure as high loss ratios in motor third party liability prevailed in third quarter. Yet, higher trading income, VTL, contributed strongly to the EBITDA performance and resulted in tripling net income. Our newly established digital segment's top line more than doubled with a higher contribution from the electronics retail business, driven especially by online sales. In addition to growth momentum in online sales of value-added services also positively contributed to the segment's top line. Our digital marketing and cybersecurity companies has a positive impact on segment's top line growth as well.
Segment's EBITDA surged higher than 41% compared to last year, thanks to strong top line growth and effective OpEx management in electronics retail business, despite higher fixed cost to sales ratio due to ongoing integration process in new digital marketing and cybersecurity companies and adverse impact of minimum wage hike.
Higher FX losses and higher financing costs, somewhat suppressed , segments net income growth.... Finally, for the retail segment, top line increased by 9%, thanks to strong like-for-like sales growth and growth in alternative channels. Despite negative impact of minimum wage increase, EBITDA has more than doubled, thanks to positive sales mix on gross margin. Solid EBITDA pass-through result in a net income in this quarter compared to loss last year in Q3. So this finalizes the details of the segments. I would now like to hand over to Orhun Köstem for closing remarks.
Thank you, Kerem. First of all, I will not reiterate the midterm guidance that you see on page 26. We believe the results that we've seen will assist us meeting or exceeding our midterm guidance at this quarter. And if you look at the nine-month highlights, again, just to recap, we still look at improved earnings quality, especially driven by our non-bank businesses, where the ROE has reached about 29%, about 100 basis point improvement over last year. The energy business contribution and the building materials business's contribution needs to be underlined. And again, with the energy segments and building materials segments contribution, the cash flow generation has been very, very strong. That further lowered our net debt to EBITDA to about 0.4x .
Whereas the portfolio's value have grown by 90% in dollar terms compared to last year, our discount has widened somewhat, which is coming back, but still attractive, maybe an opportunity. The CapEx, as we committed, has continued to improve towards also our SDG-related operational spendings and CapEx, which we have committed to be $5 billion, in order to make sure that we meet our 2050 and our midterm targets, as we have announced as per SBTi. With this, this concludes our formal presentation, and now we would be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you.
Right. Let me go with the first question: Do you think your holding on the cash, net cash, is sufficient to meet future potential liquidity needs for new economy operations? How much in total did the parent inject into these businesses in 2022 and 2023 so far?
Yes. Cenk Alper, thank you very much. Obviously, what we hold as liquidity at our balance sheet is not the only source that we invest to grow our new economy initiatives. Last year, for example, you may remember, we invested only last year, by the way, 2022, we invested close to $350 million. And, don't quote me, but the number should be around this. We had 16 or 17 different transactions across the group, basically. So obviously, going forward, the sources to further our ambitions would be: A, we have not used our balance sheet. You know, we've discussed it a number of times.
You know, so far, this is only what we have undertaken is the cash that we hold and the dividends that we receive. I think that's an important game changer going forward. And I, and I'm happy that the Turkey CDS have now come under 400 bps for the time being. So that is a source going forward that we need to think about. That, and of course, you know, there could be other divestment opportunities in our portfolio, just like the Philip Morris divestment we made at the end of 2021 or start of 2022. So our spending should be much higher than what you see as cash on our balance sheet.
Well, the next question. Thank you for the presentation. Can you please provide a brief update on output for Kordsa? This company is highly levered, and I wonder if there would be a need for capital in case of global markets remain competitive. Additionally, I also wonder about your capital allocation for new businesses next year.
Thank you, Hanzade. Yes, I think. Look, for the tire cord manufacturing business, obviously this year we've seen the market, a slow market demand driven by the economic turbulence, and that's also on top of that, we've seen significant pricing pressure from, you know, Chinese producers. Now, for the last quarter of the year, and I think for practical purposes in 2024 as well, we don't expect a serious change in the market conditions. And that has been our expectation for, you know, at the start of 2023 anyway. Potentially, I also am, and I'm sure you must have seen how our friends at Kordsa must have given that guidance as well.
Maybe towards the back end of 2024, in the second half of the year, we may see some normalization that's driven by our historical observations of this industry, which has been quite cyclical in this term. So this is, this is nothing new that we experience, and, you know, probably, in a few years' time, it may be again. But no, I mean, Kordsa wouldn't need to have a capital increase. If you looked at the cash flow generation of the business and the EBITDA generation of the business, that was for us, pretty much in line with our expectation. Basically, our friends did a great job in not only reducing their working capital, but doing it in such a way that they will continue benefiting that in the years to come.
So therefore, I think the net debt should be slightly over three times. And we should see, you know, when the full year comes, further improvement. And going forward, we don't see any potential for capital increase in Kordsa. Our capital allocation, I see another question, and let me continue, if I may, about our capital allocation for new businesses next year. It's—as you remember, it's pretty much similar. What we do on average is, we usually spend roughly a quarter of our CapEx on our existing businesses and just about three- quarter to what we call these new economy businesses. I think our track record shows 76%.
When I say three- quarter, you know, it's a touch higher, but nevertheless, that should be a rule of thumb to expect going forward as well.
Thank you, Orhun. We have another follow-up question from Jane. Can you remind us again the dividend policy of Enerjisa Üretim? Was it similar to that of Enerjisa Enerji?
Thank you, Jane Page. Well, it is not because Enerjisa Enerji has a publicly stated dividend policy, which is measured as a % of their distributable income, of course. For Enerjisa Üretim, I think the company has been distributing about $70 million of dividends to its shareholders, and then doubled it for the past two years. I'm sure you must have seen me also receiving interim dividends from Enerjisa Üretim. So it's more of a fixed number that we set to receive. And I'm happy to say, given the healthy financial conditions of the company and the good performance of the company, even though the company is undertaking a gigawatt of capacity expansion of renewables, as you all know, we don't expect that revenue stream to change.
You know, potentially it may improve, but it's early to say. That depends on our colleagues' performance. There could be upside potential, but so far at least, we're happy that the company has doubled the dividends that it has been distributing so far.
A question from Koray: Thanks for the presentation. Should we expect the strength of trading activity at Enerjisa Üretim to continue over the coming quarters?
Koray, thank you for the question. Could be. Look, I mean, of course, needless to say, when the volatility is higher, then the trading results become bigger. So therefore, for example, last year, you see a much higher contribution where the energy prices fluctuation was quite high. And going forward, especially if you feel any... Or if you project any, you know, higher volatility in the electricity prices, yes, we should expect a much higher contribution.
I think the key or one of the other potential elements is the capabilities that's being developed under the trading business is not only for trading of electricity or energy, but going forward, we expect to make sure we can start trading carbons, which obviously is going to become an important, let's say, item, especially across Europe. And that will be an incremental—hopefully, an incremental contribution to the performance of our trading activities.
Thank you, Orhun. Let's wait a couple of minutes if anyone has any further questions. So if you have any question, please use the Q&A section of the Zoom. Thank you. But it seems we don't have any other questions. Thank you all for joining. Hope to see you in year-end financial results, Orhun Bey.
Yes. Thank you, Kerem, and thank you all for your patience and participation today. We look forward to reporting another quarter of strong performance, hopefully, when we get together sometime next year. Bye for now.