Thank you for joining our 2024 half-year results presentation. I'm Riad Mishlawi CEO of Hikma, and I'm joined here with Khalid Nabilsi our CFO. I'll kick off by providing a quick summary of our first half results and an update on our strategic progress, and I will then hand over to Khaled to take you through financials in more details. I'm extremely pleased with our first half performance, both financially and in terms of strategic progress. All three of our businesses have grown the top line, resulting in a 10% increase in group revenue. We delivered a core operating profit of $402 million, in line with last year. This is a great result. It reflects the very strong performance, especially in our branded business.
We also generated a good level of cash flow from operations in the first half, and our balance sheet remains strong. These impressive results are a testament to our unique business model, supported by our extensive manufacturing footprint and growing differentiated portfolio. Importantly, we continue to strengthen our platform for future growth. In June, we announced the Xellia acquisition, which remains subject to U.S. FTC approval, but I'm really excited about its potential, which I'll provide more details on later in this presentation. As demonstrated on this slide, we have four pillars supporting our strong investment case. These provide us with significant opportunities to continue to drive growth and deliver value. Our commercial and operational strength, coupled with our high-quality manufacturing operation, provide a strong platform, which allows us to differentiate from competitors and drive growth.
We're investing in R&D and business development, which enable us to expand our portfolio and build a differentiated pipeline. We have a clear strategy that we are executing against, and proven record of growth and value creation. On top of this, we have strong balance sheet and excellent cash generation, which provide us with the optionality to accelerate growth. We have made excellent strategic progress against each of those pillars in the first half. In the following slides, I will focus on each of those pillars individually, highlighting some of our key accomplishment over the last six months. Today, Hikma has annual revenue of close to $3 billion, and we delivered an impressive 29% EBITDA margin this half. We have three world-class businesses with leading market positions. We are the fifth largest in the U.S. and the second largest in MENA.
We have a broad and growing portfolio of products tailored to the needs of our markets, supported by our extensive manufacturing footprint of 29 plants. Looking at some of our achievement this half by business segment, in injectables, we are the third-largest supplier of generic injectables in the U.S. by volume. We are continuing to launch new products, including our first specialty product, Combogesic . We're also gaining market share in Europe through entry into Spain and the U.K. earlier this year. In generics, we are a key suppliers of non-injectable generic medicines in the U.S. We're able to capture market opportunities and additional volumes across our differentiated portfolio. In branded, we are benefiting from the strength of our market positions as the second-largest pharmaceutical company in the region, as well as our ongoing investment in oncology and chronic disease treatments.
For example, we are a top 10 supplier of diabetes medicine, which is a high-growth disease area in MENA. In the first half of this year, we delivered 50% increase in revenue from our diabetes products. We have also strengthened our position as a leading supplier of oncology products through new launches and market access campaigns. In the first half, revenue from the oncology products in our branded business grew 43%. We continue to expand our differentiated portfolio and launched a total of 59 new products across our three businesses during the first half of this year. Of course, to support our growing portfolio, we're investing in expanding and enhancing our manufacturing capabilities, further strengthening our position as a local supplier with global expertise. For example, in Europe, we're expanding our lyophilization capacity in Portugal and our filling capacity in Italy.
In MENA, we're enhancing our general formulation facilities in Tunisia and Algeria, and are strengthening our local injectable manufacturing capabilities in the region. Over the years, Hikma has achieved its leading market positions through both organic and inorganic growth opportunities. We have a track record of making value-enhancing acquisitions that both complement and enhance our base business. Most recently, in June, we agreed to acquire parts of the business of Xellia Pharmaceuticals. This will add significant scale to our U.S. injectable operations, and importantly, we support the long-term growth of the injectable business. Once finalized, it will add 8 approved and marketed products in ready-to-use formats, including Vanco Ready and 11 pipeline products. We'll also enhance our R&D capabilities with the addition of an R&D center in Zagreb, Croatia, which brings a large team with expertise in complex finished dosage forms.
Finally, it will significantly expand Hikma's high-quality injectables manufacturing capacity with the addition of Cleveland, Ohio, facility to our network. This brings with it a complex manufacturing technologies, including aseptic premix bag filling capabilities and a significant increase in lyophilization capacity, which will further differentiate our business. Turning to the second pillar of growth, our portfolio and pipeline. Across the group, we have dialed up our focus on pipeline execution. We have strengthened our teams across the three businesses and have been working on improving our R&D efficiency to ensure we continue to consistently add new products to our pipeline to enhance the breadth and the complexity of our portfolio. We aim to have a portfolio and pipeline that is tailored to our market needs, with an increasing number of complex products and high barriers to entry, such as specialty 505(b)(2), inhalation, and nasal sprays.
Across the group, we are increasingly leveraging our API manufacturing facility in Jordan to introduce vertically integrated niche products, particularly for our oncology portfolio in MENA. Today, we have more than 300 products in our pipeline and have a target to spend between 6%-7% of revenue on R&D. Looking at our R&D priorities by business segment, in the injectables, we will continue to expand our portfolio of conventional products, enhancing the breadth of our portfolio, while also adding dosage forms that bring value to our customers, such as ready-to-use products. Beyond this, we're also looking to add more products with high complexity, such as long-acting injectables, suspensions, and products that use complex devices. In branded, we're investing to grow our pipeline of oncology products and treatments used to treat chronic illnesses to meet the high unmet needs across the region.
We're also focusing on introducing first-to-market and first-generic products, which make up 57% of our pipeline. In generic, we continue to focus on building balanced portfolio between simple and complex formulations to drive resilience and growth. In the first half, we added seven new products for internal developments and have signed a number of new business development programs to further enhance our pipeline. Taking a step back to look at Hikma's strong track record of delivering revenue and profit growth. Since 2019, group revenue has grown at a CAGR of 5% and a core operating profit at a CAGR of 7%. As I've highlighted in the previous slides, we have a strong platform with an expansive portfolio and increasingly differentiated pipeline. Underpinning this is our manufacturing strength, which enables us to consistently and reliably supply the growing needs of our customers and patients.
With all this in mind, I see great potential and differentiation for Hikma. We have a clear vision for the future, in which we strive to continue, expand, and deliver sustainable, profitable growth. We have been successful executing against our strategy, as demonstrated by the progress we've made so far this year. We're building momentum across our three businesses and are guiding for even higher growth than initially forecasted at the group level in 2024, and are confident to continue the growth beyond this. Finally, we have a strong financial position, which underpins our confidence in the future. Our deep understanding of the industry, our portfolio breadth, and our operational expertise has enabled us to consistently deliver EBITDA margins around 28% over the last five years.
We also have strong balance sheet and an excellent cash generation, with firepower of about $1.5 billion, giving us the optionality to accelerate our growth through inorganic opportunities, as we are doing this year through the announced Xellia acquisition. I will now hand it over to Khaled to take us through the financials. Thank you.
Thank you, Riyad, and hello, everyone. The group delivered strong results in the first half of the year, with revenue growth across all three businesses, resulting in a 10% increase in group revenue. We delivered group core operating profit of $402 million, in line with last year. This is an excellent result, given the expected reduction in generic profitability, resulting from increased royalties on our authorized generic of sodium oxybate, which was offset by the very strong performance in our branded business. As a result, core EPS for the first half of the year was $1.28. Finally, the board is recommending an interim dividend of $0.32, up from $0.25. As stated last year, our interim dividend will be calculated at approximately 45% of the prior year's total dividend.
We also intend to progressively increase our total dividend, with a payout ratio in the range of 30%-40%, reflecting the board's confidence in the long-term growth prospects for the group. Now, let's take a look at the financial performance of each business segment. Starting with injectables, this business has delivered excellent growth over the years while maintaining industry-leading operating margins in the mid-30s or above. This business benefits from a broad and growing portfolio, consistent new launches across our markets, and strong manufacturing capabilities. In North America, we are seeing growth across the base business, benefiting from our strong commercial team, broad portfolio of over 160 products, and recent launches, which are enabling us to fulfill the good market demand.
In Europe and rest of the world, revenue declined due to the timing of CMO business, which will be weighted towards the second half of the year. We are delivering good growth from our own products, with revenue up 17%, with a strong performance across all our established and new European markets. In MENA, we are seeing good growth across most of our markets, driven by our biosimilar and broader portfolio, as well as in new launches. Injectables core operating profit was in line with last year, and core operating margin was 36.3%, down from 37.8% in the first half of 2023. This decline was primarily due to change in product mix and an increase in employee costs. Turning to Branded.
This business has also consistently delivered over time and has been recently picking up momentum, with good revenue and profit growth, thanks to our ongoing investments to expand our portfolio of high-value products, particularly those used to treat chronic illnesses. In the first half of the year, Branded delivered a strong performance, with revenue up 12% and core operating profit up 24%, with core operating margin expanding to an impressive 30.8%. These results reflect the strong demand across our markets, driven by our growing and differentiated product portfolio, as well as a pull forward of tenders in certain markets, primarily for our oncology products. The positive change in product mix helped to more than offset the negative impact of foreign exchange related to the currency devaluation in Egypt. Finally, Generics.
This business continues to deliver good top-line growth, with revenue up 15% in the first half, reflecting a good performance across our differentiated portfolio. Core operating profit declined 15% due to the higher royalties payable on our authorized generic of sodium oxybate when compared to the same period of last year. This was partially offset by good product mix across the rest of the base business. This mix effect, combined with unexpected weighting of R&D spend towards the second half, resulting in a strong core operating margin for the half of 19.7%. To ensure continued growth, we need to keep investing in building our pipeline of differentiated products. In the first half of the year, we continued to progress with our pipeline projects and invested $61 million in R&D, representing 4% of revenue, with increased spend expected in the second half.
We continue to invest on our manufacturing capacity to support a growing portfolio. In the US, we spent $19 million on upgrades and capacity expansion across our Cherry Hill, Dayton, and Columbus sites. In MENA, $32 million was spent strengthening and expanding our local manufacturing capabilities, including general formulations in both Tunisia and Algeria, as well as finalizing our two new injectable production sites in Algeria and Morocco. In Europe, we spent $18 million enhancing and expanding our manufacturing capabilities in Portugal and Italy. We have a robust balance sheet, and the group continues to generate a healthy level of cash, with operating cash flow of $198 million in the first half of the year. The decrease compared to the previous year reflects an increase in investment in working capital, primarily related to growth across the group.
The group total debt increased slightly to $1.3 billion. We continue to have a healthy balance sheet, with net debt to core EBITDA ratio of 1.3 times. Finally, the outlook for 2024. I am very pleased to upgrade group revenue and profit guidance, a testament to the strength of our underlying business. We now expect group revenue to grow in the range of 6%-8% and for core operating profit to be in the range of $700 million-$730 million. In Injectables, we continue to expect revenue to grow in the range of 6%-8% and core operating margin to be in the range of 36%-37%.
We expect for revenue and profit growth to be weighted towards the second half of the year, primarily due to the timing of fulfilling CMO business. In Branded, we now expect revenue to grow in the high single digits in constant currency, or in the range of 6%-8% on a reported basis. We expect reported core operating margin to be around 25%. Given the timing of tender deliveries, particularly for our high-value oncology products and unexpected second-half weighting of operating costs, Branded revenue and core operating profit will be weighted towards the first half. Given the strong performance in the Generic business in the first half, we now expect Generic revenue to grow in the range of 5%-7% and for core operating margin to be between 16%-17%.
We expect increased competition on certain products and higher R&D costs in the second half. We continue to expect group core net finance expense to be around $91 million, and the core effective tax rate to be in the range of 22%-23%. We now expect group capital expenditures to be in the range of $140 million-$160 million. Thank you. I will now hand back over to Riyad for some closing remarks.
Thank you, Khaled. I would like to close by saying that I'm very pleased with our strong performance this half. We're making excellent progress across our three businesses, underpinning my confidence for the future. Thank you for listening, and I look forward to keeping you updated throughout the remainder of the year.